Who is this Jesus?

Jesus called God ‘Father’, but that was not unusual in itself.  All Jews rejoiced to see themselves as God’s children.  But Jesus talked about a unique relationship with God.  On one occasion in Jerusalem he declared, ‘I and the Father are one.’  The Jews were incensed by this apparent blasphemy, and would have killed him on the spot had he not been a quick thinker and a quick runner.

Jesus did not announce to people, ‘I am God.’ Instead he roused their curiosity until the point at which they were forced to think about whether he might be divine. It was contrary to Jewish thinking even to entertain that possibility. So when Jesus’ followers came to believe that Jesus was God they were thinking the unthinkable. But the evidence so overwhelmed them that they had no choice. Worshipping the risen Jesus was the only way they could make sense of what they had witnessed.

One of the accounts of Jesus’ life tells the story of a paralysed man being lowered through a ceiling to come to rest at his feet. The house was so packed with people who wanted to hear Jesus speak that it was the only way to attract his attention. The expectation was that Jesus would heal the man. Instead Jesus said to him, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’

The Jews were shocked because their belief was that only God could forgive sins. Jesus pointed out that to say those words was easy. It was working miracles that was difficult. He was implying that if he was able to heal the man in front of their eyes, they should have no difficulty believing that he was able to forgive him. At Jesus’ command, the man stood up and walked. Without saying as much, Jesus had challenged those who saw the event to believe that he was God, the only forgiver of sins.

Jesus never shied away from provocative statements. He called for absolute loyalty to him – the kind of loyalty that God demanded. ‘I am the way, the truth and the life,’ he declared. ‘No one comes to the Father except through me.’ But his call was not burdensome. He invited people to come to him for rest, and to go through their lives with him as a companion – not only in life but throughout eternity.

The claims of Jesus repeatedly pushed people to a point of decision. The Jewish leaders responded by seeking to stamp out his ideas. The followers of Jesus responded by rethinking everything they knew about the Jewish religion. When his resurrection put their beliefs beyond doubt, they became the first leaders of Christianity.
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I was an atheist and now I am a Christian

E. A. Rowell describes himself as the Atheist of atheists. He says:
My parents and other immediate relatives were proud of their unbelief. I was nourished on the vaunting skeptics of the ages.

But I observed the futile amazement with which every skeptic from Celsus to Wells stood around the cradle of the Christ. I wondered why this helpless Babe was thrust into the world at a time when Roman greed, Jewish hate, and Greek subtlety would combine to crush Him. And yet this most powerful, devastating combination ever known in history served only to advance the cause of the Infant who was born in a stable—the purest human being in the world born in the filthiest place in the world.

No unbeliever could tell me why His words are as charged with power today as they were nineteen hundred years ago. Nor could scoffers explain how those pierced hands pulled human monsters with gnarled souls out of a hell of iniquity and overnight transformed them into steadfast, glorious heroes who died in torturing flames, that others might know the love and mighty power of the Christ who had given peace to their souls.
No agnostic could make clear why seemingly immortal empires pass into oblivion, while the glory and power of the murdered Galilean are gathering beauty and momentum with every attack and every age.

Nor could any scoffer explain, as Jesus Himself so daringly foretold, why by telephone, airplane, and radio, by rail, horse, and foot, His words are piercing the densest forest, scaling the highest mountains, crossing the deepest seas and the widest deserts, making converts in every nation, kindred, tongue, and people on earth.

No doubter could tell me how this isolated Jew could utter words at once so simple that a child could understand them and so deep that the greatest thinkers cannot plumb their shining depths...

But I learned that the paradox was plain and the mystery solved when I accepted Him for what He claimed to be—the Son of God, come from heaven a Saviour of men, but above all, my own Saviour. I learned to thrill at the angel’s words: “Behold.... unto you is born this day... a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Are you an unbeliever who does not quite know why he/she does not believe? or you used to believe when you were a child but now as a grown-up you think this is rubbish. So, why don't you ask Jesus-Christ himself  ? In Matthew 7, Jesus-Christ says: 

7 ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

A bit of humour...

An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with God, the Almighty.He asks one of his new students to stand and…..
Prof: So you believe in God?
... Student: Absolutely, sir.
Prof: Is God good?
Student: Sure.
Prof: Is God all-powerful?
Student: Yes..
Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn’t. How is this God good then? Hmm? (Student is silent.)
Prof: You can’t answer, can you? Let’s start again, young fella. Is God good?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Is Satan good?
Student: No.
Prof: Where does Satan come from?

Prof: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything. Correct?
Student: Yes.
Prof: So who created evil?  (Student does not answer.)
Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son…Have you ever seen God?
Student: No, sir.
Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?
Student: No, sir.
Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?
Student: No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t.
Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?
Student: Yes.
Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn’t exist.
What do you say to that, son?
Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.
Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.
Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
Prof: Yes.
Student: And is there such a thing as cold?
Prof: Yes.
Student: No sir. There isn’t.
(The lecture the after becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)
Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat..But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it .
(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theater.)
Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn’t darkness?
Student : You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light…..But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it’s called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?
Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?
Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?
Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can’t even explain a thought.. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one.To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it.
Now tell me, Professor.Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?
Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.
Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)
Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher? (The class is in uproar.)
Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain?
(The class breaks out into laughter.)
Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain,sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)
Prof: I guess you’ll have to take them on faith, son.
Student: That is it sir… The link between man & God is FAITH . That is all that keeps things moving & alive.The student was none other than APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India.

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