“What are the top 4 things you love about the life of Jesus?”, asks Carl Medearis in this youtube video. “Not what he said or his parables and what he taught..” This is challenging.
Carl points out that we have often skimmed right through the life of jesus in our Christian thoughts and meditations. He said that in the 30 Christian creeds he went through there is nothing about the life of Jesus within in them. They might mention briefly that he “lived”, and yes that he was sinless, but nothing about “how” he lived.
He lived a real actual life. Carl says, “Look at how Jesus actually did things, not just what he said, not just his parables, not just the end game, not that he died and rose again, not just the theology around it, but look look at how he lived, how he interacted, how he questioned the questioner, how he didn’t answer questions, ..how he dealt with the religious people as opposed to the sinners. How he dealt with his closest disciples..”
Carl talks about a couple of things that he admires in the life of Jesus. He points out how Jesus never seems to mind being interrupted as he is on his way. He walks everywhere and doesn’t ride there.. He also talks about how jesus taught as he went. He does something. Then he tells the disciples they can do the same thing. Then he does the same thing with them. Then he sends them to do it by themselves.
What are some things you love about the life of Jesus?
Has this short video helped you to think a bit differently about the life of Jesus and encourage you in following him?
How to READ the BIBLE BOOK by BOOK
Have you ever just got finished readying something in the Bible and left feeling like you had no idea where that came from, why it is in the bible, and how it matters to you? Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart did an excellent job in their book, “How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour
“. In it they give a guided tour to each and every book of the bible.
I learned to study the bible using the Inductive bible study Method, as we called it, in YWAM Kona’s School of Biblical Studies. Many of the same methods I learned through S.B.S. are consistent with the overall pursuit of this book. They treat each book of the bible individually presenting an overall context, some background information and simple structural outline. This is followed up with a very short summary of the different sections of each book attempting to point out to the student the overall continuity of the Author’s message. I highly recommend this book as a bible reading aid to anybody wanting to understand the whole bible in its whole context.
If you want to learn more about the Inductive Bible Study Method, check out another book by the same authors, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth
“. Of course if you have 9 months available, I strongly recommend just going through an S.B.S.