I have been thinking about several things over the course of the last week. Reading Jesus Among Other Gods, by Ravi Zacharias, prompted these thoughts with the weekend's events at the Tomato Show in Fredericktown, Ohio bringing it to the forefront of my attention.
At the Tomato Show, Mark Raley and I pushed Lou Jarratt, the church planter of New Song Community Church, who was seated in a porcelain tub mounted onto a steel frame which formed a cart. We sprinted a 40 yard course around a cone and back, taking about 38 seconds. By the last 15 yards my legs felt so heavy that I couldn't lift my feet to run; they felt so heavy that I was merely dragging them over the asphalt with every bit of effort I could manage just to cross the finish line. When we finished, the only thing I could think about was regaining my breath. As we were representing New Song in this race my mind also stayed on Jesus in an effort to maintain a witness for Him in the midst of a seemingly silly event. My thoughts went immediately to this, Jesus is the giver of "life and breath and everything (Acts 17:25)."
As I mentioned earlier, I have been reading this book by Ravi Zacharias and noted that there was a section for me to blog about. In the chapter I was reading he refers to the difference between the heart of world religions and that of Christianity.
This is what he says:
There comes a bifurcation, or a distinction, between the person and the teaching. Mohammed, to the Koran. Budda, to the Noble Path. Krishna, to this philosophizing. Zoroaster, to his ethics.
Whatever we may make of their claims, one reality is inescapable. They are teachers who point to their teaching or show some particular way. In all of these, there emerges an instruction, a way of living.
By contrast, Jesus did not only teach or expound His message. He was identical with His message. "In Him," say the Scriptures, "dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He did not just proclaim the truth. He said, "I am the truth."
Having read this prior to the weekend, the Holy Spirit reminded me of this as I reflected on the events. You see, I had a desperate longing for breath after that race. Though it was a physical longing, I realized very quickly, how much more I am desperate for the breath of life in my life in a spiritual sense. Sin is debilitating, like that run, it weighs me down and inhibits me in every way. I am desperate for something transforming, that I might worship God in a manner that is deserving of Him.
Ravi Zacharias continued:
In a very simple way Jesus drew the real need of His audience to that hunger which is spiritual in nature, a hunger that is shared by every human, so that we are not human livings or human doings but human beings.
It is no accident that Ravi Zacharias uses this terminology. Paul identifies this very concept in Acts 17:28, when he quotes a Greek poet in his apologetic to the crowd in Athens. He says, "In him we live and move and have our being." You see, it is our spiritual hunger that must be fed, it is that aspect of being that can only be satisfied by Jesus Christ and a relationship with Him. That is why we must partake of Jesus, the Bread of Life, that sustains eternally. This doesn't mean that we are to eat once and find that enough. It does mean that we continue to sup, nourishing on the Word of God so that we possess an ongoing communion with Him.
Now, I must ask this of myself and of you, will we be more than human livings and doings? Will we instead be transformed in our hearts and in our wills to do the will of God and thus become human beings fulfilling what we were originally designed to be, worshipers of God? (For further study you might look at Romans 12)
