The Real Jesus--Part One: Who Was He?

*Wipes dust off page*
Hello! Remember me?
It's been about 10 months since I've blogged.
10 months?!?!?!?!
Wow...
This year has gone by so fast!
Wait a second..
Is anybody still here???
Hello?....*echoes*
Sigh. Oh well.

Since it's been so long, let me give you an update...
If anyone remembers  my last adoption post, the adoption fell through, unfortunately. However, now we are working on adopting a 12 year old girl from Bulgaria.
I'm pretty excited. :)

So, I just finished reading More Than a Carpenter by Josh and Sean McDowell. It was really good! So I decided to do a  three part blog series based on some of the points in the book.
Today's is figuring out who Jesus actually was. Everyone has an opinion on this.
Some say a madman. Others say a good teacher. Still others say he was just a legend.
Some say He was the Christ.

Let's start with the he-was-a-deranged-nut-case theory. If a random person came up to you and told you to leave your family, your work, your whole life, and follow him because he was God, what would you do? the critics ask. (I must interject--think about it the other way. Of course it doesn't make sense to follow an insane man claiming he's God. But then why did Jesus have large crowds following him? Were they insane too? Or did they realize he wasn't crazy?) On the surface level, it seems a valid claim. However, there's more to the story. Look at his character. At his teachings. You'll find that he has no other 'symptoms' of insanity. In More Than a Carpenter, they quote psychologist Gary R. Collins, who says
"[Jesus] was loving but didn't let his compassion immobilize him; he didn't have a bloated ego, although often surrounded by adoring crowds {again, my own interjection, but why would he be surrounded by adoring crowds if anyone could see he was deranged?} he maintained balance despite an often demanding lifestyle; he always knew what he was doing and where he was going; he cared deeply about people including women and children, who weren't seen as important back then,; he was able to accept people without merely winking at their sin; he responded to individuals based on where they were at and what they uniquely needed. All in all, I just don't see signs that Jesus was suffering from any mental illness... he was much healthier than anyone else I know--including me!"

Many psychologists and psychiatrists have come to the same conclusion. Jesus was defiantly sane.



Well, maybe he was just a good, moral teacher.
Many religions have no problem with Jesus. In fact they accept him as a good teacher or prophet.
However, this is illogical.
To put it bluntly, by believing him to be a good teacher means you also believe he lied.
You wouldn't call a liar a wonderful teacher, would you? Of course not. You wouldn't know when he or she was telling you the truth.
Jesus claimed multiple times to be God. He made it clear he was the Messiah. If I were to say that he was a good moral teacher but not the Messiah, then I am admitting that despite his 'good morals', he lied more than once. Or that he was crazy, but we already discussed that.
In fact, not only is that making him a liar, but also a hypocrite, as he and God the Father have taught that honesty is the best policy.
If he lied about his identity, and by doing so contradicted his religion (Judaism) and also the teachings he was trying to promote, would you trust his teaching as sound and good to live by? If he didn't even practice it and wasn't honest about it, would that make one think that that is the best way to live.
I should think not.


Then, of course, there is the claim that the story of Jesus belongs with the story of Santa Claus, the story of the Sandman, and the story of the Tooth Fairy.

Pretend.

Imaginary.

A legend.

But let me tell you something: Jesus was real.
There is so much evidence for this.
First off, lets take the Bible. If Jesus was a legend, then the Bible is just a book of fairytales.
How reliable is the Bible? Look at it this way: Many historians quote the ancient historian Thucydides. People don't doubt his accuracy. Let's make a little comparison.
There are about 8 known copies of his manuscript, dated about 1300 years after the original was written.
The story of many other ancient texts are the same.
The New Testament, however has over 20,000 known copies. Not only that, but they were written relatively close to the time that Jesus walked the earth.

So how do we know that we aren't just reading some make up stories from thousands of years ago?
In More Than a Carpenter, the authors use Luke as an example. Many, many, scholars agree to the historical accuracy of Luke's writings (The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts). He includes so many accurate details of things such as legal matters, places, rulers, and people that it is impossible to deny that he knows what he's talking about.
Add to that the fact that there are so many eyewitness accounts about Jesus, there is no doubt in many scholar's minds that Jesus of Nazareth actually walked the face of the earth. He actually was a man who lived. Some will say that the claims he made about himself are questionable, but we've already covered that. Also quoted in the book is Dr. Norman Geisler, who said
"Both the vast number of the eyewitness accounts of Jesus... as well as the nature and integrity of the witnesses themselves leave beyond reasonable doubt the reliability of the apostolic testimony about Christ."
We have many eyewitness accounts. Yes, they differ slightly, because they actually were written by individual people who had different points of view. You also must consider this: If these accounts are historically accurate, which we've already determined they are, what sense would it make for them to write them? We read not only in the Bible but in history that Christians were tortured brutally for their beliefs. They were ripped apart by wild animals while a crowd watched for amusement. They were burned alive at the stake. They were beheaded. All sorts of evil were inflicted upon them. If the apostles knew this was a story, why would they promote it? I'm going to cover this more in part 2, but think about it.
The Bible passes all historical accuracy tests with flying colors. If, therefore, the Bible is a true account, then all things in it are true. If all things in it are true, then Jesus was real. And if he is not an insane man, a moral teacher or a legend, then who was he?
I believe He was the Christ, the Son of God.

Matthew 16: 13-16
¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵ “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

The What-If Express

I'm ba-ack!
Did you miss me?
Of course you did...
Right?
Not sure it you all saw my comment on Supersized, but I had been limiting my computer use and not watching TV for the month of October.
Anyhoo, last night some of my siblings and I sat down to watch 'It's a Meaningful Life'...the VeggieTales version of 'It's a Wonderful Life'. And who knew that even I, a 13 year old, could learn something from those little vegetables. Now, let me stop here and say that I have never seen It's a Wonderful Life, nor do I know anything about the plot. To be quite honest, the VeggieTales one kinda reminded me of a Christmas Carol, of all things. For those of you haven't seen the Veggie-spin on it, Larry the Cucumber stars as Stewart, who was a high school(or maybe college) football star. Horror of horrors, he misses the winning pass in the big game, and worse, he misses it to the decoy(tragic, right?) and then the decoy(that little squash guy, the one who sings about cheeseburgers) becomes a famous star while Stewart doesn't have as much money. He always wishes, If only I had made that catch.... life would be better. I'd be able to leave my small town. My family would have more money. And so on. He is jealous of that little yellow guy, named Morty in the movie.Then, a train, The What-If Express appears on the football field. Larry gets on, and meets a conductor named Gabe. Gabe shows him what life would be like if he had caught the ball. He shows him his life as a famous person(who is crabby all the time) what life would be like for his family(which didn't really exist since he never got married) and than the last stop is where he can make the choice to either stay in this new life, or go back to his old one. How often do we board the What-If Express(Also known as the Land of If Only.)It showed me that worrying and always thinking What If or If Only, we aren't really trusting God. When we go to the Land of If Only, we are pretty much saying, 'God, you must have not been paying attention or something, because this didn't turn out right.' We're doubting God's plan. We're doubting that God knows whats best for us. In essence, we're saying we know better than God. I read something today that said worry is a form of pride. We aren't trusting God enough to give him our problems.
Cast all your anxieties upon Him, for He cares for you 1 Peter 5:7
I love this verse. This topic is a big issue for me. I'm an anxious person. A worrywart. And I'm slowly starting to realize that that isn't simply a character trait, it can be a sin. It's the sin of doubting God's plan and provision. The sin of pride(because I'm not trusting God when he says he can handle my problems...better than I can.) God has been hammering this one on me the past few weeks. A message at youth group with the theme, Do Not Worry...."Do not be anxious about anything, but instead, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6. Learning about Moses in school. Moses didn't trust that God would provide him the ability to speak in front of the Israelites...and missed out on some blessings. Watching It's a Wonderful Life. The issue of Susie Magazine that came in the mail today. I guess God's trying to tell me some things...
DO. NOT. WORRY.
TRUST. IN. ME.
Another theme in the movie was comparing yourself to others. Stewart was comparing his life to Morty's. Another problem for me.
She's prettier.
People like him better.
She's better at (fill in the blank).
So next time you find yourself slipping away onto that train, remember.
God's got it under control.
"For I know the plan I have for you, declares the LORD. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future"
Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

We Can Do It!

Colossians 3:23-Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if working for the LORD, not men.





That includes taking some other random persons dirty sock out of the back of a cabinet, along with a lot of other random stuff, and cracking your head on the top of the cabinet on the way out.(Alright, maybe not the head banging part)



Oh, yeah. The Clean Team scrubbed the new house today. My mother, sister, brother and I spent the afternoon cleaning out our new house(moving next week:D). Floors, bathrooms, cabinets(inside and out!) doors, you name it we cleaned it. I asked for the blue shirt and polka dotted kerchief, but instead got yellow rubber gloves and a broom. Sigh. The unjustness of life. I commend my mother who scrubbed the bathrooms till they shined. Those 3 bathrooms were NASTY. Anyway, that verse I put up there, because it came to my mind as I was scrubbing the shelves in the linen closet. I thought of that during the afternoon, reminding myself to that not only am I washing these shelves for the rest of my family, I'm doing it for God. That made me scrub a bit harder:-). I'm sure you are wondering what I meant by the sock comment above. Let me tell ya. I was cleaning a cabinet. A very deep cabinet. I saw something in the back. Mom came over and used the broom to push it closer. It WAS a sock! EW! And a huge package of straws that was spilling. And an unopened magnifying glass. I ran for the rubber gloves when I found out that I was responsible for taking them out, since I was cleaning that cabinet. Gag me. I did it, but as I was pulling my head out of the cabinet, I banged my head on the top. OUCH!! By the time we finished, we had a fairly clean house, and four hot, tired, people. But it's done. Ready for all our stuff. Whew.

Blessings in Disguise

Last night's devotions made me think. We started off reading from our Window on the World book about Samoa. We ended up with talking about how God gets glory from every situation. Don't ask. Most of our devotions end up totally off the first topic. Anyway, before this blog post gets completely off topic like devotions, I'll get on with my point. Whenever we go through tough situations, afterwards I like to try to find the "blessing in disguise". What good came out of the bad time. The part that God was glorified from. "Wow, If we had done (fill in the blank) then this would have happened." Little things. "It's a good thing that we stopped for gas yesterday, even though it made us late, because the prices went up again today". Examples from my life: When my dad got a new job and we had to move across the country, I was not happy. I did not want to leave my family and friends. But, I ended up making some of the best friends I'll ever have. I still missed my friends and family, but had me not moved to tiny old Midland, we never would have met some really great people. AND.....we most likely wouldn't have adopted any of my brothers and sisters. Had we not done that, I wouldn't have a blog called Big Sister of Many. I'd be Big Sister of One, and that wouldn't be nearly as interesting, so some of you wouldn't be reading this, and wouldn't be hearing this extremely long story, or learning about giving God glory. Whew! See, even you are being affected by me not wanting to move. When I was about 5, my grandmother passed away. I thought the world was over. I was devastated. But now, I have a wonderful step-grandmother, and have loved and been loved by two wonderful grandmothers. I challenge you to find an blessing in disguise in your life this week. You'll be (pleasantly) surprised when and where you find them when you looking for them!

Easter

Why, oh why do all the thunderstorms have to hit my town between 11pm and 4am???

I mean, don't get me wrong, I usually love a good storm, but honestly.

Yesterday, I was like Buddy the Elf: "I got a full 45 minutes!"

Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but still. When they say everything is bigger in Texas, that includes the storms. Saturday night, I was up at 11, 2, 3, and 4:30, and never fell back asleep after that. Despite the fact that we'd been up half the night, with thunder and lighting and power outages, we had a great Easter. Seeing as some of us don't like ham very much, we ended up having fajitas and enchiladas. And, the younger kids had to do the Easter egg hunt fairly quickly, since some of the eggs were filled with M&Ms and would melt under the Texas sun. My brother just came in saying how we just got about 4 drops of rain.(There were severe storms all around us). Of course! It's daytime! How could there possibly be any storms?! I don't mean to complain, it's almost funny. Almost. Now, if all the rain around here would move west to all the wildfires....
Anyway, aside from the storms, we had a fantastic day yesterday, the most important day in our faith. For some reason, the Resurrection has been more important me this Easter. As I get older, the significance of Easter has been more clear. I grew up knowing that "We celebrate Easter 'cause that's when Jesus died on the cross and rose again so we can go to heaven!", just as every church-going kid will tell you. Last year, I really realized that having nails put through your hands(among other things) would hurt horribly. And that Jesus did it for me. I'd always known that, but it just became more real last year. This year, the Resurrection was extremely important to me. That was better then jelly beans and bunnies to me.
How was your Easter? I'd love to hear about it. Leave a comment and let me know!

He's Alive!

Happy Good Friday Eve!!

Last night, we read the first part of the Easter story as a family, Starting with Judas agreeing to betray Jesus and we stopped at the end of the Lord's Supper. As my dad finished reading, I looked down to the next section's title:Gethsemane. I realized that just reading the word made my stomach flutter. Gethsemane, the exciting, edge-of-your-seat begining to the story where my GOD'S blood was spilled for ME. He had to hang, suspended by his arms with nails, for the times I'm unkind to my siblings. For the times I don't obey with a cheerful heart. For any time I've ever sinned...."He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed" Issiah 53:5. I think the most haunting part of that verse is "The punishment that brought us peace was upon him". My punishment, your punishment, our punishment, was upon him, who was sinless and deserved absolutely NONE of the torturous punishment he deserved. I mean, seriously: would you take someone else's punishment of having a crown of thorns pressed down onto your head, be whipped multiple times with a piece of leather embedded with metal or bone, have your hands nailed to a cross, have to drag that cross to where a bunch of cruel soldiers told you to, have more nails through your feet, and be mocked? Of course not. I wouldn't. You wouldn't. No one would. But Jesus did. And then, on Sunday he rose from the grave. He conquered death. He truly rose from the grave, being seen by hundreds of people(500 people can't hallucinate the same thing at the same time). The angels at the tomb declared to Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Johanna "He is not here, for he has risen!" The disciples didn't steal his body, the guards would have killed them for sure. What other explanation is the but the one true one.....that He Has Risen!

Crazy Days are Here Again......

Little brother spilled his milk, the baby's screaming, sister needs help with math, somehow brother's science textbook has been conveniently been misplaced, the phone's been ringing all morning and this and that and this and that and AUGH!!!!! Deep breaths.....deep breaths..... Sometimes, everything seems out of control and all you're praying for is a better afternoon-You've given up on a good morning. Relax! One thing I've noticed is, sometimes, life seems a lot worse than it actually is when I haven't read my Bible yet that day. Often, a little quiet time (and some lunch) makes the afternoon ten times better than the morning. Sometimes, I feel like curling up in a ball and crying my eyes out because nothing has gone right, but I have to realize(something I'm not always great at) that things aren't so terrible. God's got it under control. I have to realize that, even though I feel like I'm having the worst day ever, God understands I'm upset, but it all is for a greater purpose, he isn't a horrible God who allows people to have a bad day just because he enjoys seeing people upset and sad and angry. I don't always know why things are happening the way they do, but I do know that God isn't tormenting people, and that He wasn't just bored that day, and decided that, for some entertainment, He'll make everything seem to go wrong for me. Everyone has rough days. Maybe everything has gone wrong that day, but when you put it in perspective, life isn't so bad. I'm not trying to make you feel like a bad person for having a bad day, or trying to tell you "it's not that bad" when it really was that bad, but think about it: You have a house. You have food. You have a God who cares about you and your horrible day. Sometimes, we have crazy, horrible, stressful days but we are blessed beyond realization, and, in the wise words of Little Orphan Annie................ "The Sun'll come out Tomorrow!"