I've loved spending so much time with my Eli. Having a nephew around is like a constant treat. Whenever you feel like it, if he's awake, he is always up for a cuddle or hold and it just makes you so happy!
I'm halfway through "Jesus Amoung other Gods". There are so many great points, sentences, quotes, from the author and other authors that he adds in. I just want to share them all, but since I didn't underline and there are way too many to go back and find and type out, I'll just post a few:
Ravi is talking about our hungers..the hungers for truth, knowldge, to express, to belong, to be loved, hunger for justice, for imagination, for significance..etc. He says "Not only do we remain unfufilled when we pursue these hungers, but in their very pursuit comes a disorientation that misrepresents and misunderstands where the real satisfaction comes from." This is so imporant to know, and so true, I read it about 10 times to really grasp it and feel the weight of it.
Then he talks about when Jesus fed the hungry, when Satan tempted Him by telling Him to change stones into bread. Also how Ravi himself was raised in a country (India) where food is a major shortage in many areas and it is hard to sit comfortable with food in your stomach when many around you are starving. Then the author asks, "How much more relevant could God be than to be a provider of food for life?" and "What good is religion if it cannot feed the hungry?" But, he points out, Satan was very close to the HALF truth. And a half truth can be so interwoven with a lie that it becomes deadly.. Ask yourself this question: "What kind of following would result if the sole reason for the affection towards the leader is that He provides his followers with bread?" Both motives would be wrong, for the provider and the reciever. These are the terms of reward and punishment that are mercenarily tainted and have diminishing returns, at best engendering compliance, but not love. Their appeal, too, is soo lost when offered as enticements or when withheld to engender fears. Dependence without commitment will ever look for ways to break the stranglehold.
Ravi goes on to talk about the real nourishment to our bodies, the only one that will suffice us entirely for eternity. People in the Bible were obsessed with bread. Their primary purpose and expression of enjoyment of life had seriously displaced both what bread was meant to do and what life was meant to be. I love this. The fact is, is that Jesus is our bread. We have to eat to live and be sustained. We have to partake in Him. How can Christians say their living in Christ when they aren't daily taking from Jesus as their source, like He has asked us and told us to do?
One more thing I love.. Ravi talks about every other religion having a leading exponent. There becomes a bifurcation, or a distinction at the heart of every other religion, between the person and the teaching. Mohammad, to the Koran. Buddha, to the Noble Path. Krishna, to his philosophizing. Zoroaster, to his ethics. And these teachers only point to their teaching or show some particular way. You listen to Zoroaster. Buddha's Noble Truth's instruct you. With Mohammad, the beauty of the Koran woos you. But...
"By contrast, Jesus did not only teach or expound His message. He was identical with His message. 'In Him,' says the Scriptures, 'dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily.' He did not just proclaim the truth. He said 'I am the truth.' He did not just show a way. He said 'I am the Way.' He did not just open up the vistas. He said, 'I am the door.' 'I am the Good Shepherd.' 'I am the resurrection and the life.' 'I am the I AM.' In Him is not just an offer of life's bread. He is the berad. That is why being a Christian is not just a way of feeding and living. Following Christ beings with a way of relating and being."
Ah! I could eat this up. Alot of truth I really need to hear this fine Tuesday morning.
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