On Monday, April 12 at 1:30 PM we will gather around our computers and in person in Fellowship Hall for another Max Lucado Bible study entitled Jesus: The God Who Knows Your Name. Max is America’s bestselling inspirational author with more than 140 million books in print.
On the back cover of his study guide, Max asks the question: “You believe Jesus is God but do you also think of him as a real person?” In Max’ words, “For thirty-three years Jesus felt everything that we have ever felt: weakness, weariness, rejections. His feelings got hurt. His feet grew tired. His head ached. To think of Jesus in such terms almost seems irreverent. It is much easier to keep the humanity out of the incarnation. Clean up the manure from around the manger. Pretend he never snored or hit his thumb with a hammer. There is something about keeping Jesus divine that keeps him distant, packaged, and predictable. But we have to remember that the people who saw Jesus first…saw him first as a person.”
For us, the benefit of understanding Jesus as human is that we can see God and hear his voice. If we want to know what matters to God, all we need to do is look in the Bible to see what matters to Jesus. If we want to know what God is doing in our world, we need only ponder the words of Jesus. By learning more about the person Jesus was and is, we come to understand much more clearly the people we were created to be.
Our new study will last six weeks. Each week will focus on a new aspect of Jesus’ humanity and divinity as God with us, as friend of sinners, as compassionate healer, as great teacher, as miracle worker and as victorious self-sacrificing Word of God in human form. The study guide for this course is available in the office. If you plan to attend this class, we need for you to sign up letting us know if you will be present in person or taking part online. The suggested contribution to offset expenses to the church is ten dollars. For those of you who want to read Max’ full book, the least expensive copy I found was at Christianbooks.com for just under fourteen dollars. Please call me if you have questions. I love to hear from you!
Pastor Linda
