
What's it like to follow Jesus?
A little about Jesus...
He was born into a poor Jewish family in Palestine at the beginning of the first century. His parents were named Mary and Joseph. His father (technically his step-father) was most likely a sort of carpenter. He ate, drank, and sat on ancient toilets called foricae. He experienced weakness, temptation, hunger, fatigue, pain, grief, sorrow, anxiety, and every other human emotion. He grew from a baby, to an infant, to a boy, to a man. He probably wasn't a very physically attractive person. He definitely was not blonde haired with blue eyes. By all appearances, he was an ordinary Palestinian. He was a teacher, a preacher, and a leader. He had natural authority and compassion. Many people hated him, though he never harmed anyone, and healed masses. He was humble, brave, tender, tough, truthful, and gracious. He was a human (like us), yet He was completely full of the Holy Spirit without lack or void. He experienced every form of human temptation - pride, lust, ambition, power, fame, deceit - yet, was without sin. Unlike any human being in history, Jesus self-identified as God. He received worship from human beings, he demonstrated power over creation, he called himself God, claimed to be born through a virgin named Mary by the Spirit of God causing her to become pregnant, allowed other people to call him God, performed duties only God could do (forgiving human sin), worked physical and spiritual miracles, had explicit knowledge of what people were thinking and feeling, could tell the future with precision, raised from the dead, and claimed to rule over the entire world. There is no other story like the story of God himself entering His own creation as a created being who is then rejected by the people he created, even though his purpose for becoming human was to save all humanity. In Jesus, we can actually say, think, feel, believe and know that God himself knows what its like have a human experience. Far from what cultural Christianity proports today, Jesus claimed to have much more authority than mere spiritual conversion. His Kingdom extends to all spheres of life - personal, familial, national, political, and geographical. The majority of countries on Earth use the calendar dictated by the date of his birth. The most sold and printed book in the history of the world year after year is the Bible. The majority of humans who have ever existed throughout history (99% after the 1st century) are aware of his Kingdom. It's said that all things in the universe are created by him, for him and through him. That means every time we see a snowflake, we original idea came from his own mind. As King he also declares sovereignty, which means that he is in control of all things in the universe. That means every snowflake that falls to the ground does so under his control. Nothing happens in all the world without His providence over creation. As King, he also decides what is good and evil, what is right, and what is just. Every human being will answer to him. Every evil ruler, tyrant-Kings and fame-seeking president will answer to him. There is no one who can out-rank him. And yet, there is no one as kind, as humble, as loving, and as gracious as King Jesus.