Apr 28, 2010
Posted on Apr 28, 2010 in Uncategorized
Were there any surprising themes that emerged as you looked at all the questions of Jesus together?
To get a handle on all the questions, I divided them into 26 chapters, under five broad themes. Here are the section headings: Who Is Jesus? How Do You Follow Him? Where Is Your Thinking? Why Is Character So Vital? and What Are Some Critical Doctrines? Others might have divided the questions differently, but to my mind these were how they naturally fell into place.
Looking at those themes, I’m surprised at how comprehensive Jesus’ questions are for our lives. They run the gamut from knowing and serving him to the intellectual and moral aspects of our lives until, finally, they force us to confront key truths of the Christian faith. We are unified wholes of mind, will, and body, and the questions recognize this. Remember, the questions are just one aspect of his life and teaching. There are so many more, such as parables, sermons, his example, and so on.
But the questions, in a way some of the other aspects don’t, invite our introspection and participation in the things of God. This to me is mind-blowing, that the Lord who knows everything asks for our input and respects us enough to wait for our answer. The questions assume that human beings have special dignity because we can relate with God on a very real level. Probably because we are made in his image, we can connect with him. That’s an amazing truth that the questions bring to the fore, and also an awesome responsibility.
How does thinking about the questions of Jesus help the average church member in America?
I’m not sure how to answer that. I can’t really say until I receive more feedback from readers. I can only tell you how they have helped me. Their effect has been cumulative for the most part, but some specific questions have brought home vividly certain things I have needed to hear, such as God’s desire that I be more compassionate, just when I needed to hear them. As often happens when I’m writing a book, I become very conscious of his sovereignty along the way. Illustrations and anecdotes drop into my lap just when I need them. Other times something I’m learning is immediately applicable to my life at that moment.
I expect that the responses of readers will be as varied as they are themselves. The questions, like the rest of God’s word, are living and active and have a way of penetrating our defenses. And because they are questions, they demand our response. The questions will touch each of us in different ways, at different points in our lives. I think readers will come away with something new each time they consider the questions. But clearly our listening to Jesus ask his questions—which, when all is said and done—puts him in the driver’s seat, where he belongs, and where we need him to be.
Apr 27, 2010
Posted on Apr 27, 2010 in Books, Interviews
Yesterday I posted the first part of a multi-part interview with Stan Guthrie, author of All That Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us
JB: How were you personally impacted by thinking about the questions of Jesus afresh?
SG: You can’t dig into the life and words of Jesus day after day without being affected. Sometimes it’s very hard for writers about Christian topics to avoid becoming jaded or bored; we’ve all heard about the relationship between familiarity and contempt. That never happened with me and the questions of Jesus. The New Testament presents almost 300 questions from the mouth of Jesus. While many no doubt are repeats, the cumulative effect was amazing.
The last couple of years have been difficult personally. My mother was very ill—and thank God pulled through; I was laid off at Christianity Today and my wife, Christine, had to return to the paid workforce; and I had to have fairly extensive shoulder surgery. Yet through all this I felt a calmness of spirit and a close connection with Jesus that were better than I had ever experienced in my many years as a Christian. The question that grabbed me the most was, “Who do you say that I am?” If we get that one right, it seems to me the rest will follow.
As I, week after week and month after month, mulled his questions and the way he graciously dealt with people, my faith in and love for him was renewed, strengthened, and deepened. I don’t take any credit for this. Because I was on a disciplined writing schedule, I almost couldn’t help it! I was reading the Bible more consistently than ever before, wrestling with its implications, and being confronted with the untamed beauty of Jesus all the time. I hope my book has a similar effect on readers.
Stay tuned tomorrow as Stan answers the question, “Were there any surprising themes that emerged as you looked at all the questions of Jesus together?”
Apr 26, 2010
Posted on Apr 26, 2010 in Books, Interviews
I am really excited about All That Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us by Stan Guthrie.
I find it really helpful when authors look at scripture and collect all of what scripture says about a particular topic or theme. Stan’s book comes out this fall (available for pre-order now) but to whet our appetites for it I will be posting an interview with Stan over the next few days about how this book came to be and his hopes for the book.
JB: What prompted you to write this book?
SG: In 2000 my first book, Missions in the Third Millennium, was published. It was the culmination of about a decade in missions journalism, and I poured everything I knew about the topic into that volume. It was a unique book in the way it came together, and in my heart of hearts I wasn’t sure I could write another one. I’ve often had doubts about my abilities, and even though I am by all accounts a good writer, I wondered whether I had anything else to say.
Several years later, while working for Christianity Today, I had the opportunity to interview many authors at the annual International Christian Retail Show, where an acquisitions editor scheduled an appointment with me to see if I had any other book ideas. I jotted some ideas down in a little notepad but wasn’t sure if they were any good. As I talked with various writers, I was impressed by their drive, their work ethic, and their vision for ministry. But it struck me—and this will sound conceited—that they were no smarter than I was. It was as if the Wizard of Oz had told me that they didn’t have any more brains than I did! So I felt encouraged to more actively pursue a book, knowing that God had given me certain gifts, and that I shouldn’t be afraid to develop and use them.
To entice publishers, writers have to come up with fresh, even unique, ideas. One of the ideas in my little notepad was about the questions of Jesus. While a few obscure books had been written about the questions, I hadn’t seen them, and I thought this would be an unusual, and easily graspable, approach to studying him. I figured this would be a fascinating way to see what was important to him. Instead of the usual book in which we ask God questions, this one would allow him to ask us questions. The publisher agreed this was a great approach and offered me a contract.
Of course, I’m not a New Testament scholar, though the well-known Donald Guthrie—no relation—is. This book therefore couldn’t be an academic tome or a reference work. It would have to come out of my experiences and abilities, as any good book does. I would write for the laity, sharing what I was learning along the way.
Apr 19, 2010
Posted on Apr 19, 2010 in Books, Resources
I don’t have a Kindle but I have enjoyed reading 3-4 books now on the Kindle reader for my blackberry and, before that, on the iphone. I like the blackberry’s screen clarity a bit more, but the iphone was nice because the screen was bigger. But alas, I couldn’t justify the ongoing cost of the iphone (and Sprint offered to buy me out of my contract…) so smaller screen it is.
Here’s how to find free Christian books for the Kindle: go to the Kindle store on Amazon.com and type in a Christian publisher. For example, I went to the Kindle store, typed in “Crossway Books” and up pops all of the books they have published on the Kindle format. Go to the upper right corner and click “sort by price: low to high” and if the publisher has any books for free they will be listed first. Here’s what I found tonight:
1. Skye Jethani, The Divine Commodity: Discovering Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2009)
2. Steve Monsma, Healing for a Broken World: Christian Perspective on Public Policy (Crossway Books: Wheaton, 2008)
Oh, and for what it’s worth–I do think the e-reader format is going to take off. After a brief adjustment, I found that I read faster on the Kindle than I do a paper book. I always have the book with me to read and it syncs between all the platforms I read it on. Couple of downsides: I can’t do research on it, and it is a slight pain to try and find quotes that you know you read but have no idea how to find again (quick tip– use the bookmark and highlight features liberally). Overall it has been helpful, and thus far, free.
One last thing. It’s worth it to download the Kindle App just for the ESV Study Bible, which is available for $9.99. It’s not the fastest format to look something up in, but it is a whole lot better than trying to fit my Study Bible in my bag!
Apr 18, 2010
Posted on Apr 18, 2010 in Hymns, Quotes
I was recently asked, “how we should respond when we look into the mirror and are confronted with the sin that still dwells within us?” As I thought more this afternoon about the wonderful truth of Romans 8:1 (“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” ) I delighted in listening to “How Firm a Foundation” and rejoicing in the truth of our sure salvation in Christ.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said—
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with thee thy trouble to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not harm thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
The soul that on Jesus doth lean for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”
Verse usually omitted:
“In every condition, in sickness, in health,
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth,
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea–
‘As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.’”
***
2 Timothy 2:19
But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
Were there any surprising themes that emerged as you looked at all the questions of Jesus together?
