Gary Piper

Making Jesus Simple Part Five

Gary Piper

Part Five: The God Promises a starter…

Written by Gary Piper

Scripture quotations marked ESV "Are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Two greatest promises of God are given to the world through two different disciples living in different dispensations of time. "For God so loved the world that he gave his ONE and only SON," wrote the Apostle John. "You are a promise, you are a possibility," sang gospel singer Bill Gaither. This part of Making Jesus Simple is about grabbing hold of those promises and stepping into a new dimension of life.

I have discovered that the Old Testament is a very rich resource for discovering promises from heaven so I would like to share a few of them to serve as a starting point.

There is a great need in this day and age to see the value of life. In a "dog eat dog" world it becomes paramount that we see ourselves of eternal worth (remember the Journey of Greatness). There are even occasions when it seems as if the church makes people feel less than they are and devalues life. I remember long ago attending church while still using tobacco and being condemned by a good sister and being made to feel as if I didn't belong. The church is the right place to be if you are a sinner!

Making Jesus Simple Part Four

Gary Piper

Part Four: The Promises of Jesus a starter…

Written by Gary Piper

The journey through life is always one of taking detours, walking over rough terrain, crossing raging rivers, bridging vast cannons, traveling super highways, and occasionally traveling a scenic slow country road. Also along the journey there are junctions. Taking the right road brings growth and new roads of adventure. Taking the wrong road takes the traveler back in the same direction from which they just came. The Promises of Jesus is such a junction; it is the junction of "A Promise" and "Wishful Thinking." Take the road of A Promise and travel in peace, hope, understanding, and eternity. Take the road of Wishful Thinking and travel in disillusionment, discouragement, hopelessness, and fear. It is at this junction where the discipline of "not my will but thy will," becomes very painful and crucial.

JESUS CHRIST NEVER MADE A PROMISE HE DIDN'T INTEND TO KEEP. Weave those words into the fabric of your life. As you walk through life be sure those words are left in your footprints. When you awake in the morning let those words be the first to greet you. Each time you breath, each time your heart beats feel them pulsing through your very being. Let each word that comes from your lips be tempered by those eleven words. Just before your eyes close at night see them one more time. As your body sleeps and your mind races may they remain in your foremost thoughts. In short may you live by them, may you die by them. "JESUS NEVER MADE A PROMISE HE DIDN'T INTEND TO KEEP."

Making Jesus Simple Part Two

Gary Piper

The Reality of Jesus…

Written by Gary Piper

*All scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (registered). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

There is no greater need in the world today than to know that Jesus Christ is real. One can read all the books ever written, all the testimonies ever spoken and never really know him. In this regards Jesus is much like you and I, someone can look us up in the phone book, see our picture in an old year book or somewhere else and know we exist and never know what we're about.

The simplicity of Jesus is shrouded in his reality and our perception of that reality. Author, Arthur Oakman in his book "He Who Is" (published in 1963 by Herald Publishing House, Independence, Mo.) wrote, "If we believe in God at all, what we believe about him matters more than anything else which goes to make up our lives. To believe in God falsely conceived may very easily be worse than to disbelieve him altogether. For we become like the thing we worship." We could, for our purpose here substitute Jesus Christ for God and rewrite Mr. Oakman thus, "If we believe in Jesus Christ at all, what we believe about him matters more than anything else which goes to make up our lives. To believe in Jesus Christ falsely conceived may very easily be worse than to disbelieve him altogether. For we become like the thing we worship."

Making Jesus Simple Part Three

Gary Piper

Part Three: The Mission of Jesus…

Written by Gary Piper

Every journey has a destination. It does not matter if you are Jesus, or you are a chicken. Jesus' destination was twofold first the cross then the Father. A chicken's destination is the get to other side of the road. As Jesus journeyed toward his ultimate destination he chose to take a few detours. He could have gone straight from his baptism to Jerusalem, insult the Jewish hierarchy be sentenced to die and be executed on the cross thus reaching his final destination. Instead his journey took on a added dimension, it took on a mission.

Before moving on let's go back to the chicken. If you remember the question, "Why did the chicken cross the road," then you remember the answer, "To get to the other side." Some people are like that they journey toward a destination doing whatever it takes to get to the "other side of the road". Here's an example for you. Chicken A begins crossing the road and get injured and is unable to move. Chicken B begins crossing the road after a short distance he sees chicken A lying in the road. Since Chicken B's only mission it to get to the other side he sees Chicken A as an obstacle and goes around him. Sometimes the journey of success is like that. Aren’t you glad Jesus wasn’t a chicken? Are you a chicken?

Making Jesus Simple Part One

Gary Piper

The Hinge…

I have titled Part One the Hinge because every thing you are about to read can not be proved and will depend on one five letter word, FAITH. Because Jesus no longer walks the earth physically it is our faith that will give reality to him. It is our faith that will allow us to feel God's love and forgiveness. It is our faith that will give wings to the Holy Spirit so we can enjoy the promises of heaven. So before proceeding further I think a simple basic understanding of faith would be in order.

Because Faith is multi-faceted and book after book has been written a theological discussion would only complicate it further. It is much easier to understand what faith does rather than what it is. Faith can be illustrated by using electricity as an example you can not see how electricity goes about lighting a light bulb but you can see what electricity does. In a like manner it is much easier to see what Faith does than see what it is.

Normally people think of Faith as an intricate system of beliefs or the act of believing in something. Faith is all that and more. It may be helpful to see Faith as something we experience, experience not based on rock solid knowledge but experience based on circumstantial evidence. In many ways Faith is not something we possess instead Faith possess us. Yet until Faith is exercised it is simply a five letter word in our arsenal of buzz words we use to sound spiritual.

For simplicity let’s examine Faith as a journey. A Faith journey is walking leaving what we know for sure and venturing into the uncharted areas of life and spirituality. It is a journey that will take us through our brokenness, our pain, our loneliness, our despair, and our conflicts into the vast unexplored regions of God’s love, compassions, and blessings. But as we travel its road we will experience the awesome power of the Holy Spirit carrying us ever upward beyond the normalcy of life as we know it. It is a journey filled with great expectations, peace, comfort, and wholeness. It is a journey of starting points that begins with the acknowledgement that we ourselves are helpless that we must depend on others and especially on God. It is journey that will defy logic. The following Journey Verse sheds light on Faith as a starting point.

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