THE JESUS STYLE

Started a new book this week called "The Jesus Style". Gayle Erwin visited our church about a month ago, and though Evan and I were in the nursery that week, we could still hear his teaching via video. He was intriguing, so we purchased a couple of his books at very discounted prices, and have both picked up this one. Though Evan is further along than I am in this book, we are both enjoying it.

Some thoughts in the forward hit me written by Richard C. Halverson who was formerly a chaplain of the US Senate. He states, "Some theological scholars have been insisting that the critical issue in the church is what we believe about Jesus Christ. In a very basic sense, he has always been the critical issue in the church, and for that matter, in history. Invariably and inevitabley, when anything else is made the issue, it tends to divide those for whom Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord. One way to look at this is that when other issues are allowed to polarize those for whom Christ is Lord, that issue, whatever it is, becomes elevated to a position of greater importance than Christ Himself" (page 2).

"...It is the settled conviction of this writer that this fact is today critical in the evangelical approach to an unbelieving world. Instead of presenting the fascinating, irresisitable man Jesus, we communicate a doctrine. The tendency is to ask a person to believe this or that about Christ rather than to know Him, receive Him, trust Him, love Him... the apostles knew very little about Jesus -- but they knew Him. We tend today to know much about Him -- but fail to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him" (page 3-4).