His teachings challenge me greatly because it seems that at my core, if I am honest, I have an attitude problem: fear vs. love [EGO]. But, I am 100% broken, and 100% beloved. I must trust, surrender to the ways of love.
Romans 7:15 — “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
Matthew 26:41 — “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Luke 22:42 — “not my will, but yours be done”
On where life actually comes from
• “I am the bread of life… unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:48, 53)
• “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” — spoken by many of his own disciples, who then left him (John 6:60, 66)
• “Do you want to go away as well?” … “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:67-68)
On fearing God
• “Do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear… fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him” (Luke 12:4-5)
• “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28)
• “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God… Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7) — spoken in the very next breath, the fear He just commanded folded straight back into reassurance
On family and belonging
• “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37)
• “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26)
• “Let the dead bury their own dead” (to a man who wanted to bury his father first) (Matthew 8:22)
On self-surrender
• “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:25)
• “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24)
• “Take up your cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23)
On judgment and self-righteousness
• “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matthew 7:1)
• “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)
• “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone” (John 8:7)
On status and power
• “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” (Matthew 20:26)
• “The first will be last, and the last will be first” (Matthew 20:16)
• “Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all” (Mark 10:44)
On worry and control
• “Do not worry about your life… Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:25-27)
• “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33)
Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure.The Love of God—The Making of a Christian, 680 R
“If you have a Jesus you like, you have the wrong one.”
Bill Dogterom