Next Door Savior: Near Enough to Touch, Strong Enough to Trust - Softcover

Lucado, Max

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0849947456 ISBN 13: 9780849947452

Verlag: Thomas Nelson, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

We applaud men for doing good things.

We enshrine God for doing great things.

But what about a man who does God things?

One thing is certain. We can't ignore him. If these moments are factual, if the claim of Christ is actual, then he was, at once, man and God.

The single most significant person who ever lived. Forget MVP. He is the entire league. The head of the parade? Hardly. No one else shares the street. Who comes close? Humanity's best and brightest fade like dime-store rubies next to him.

Dismiss him? We can't. Resist him? Equally difficult. Why would we want to?

Don't we need a God-man Savior? A just-God Jesus could make us, but not understand us. A just-man Jesus could love us, but never save us. But a God-man Jesus?

Near enough to touch. Strong enough to trust. A next door Savior.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Since entering the ministry in 1978, Max Lucado has served churches in Miami, Florida; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and San Antonio, Texas. He currently serves as the Teaching Pastor of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio. He is the recipient of the ECPA Pinnacle Award for his outstanding contribution to the publishing industry and society at large. He is America’s bestselling inspirational author with more than 150 million products in print, and host of The Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast, with over 10 million downloads. Visit his website at MaxLucado.com or join Max on socials, with more than 4 million followers: Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Next Door Savior

By Max Lucado

Thomas Nelson

Copyright © 2003 Max Lucado
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8499-4745-2

Contents

Acknowledgments............................................................ix1. Our Next Door Savior....................................................12. Christ's Theme Song Every Person.......................................113. Friend of Flops Shady People...........................................174. The Hand God Loves to Hold Desperate People............................235. Try Again Discouraged People...........................................296. Spit Therapy Suffering People..........................................377. What Jesus Says at Funerals Grieving People............................458. Getting the Hell Out Tormented People..................................519. It's Not Up to You Spiritually Weary People............................5910. The Trashman Imperfect People.........................................6711. He Loves to Be with the Ones He Loves Every Place.....................7712. What's It Like? Inward Places.........................................8313. A Cure for the Common Life Ordinary Places............................8914. Oh, to Be DTP-Free! Religious Places..................................9515. Tire Kicker to Car Buyer Unexpected Places............................10316. The Long, Lonely Winter Wilderness Places.............................10717. God Gets into Things Stormy Places....................................11518. Hope or Hype? The Highest Place.......................................12119. Abandoned! Godforsaken Places.........................................12920. Christ's Coup de Grâce God-Ordained Places.......................13521. Christ's Crazy Claim Incredible Places................................143Conclusion: Still in the Neighborhood......................................149Discussion Guide...........................................................157Notes......................................................................227

Chapter One

Our Next Door Savior

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Matthew 16:13–16

* * *

The words hang in the air like a just-rung bell. "Who do you say that I am?" Silence settles on the horseshoe of followers. Nathanael clears his throat. Andrew ducks his eyes. John chews on a fingernail. Judas splits a blade of grass. He won't speak up. Never does. Peter will. Always does.

But he pauses first. Jesus' question is not new to him.

The previous thousand times, however, Peter had kept the question to himself.

That day in Nain? He'd asked it. Most people stand quietly as funeral processions pass. Mouths closed. Hands folded. Reverently silent. Not Jesus. He approached the mother of the dead boy and whispered something in her ear that made her turn and look at her son. She started to object but didn't. Signaling to the pallbearers, she instructed, "Wait."

Jesus walked toward the boy. Eye level with the corpse, he spoke. Not over it, as a prayer, but to it, as a command. "Young man, I say to you, arise!" (Luke 7:14).

With the tone of a teacher telling students to sit or the authority of a mom telling kids to get out of the rain, Jesus commanded the dead boy not to be dead. And the boy obeyed. Cold skin warmed. Stiff limbs moved. White cheeks flushed. The men lowered the coffin, and the boy jumped up and into his mother's arms. Jesus "gave him back to his mother" (Luke 7:15).

An hour later Jesus and the guys were eating the evening meal. He laughed at a joke and asked for seconds on bread, and the irony of it all jolted Peter. Who are you? he wondered so softly that no one but God could hear. You just awakened the dead! Should you not be encased in light or encircled by angels or enthroned higher than a thousand Caesars? Yet, look at you—wearing clothes I would wear and laughing at jokes I tell and eating the food we all eat. Is this what death defeaters do? Just who are you?

And then there was the storm. The tie-yourself-to-the-mast-and-kiss-your-boat-good-bye storm. Ten-foot waves yanked the disciples first forward and then backward, leaving the boat ankle-deep in water. Matthew's face blanched to the shade of spaetzle. Thomas death-gripped the stern. Peter suggested that they pray the Lord's Prayer. Better still, that the Lord lead them in the Lord's Prayer. That's when he heard the Lord.

Snoring.

Jesus was asleep. Back against the bow. Head drooped forward. Chin flopping on sternum as the hull bounced on waves. "Jesus!" Peter shouted.

The carpenter woke up, looked up. He wiped the rain from his eyes, puffed both cheeks with a sigh, and stood. He raised first his hand, then his voice, and as fast as you could say "glassy," the water became just that. Jesus smiled and sat, and Peter stared and wondered, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" (Mark 4:41 NCV).

This time Jesus is the one posing the question: "Who do you say that I am?" (Matt. 16:15).

Perhaps Peter's reply had the tone of an anchorman on the six o'clock news. Arched eyebrow. Half smile. James Bond–ish baritone voice. "I believe that you are the Son of God." But I doubt it.

I'm seeing Peter kick the dirt a bit. Clear his throat. Less swagger, more swallow. Gulp. More like a first-time parachutist about to jump out of the plane. "Are you ready to jump?" he's asked. "I, uh, I, uh, I, uh ..."

"Who do you say that I am?"

"I, uh, I, uh ... I believe ... that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (see Matt. 16:16).

If Peter was hesitant, you can hardly fault him. How many times do you call a callous-handed nail bender from a one-camel town the Son of God?

There was something wrong with the picture.

We used to look at such scenes in elementary school. To keep us occupied, the teacher would pass out drawings with the question at the bottom, "What's wrong with this picture?" Remember them? We'd look closely for something that didn't fit. A farmyard scene with a piano near the water trough. A classroom with a pirate seated on the back row. An astronaut on the moon with a pay phone in the background. We'd ponder the picture and point to the piano or pirate or pay phone and say, "This doesn't fit." Something is out of place. Something is absurd. Pianos don't belong in farmyards. Pirates don't sit in classrooms. Pay phones aren't found on the moon, and God doesn't chum with the common folk or snooze in fishing boats.

But according to the Bible he did. "For in Christ there is all of God in a human body" (Col. 2:9 TLB). Jesus was not a godlike man, nor a manlike God. He was God-man.

Midwifed by a carpenter.

Bathed by a peasant girl.

The maker of the world with a belly button.

The author of the Torah being taught the Torah.

Heaven's human. And because he was, we are left with scratch-your-head, double-blink, what's-wrong-with-this-picture? moments like these:

Bordeaux instead of H₂O.

A cripple sponsoring the town dance.

A sack lunch satisfying five thousand tummies.

And, most of all, a grave: guarded by soldiers, sealed by a rock, yet vacated by a three-days-dead man.

What do we do with such moments?

What do we do with such a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Thomas Nelson
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0849947456
• ISBN 13: 9780849947452
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Thomas Nelson; https://www.thomasnelson.com/about-us/; ; Damson Lane; Hull; East Yorkshire; HU8 7DS; Vereinigtes Königreich
• Verantwortliche Person: Reckitt Benckiser Deutschland GmbH; consumerhealth_de@reckitt.com; ; Darwinstrasse 2-4; Heidelberg; 69115; Deutschland