The Secret of Greatness
H. Edwin Young
Luke 14:7-11
Jesus taught in parable. Jesus also taught in paradox. All of our lives we have heard parable defined as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. But for our purposes let us see that a parable is an illustration that should cause us to look in the mirror and to see ourselves as we really are and then to ourselves as God sees us. Now a paradox is a riddle, seemingly it is a contradiction of opposites. And therefore, as we look at this untaught teacher of Nazareth, we recognize that he used these vehicles, these means, to take His Word, to take His Message to higher planes than people dreamed of before. All the way through the Bible, especially in the teachings of Jesus, we run into these paradoxical statements. And we recognize that sometimes they are exceedingly complex for us to understand.
Let me give you a little warning. BEWARE of people who are always talking about the "Simple Gospel." They say, "Respond to the simple gospel. Understand the simple gospel." Now, in one sense the Gospel is exceedingly simple and plain so that a child can understand it and come to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. This world is held together by opposite tensions. Positive and negative; hot and cold; darkness and light. This is what keeps us together. When Jesus presents a paradox, He is not saying that the truth is not over here or the truth is not over there. He is saying the truth is in a higher sphere than your mind, at this point in your juncture of spiritual pilgrimage, can understand, receive or comprehend.
In fact, ladies and gentlemen, my thesis is that all of life moves to the complex. Have you ever thought about it? We start off and learn our numbers - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and finally we learn to put them together; to add, subtract and divide. Then we learn how to multiply and then we learn fractions and equations and percentages and on and on we go. Life moving from the simple,to the complex - mathematically. ...
H. Edwin Young
Luke 14:7-11
Jesus taught in parable. Jesus also taught in paradox. All of our lives we have heard parable defined as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. But for our purposes let us see that a parable is an illustration that should cause us to look in the mirror and to see ourselves as we really are and then to ourselves as God sees us. Now a paradox is a riddle, seemingly it is a contradiction of opposites. And therefore, as we look at this untaught teacher of Nazareth, we recognize that he used these vehicles, these means, to take His Word, to take His Message to higher planes than people dreamed of before. All the way through the Bible, especially in the teachings of Jesus, we run into these paradoxical statements. And we recognize that sometimes they are exceedingly complex for us to understand.
Let me give you a little warning. BEWARE of people who are always talking about the "Simple Gospel." They say, "Respond to the simple gospel. Understand the simple gospel." Now, in one sense the Gospel is exceedingly simple and plain so that a child can understand it and come to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. This world is held together by opposite tensions. Positive and negative; hot and cold; darkness and light. This is what keeps us together. When Jesus presents a paradox, He is not saying that the truth is not over here or the truth is not over there. He is saying the truth is in a higher sphere than your mind, at this point in your juncture of spiritual pilgrimage, can understand, receive or comprehend.
In fact, ladies and gentlemen, my thesis is that all of life moves to the complex. Have you ever thought about it? We start off and learn our numbers - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and finally we learn to put them together; to add, subtract and divide. Then we learn how to multiply and then we learn fractions and equations and percentages and on and on we go. Life moving from the simple,to the complex - mathematically. ...
There are 16220 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
