How Does Jesus Raise the Question of God for People Today - Essay Example

The excerpt should point to the answer to the above question. Yet, knowing that Matthew, John, Mark, and Luke (John and Matthew being among Jesus’ disciples and apostles) wrote the four Gospels of the New Testament, shouldn’t we set the question of whether only the apostles and individuals (believers and followers) from His time (I century AD) and later should be considered His disciples? Haven’t we all Christians been His disciples for 20 centuries and more, even those whose atheism has been only a product of the communist regime in some countries? To be able to answer this question, we should clearly understand the meaning of the word disciple. It means a learner or someone who follows another’s teaching. If we consider ourselves disciples of Jesus, good enough to write maybe a New Testament, we should ask ourselves whether we have this endless love for everything alive on this Earth and whether we are true believers. I strongly doubt it. Many people over the centuries have claimed to be good Christians, true believers, and attended church regularly, but how many of them have been ready to suffer for Christ and reject power or money, how many of them have been ready to live sinless? How many of them have been ready to forgive?

Somewhere on the track, in our struggle to survive, we have lost all of the values worth living by and become destitute of morals. There isn’t anyone who hasn’t asked him/herself at least once in a lifetime: “Where was God when I needed Him? Why didn’t he see and hear me crying bent over my child who starved to death? Why did God let my house and all my possessions I have worked hard for all my life, burn in a fire? If God is so powerful, loving, and good, why does He allow so much evil in this world?” Jesus has all the answers to these questions. Are we hopelessly placing computers and money before Christ, and not having trust in Him? No, there is still much hope for our salvation. Instead of chasing after material goods, we have a chance to listen to Jesus’ whispers and start acting to heal our spiritual bankruptcy.

Jesus is always there to listen to our prayers, to forgive us for our sins or sinful thoughts, to give us gifts in various forms (a song of a bird, a wonderful flower, a son or a daughter, etc.), give a helping hand in our preparation to meet the all-mighty, all-knowing, all-good, all-wise Father of His - God. However, to direct us to His Father’s house, Jesus has to enter our hearts. If we let Him in, Jesus will show us the right way to reach Heaven without being jealous, vicious, evil, envious, unfaithful… we should commit each day to “choosing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and commit each day of our lives to these, and if we succeed, we should give our thanks. If we fail, we should seek His grace. And then, when the day is done, we can place our heads on our pillows and rest.” (Lucado, Max, “Grace for the Moment”, 2000, J. Countryman, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, ISBN: 0-8499-5624-2, p.9-13). Read More