I started a new book...

I’m three almost four chapters in and I’m not sure if I like it or not. It was just tedious to wade through the first three chapters. This is not the first time. Several books I have read recently did not start well. They ended great and proved to well worth the read but they left much to be desired at the beginning. I can’t say that about my current read I’ll let you know.

One concept that has jumped to the surface is how radically different Jesus lived life and expects his followers to live life. Have you considered how radical his way of life is? I mean really? Turn the other cheek? No, really smack them down. Serve rather than being served means you won’t get anything. Jesus’ words and life just flies in the face of “common sense” and the worldly way of doing things.

In this world and world order we do things by might and power, influence and control. Might makes right, we love the movies where the good guy kicks the tail of the bad guy. We love the cop who goes rogue tired of the slow legal system and delivers just by his own gun. I love those endings too but would that be a Jesus ending. Would his movie end that way? Guess what, it would not. The following is the only quote I know from Zechariah but it’s a goodie.
"This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty. Zechariah 4:6 NIV

Do you see how radically different that is from the way we think. Oh I have heard the words “that’s not practical” or “that worked for Jesus but He never intended that for us.” Really? Never intended us to live the life he modeled? What about the last shall be first? Love your neighbor as yourself? To gain your life you must lose it? What about those radical statements? Do you think he said them just to hear his own voice? It seems to me he said them so we would have words for what we have seen Him do.

I’m still not sure if I like the book or not, but I continue to read. I must also say I’m not sure if I like this idea of Jesus the radical or not either but I continue to live that way for what else is there to do he “is the Christ the Son of the living God.”