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Jesus Christ
2008/03/03 06:16:27瀏覽1118|回應0|推薦2

     The focus of Christianity is Jesus Christ. The Bible says that a man having physical characteristics similar to us appeared in front of the people. He is also the son of God. In other words, he is both human and divine.
     According to the Bible, his conception was a miraculous event. Jesus’ mother Mary was unmarried when she became pregnant. An angel told her and her fiancé, Joseph, that the child she conceived was from God, so he accepted the situation and married Mary, but they had no marital relations until after the child was born. This was the way the son of God came into the world.
     When Jesus was thirty, he began to preach publicly. He told people to repent from their sins. He told people to love each other, even their enemies. He also told people that they have to worship God in spirit and truth, not merely by practicing outward rituals. Many people, especially those despised for their sinful acts, welcomed him. He often worked among the poor, the sick, and those not accepted by society. However, the religious leaders of the Jewish community hated him to an extent in which they even desired to kill him. They expected the Messiah to lead them in overthrowing the Roman dominion, but Jesus did not meet their expectations. In fact, they believed Jesus asked people to disobey the laws of Moses as a result of their misunderstandings and jealousies.
     According to the Bible, Jesus performed many miracles. As evidence that he was truly the son of God, he transformed water into wine, healed a man who was born blind, walked on water, and resurrected Lazarus among other things. Thus, Christianity happened either because a man with such power appeared in the world, or because people fabricated a magical character during a certain time period.
     One of the disciples of Jesus betrayed him and helped the people who wanted to kill him. As a result, he was arrested and handed over to Jewish religious leaders. After an unjust trial, he was sentenced to death. Those Jewish people urged Roman authorities to crucify him. Jesus was ferociously beaten and nailed to the cross. A 2004 motion picture, The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson, made a vivid and faithful depiction.
     Jesus was humble and meek. Among all human beings, only he lived a perfect and sinless life because he was the son of God. Completely obedient to God, he was innocent, yet willing to follow the command of God to be crucified.
     After Jesus Christ’s death, his followers claimed that he was resurrected. The tomb of Jesus has been empty since then. They also claimed that he appeared to them several times. This should be considered something impossible and people in the first century knew that. They bravely proclaimed the whole story, even when facing death threats. Few people will sacrifice their lives for a lie. But if the event of resurrection is true, we have to abandon the assumption that natural laws can’t be violated. Some existence with supernatural power did this.
     Why was Jesus crucified? The Bible says that he died for our sins. We deserve punishments, but Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for us, so we could escape those punishments. Just as if we owed a significant amount of money and had no ability to pay it back and someone paid for us, or in a battlefield a comrade blocked a bullet to save our life while his was lost, because of Jesus’ death, we are saved. For people who believe in Jesus Christ, their sins are forgiven, and they may reconcile with God.
     To be a Christian is to be a worshiper of Jesus Christ. It is realizing who Jesus is and what Jesus did for us. A Christian loves Jesus, considers the Bible is the most beloved book in the world, and believes church activities are meaningful and important. His or her mind is often involved with the beliefs of Christianity, and his or her behavior is changed by the principles taught in the Bible.
     Worshipping someone is not an idea that is difficult to imagine. You may be crazy about a sports star and trace his performances in each game. You may like a movie actress and join the crowd at the Oscar ceremony to see her. You may love your boyfriend or girlfriend very much and consider him or her the center of your world. We are all familiar with worship.
     More importantly though, nobody can force you to worship someone. You can’t force yourself to worship someone either. When you worship someone, it happens for many reasons that you don’t know. When you worship someone, you will do your best to know more about him or her. When you worship someone, you will give up other things that are meaningless in comparison. When you worship someone, you will act as a different person. Christians are people who worship Jesus Christ in this way.
     But how can we worship Jesus Christ? Isn’t he a person who lived two thousand years ago? Can we see him with our eyes? Can we find him somewhere on earth? All we have are the records in the Bible. We can only pray to God in his name. We can only imagine he is accompanying us invisibly.
     Nonetheless, the Bible says it is the only way that a person can be saved. There are many people believing in Jesus Christ and worshiping him. Maybe it is because the stories of Jesus in the Bible are very attractive. Maybe it is because his teachings are so excellent. Maybe it is because the prayers in Jesus’ name really work. Maybe it is because people who seek Jesus’ help are truly comforted. There are so many Christians in the world, even almost two thousand years after Jesus’ death. Both statistics and psychology have a hard time explaining this.
     Will you be a Christian, a worshiper of Jesus Christ? Perhaps you will. Maybe you don’t know much about him at this moment. However, consider that the following things could happen to you or your friends. Two people became good friends, but they came to know each other accidentally. Many people are crazy about a football player, but he has played in the NFL for less than two years. A man loves his wife very much, but he even did not know she existed one year ago.

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