October 2007
Impossibility Thinking...
You know what that is? It's the kind of thinking that says: "It's impossible!" "It won't work." "It'll never happen." "I haven't got what it takes." "Why bother to try?" Jesus should have been the world's greatest impossibility thinker.
For He had Nothing Going for Him
By: C. Gregory Carter
Jesus was a member of a despised minority, a citizen of an occupied country, a nobody as far as the Romans were concerned, a joke to the occupying power, a nuisance to His fellow Jews. Jesus lived among an oppressed, cynical and embittered people! Taxes were oppressive. Freedom was unknown. Survival was uncertain. Religion was restrictive, negative, and joyless. Yet Jesus never made an inflammatory speech, never organized a guerilla force, and never led a march on Jerusalem or Rome.
Jesus inherited no illustrious name. His father was a common laborer. His mother was a simple, homespun type. His uncles and aunts; who were they? His grandparents? Nobodies! He could never point with pride to a prestigious address. Rather He came from a city reputed to be culturally deprived and morally corrupt. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" was a common expression.
Jesus was uneducated. Whatever His schooling was, it was simple. The only account of His writing was a note He scribbled in the sand. He had, No academic degrees, No certificates of special merit, award or achievement: No trophies or medals: And He never received an honorary doctorate of divinity degree! Jesus lived and died untraveled. He never visited the exciting, glamorous world outside His own country. He saw none of the sights so important to the secular world of His day. Like, The glistening temples of Athens: with the Parthenon on the acropolis holding the golden statue of Athena; Rome--with it's impressive forum, coliseum, and theatres: or The marble, pillar-lined streets of Alexandria. Or the spectacular city of Ephesus!
All He saw was people: lonely, hurting, sick, depressed, fearful, troubled hearts! It made Him cry! Jesus never became an intimate friend of men of power and influence. He had no "big connections"--V.I.P.'s did not seek Him out. Had He ever been asked for letters of character reference--who could He list? No peer professors; famous authors; powerful politicians; ranking generals; or lordly churchmen. He couldn't have been a name--dropper if he wanted to! (Except to say--as He did--that He and God were very close.) Jesus had no organization.
His followers were men with broken speech, rough hands, and cracked fingernails. They were unpolished, uncultured, unlettered, and ignorant failures. In many ways, and in critical times proved to be unstable, uncertain, undependable, and disappointing. Yes, Jesus knew ingratitude, rejection, misunderstanding, and betrayal! Jesus lived and died in poverty. He had, No home of His own, No insurance policy, No Social Security Card, No retirement plan: He performed a miracle to raise the money to pay His taxes! His estate? He left behind only one simple robe, a cheap prize to entice the gambling soldiers at the cross. So He died empty-handed-except for fresh wounds--leaving no fortune and no heirs.
Jesus remained unmarried, a single adult all His life. So He spent His years without the encouragement, comfort, or companionship of a wife or children. In a society where children were a man's greatest treasure. He died never having fathered a single son or daughter. So He died. Childless. Jesus, Think of it: At His death, He was only thirty-three years old! He was so young. He died before His mother! He was not given a half-century, or more, to make His mark, write His books, build His empire, and conquer the world. This--at least and at last--should have made Him a cynical impossibility thinker, crying out through tight lips, and bitter tears: "It isn't fair!" "I'm too young to die!" "Others live long and longer-why can't I?" "Oh God-give me more time!" Where was His Heavenly Father when Jesus needed Him most? Jesus, All His life He was good, kind, and loving, and very religious. Every Sabbath-He was in the synagogue. The Holy Scriptures-how He loved to read them.
Prayer? His life was a prayer for all seasons! Jesus-How He loved His Heavenly Father. How He trusted His Heavenly Father. How He served His Heavenly Father. Jesus, now on His cross-when He needs His God most-God seems to have abandoned Him. This man, Jesus, turned out to be.
The Greatest Possibility Thinker That Ever Lived
By: C. Gregory Carter
No founder of any religion ever used the word possible more than Jesus did! "For with God all things are possible" (Mark 10:27).
"The things which are impossible with men are possible with God"(Luke 18:27).
"All things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23).
"Father all things are possible" (Mark 14:36).
"If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move... and nothing will be impossible" (Matt.17:20).
"With God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37).
"With men it is impossible, but not with God" (Mark 10:27).
"With God all things are possible" (Matt.19:26).
To Jesus: Every problem was a possibility in disguise. Sickness-was an opportunity for healing. Sin-was an opportunity for forgiveness. Sorrow-was an opportunity for compassion. Personal abuse-was an opportunity to leave a good impression and show the world how possibility thinkers react!
To Jesus: Every person was a gold mine of undiscovered hidden possibilities! Peter? A tough-talking fisherman: But-he could make a great leader of a great new church. Mary Magdalene? A common prostitute: But-she could be a sensitive, sweet soul. She could one day anoint His body for burial. Matthew? A vulgar materialist: But-he had possibilities to become a great writer! Even the gospel! No wonder Jesus rushed to meet the outcast, riff-raff of humanity!
To Jesus: The important fact about you and me is not that WE ARE SINNERS. But that WE CAN BE SAINTS. So Jesus never called any person a sinner! He became angry only with religious people who made people feel they were miserable, guilty sinners.
Instead Jesus rushed to build-in the worst of sinners-a belief that they, too, could be saved for inspiring service! So Jesus proclaimed the greatest possibility. The immeasurable MERCY OF GOD.
To Jesus the whole world was jammed, pregnant, loaded, bulging, with untapped, undiscovered, and undetected Possibilities. Jesus really believed in the supreme possibilities! Jesus preached these grand possibilities, Man can be born again! Character can be changed! You can become a new person! Life can be beautiful! There is a solution to every problem! There is a light behind every shadow! Yes, Jesus had an unshakeable faith in these ultimate possibilities: God exists! Life goes on beyond death! Heaven is for real! He was prepared to prove it: by dying-and-rising again! He saw the possibility of ultimate justice! So He had as much to say about hell as He did about Heaven.
Jesus-Saw the possibility of heaven and hell in eternity. He also saw the possibility of a transformed world-here on planet earth. He was impressed by what the world could become-never depressed by what the world was. He truly believed that common people can become uncommonly powerful.
He knew without a shadow of a doubt that ordinary persons could become extraordinary persons if they could become possibility thinkers. So HE would give self-confidence to inferiority-complexed people. He would make it possible for guilt-infected, failure-plague, problem-swamped persons to start loving themselves and stop hating themselves! What enormous self-confidence this great Possibility Thinker had!
Listen to what Christ said: "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:11).
"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved" (John 10:9).
"I am the bread of life" (John 6:35).
"I am the vine, you are the branches. He provides who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit"(John15:5).
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me"(John14:6).
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live"(John 11:25).
Then came the end. He was accused of stirring up the people. He was placed on trial. He was charged with blasphemy. Did He not claim to be the promised Messiah? At least, did He not allow people to get the impression that He was the Son of God? In His public trial He was challenged to deny His deity, to withdraw His blasphemous statements, and clear up the confused minds of the simple people who believed Him to be God visiting earth in human form. But He could not tell a lie, so He remained silent. The verdict was predictable: death by crucifixion! A crowd gathered to see how a possibility thinker dies.
How did He die? He died seeing and seizing the possibilities of the moment! He practiced what He had preached all His life. He turned the hell into a Heaven. For here was His chance to save the soul of a lost thief who was being crucified beside Him. This was a spectacular opportunity to dramatically teach all men of all ages to come that death can be a grand reunion with God.
So His last spoken words were loaded with great expectations. "Father, into your hands I commend My Spirit" (Luke 23:46).
There was a final gasp-and He was gone. The Roman commander in charge of the execution turned away-converted on the spot, he was overheard saying, "Certainly this was a righteous Man" (Luke 23:47).
The body was taken down and sealed in a tomb. Then it happened! Easter! He was resurrected. He came back to life again.
Why do we believe this fantastic tale? Because of the incredible change in His followers. They saw Him alive again. Where they were cowards, they became fearless proclaimers in the city streets-in daylight! Where they were impossibility thinkers-they became possibility thinkers!
Today, twenty centuries later, Christ literally lives in millions of human beings all around the world! By his death he solved his greatest problem. What was that? He could only be in one place at a time. Now, through the power of His Holy Spirit, He is able to live in millions of lives all around this world! Think of the possibilities.
Christ can infiltrate any race, any religion any community, any country!
The Good News is Christ Can Live in Even You!
By: C. Gregory Carter
That is what it is all about!
BEING A CHRISTIAN IS offering yourself to Him.
Your mind-for Christ to think through. Your heart-for Christ to love through, Your lips-for Christ to speak through, Your hands-for Christ to touch through!
Just imagine what possibilities for exciting living this opens up to you! If Christ can live within you then it is possible for you, too.
To-turn your problems into opportunities! To-tackle your opportunities and succeed! To-Dream great dreams and make them come true! To-Switch from jealousy and self-pity to really caring about others who are much worse off than you! To-Pick up the broken hopes and start over again! To-See great possibilities in those unattractive people! To-Become a truly beautiful person-like Jesus.
Your Prayer for a New and Exciting Life:
Jesus Christ: I've come to see that all things are possible that I never before believed were possible. I believe it's possible-that you were sent by God into the world to be my Savior. I accept You now. I believe it's possible-eternal life! I believe it's possible-Christ is alive this moment and trying to penetrate my life through my brain and as I read these words!
I believe it's possible-for His Holy Spirit to live within me! I confess my sins. I ask Christ to save me. I invite Him to come into my life. I believe it's possible, Amen.
Now pray this Possibility-Thinking Prayer every day:
Lord, show me the person you want me to speak to through my life today. Amen.
