1 John 4:8
God is LOVE
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Matthew 28:16-20
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Acts 1:1-8
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Revelation 3:20
Jesus Waits for Us
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
John 15:18-25
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name,for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
John 16:29-31
Jesus Knows All Things
29 Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. 30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.” 31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied.
Matthew 10:32-42
Jesus Did Not Come to Bring Us Peace
32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. 34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.40 “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”
I have often wondered why God has made the weather so very easy to talk about and yet on the subject of His own Son, He seems to have made it quite difficult for us to talk to others about Him...It is almost like Jesus is a trigger word that brings up controversy or differences or something that makes Him not an easy subject to discuss...Jesus made so many claims about His special relationship with God and that HE IS TRUTH, and that He and God are One, would make One controversial...
Jesus is not One who is easy to discuss with others...Of all individuals ever to walk the earth He to me is the most controversial...He is the most underestimated of all men..., He was disliked by some, some wanted Him dead, and He was probably peculiar to others...His speech was of no disguise....He wore no masks in whatever He did, and so those who followed Him accepted and loved all these things about Him...Yet when compared to other men, He would not be accepted by the religious elite of His time...And so they would put Him on a cross for blasphemy of teaching the Truth about His Father...
Maybe there are other reasons that Jesus is controversial...Maybe it is not God that has done this, but maybe mankind has added to Jesus being such a controversial subject...Maybe we have put fences up when we are talking about Jesus...Maybe Jesus and the subject of Him is so deep and Spiritual that that very deepness inside us, keeps us from getting in a deep and Spiritual conversation about Him with others...Is it this deepness that we and others have to expose ourselves when talking about Him and this makes us vulnerable to others?...Maybe it is because we think we know so little about Him that makes Him controversial?...And He does want us to know Him, so maybe this has something to do with Him being controversial in our minds and in our discussions with others...Maybe it is because He knows all things and we do not, and our limits make Him controversial...Maybe the Holy Spirit in us makes this a personal issue and we do not want to be spiritually deep and personal about this particular subject...
So why can't we easily talk about Him casually?...Jesus is difficult to talk about in the casual conversations, and among those we meet...I find it especially difficult, if I do not know someone and would want to talk about Him...Is it this deepness that we avoid...And Jesus is a Man, we all should want to know and learn more about Him...And I often wonder because of these difficulties to go into deep conversations with others about the Son of God, if that might make Jesus the most controversial Person ever to live in the world?...He seemed to upset the Pharisees and those local religious officials He met, the High Priest, and the Sanhedrin as He came more in contact with them, and talked with them...As they listened to Him things did not go smoothly with these groups...So did He have this heightened tension surrounding Him as He walked and taught in the villages around Galilee, Nazareth, and Jerusalem, especially those who were of the religious persuasion?...Was this tension just among the religious leaders of His day?...What is it that has made Him so controversial, both in His time and in our time?...Shouldn't the emotional charge of His Being be mostly gone in today's world, after a two thousand year absence?...I do not think it is...Could it be that God has put this Something inside us that gets aroused (or maybe it is something more like being "Spiritually Aroused") when His Son is mentioned and is around or in our thoughts?...I think that a great question is why do so many people get angry two thousand years later in a casual conversation, when Jesus and the subject of Him is brought up?...It seems many people just do not want to talk about Him in a casual conversation...But why?...He is our Creator, all things were created through Him...And let us assume that nobody is forcing anything on anyone and talking about Jesus is done in the most careful and gentlest and kindest of settings and ways...What is the problem and difficulty in talking about Him to others?...Jesus never forced His teachings on anyone...In fact, it seems many Pharisees just did not believe in Him, and thus would have problems in believing what He taught or whatever He taught...What would have caused these feelings in the Pharisees, after watching Him do many miracles?...What is causing these controversial feelings in some of us?...He no doubt wants us to believe in Him, all of us...And we know that He wants everyone to believe in Him and His Father...
So what an interesting statement Jesus tells us before He leaves the earth and ascends to heaven "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."...Jesus wants everyone to be a disciple of His...Not just some people but all people of all nations...Thus He wants everyone to believe in Him and His Father...There is no question about that...So talking to others about Him, should be an easy and comfortable thing to do, since He wants people of all nations to be His disciples...But talking to others about Him in casual conversation (unless both parties are firm believers), is usually not an easy conversation at all...Try talking to someone you have just met for the first time or someone you just know a little (or don't know for that matter) about Jesus...See what kind of reaction you get about your Jesus conversation...
One would think that LOVE and love and the heart would be easy to speak and talk about...And we find in reading the gospels that Jesus touches the heart...And the heart is an emotional ride for many, if not most of us...Many do not want to speak and talk about the emotional connections we have with others...Let alone the most important Figure in our history...Many find it hard to talk about emotions of the heart...And the Kingdom of God is about the heart and about LOVE...This is because God is LOVE...And He demands us to give Him our entire heart to Him, and not just a part of ourselves our our hearts...So to further speak on how people react to Him, maybe it is not so odd of all the difficulties, with emotions and the heart being involved...But still why shouldn't we want to talk about Him?...After all He is our Creator, our Father...We are said to be made in His Image...And if we believe God is LOVE and Jesus and the Father are One, shouldn't we want to talk about our Father, who is a LOVING Father?...
And He wants to have a relationship with everyone in the world...A loving relationship...He awaits for this relationship at our door and is knocking...If we can hear Him them He will come and eat with us...It is our free choice and our free will to hear Him and choose to open the door and believe in Him and His teachings...
There are some great writers and theologians who say that Jesus declaring Himself to be God is part of His controversy...And related very much to that is Him casually forgiving other people's sins, when it is not Him they sinned against (isn't any sin or wrongful act we do actually against the One who created us, our Creator)...Some authors say Jesus is historical and some say He is not...Theologians debate on His history and some say that He did not really exist...They main debate over the subject of Jesus is about this -is He and was He really God in the flesh?...There is something in His controversy, like the way people reacted to Him and still react to Him?...I personally think some people react defensively about Him without knowing He went around forgiving people of their sins, and some of the other things He did and said...And what He said was very different from the other Teachers and Rabbis of His day...He pushes the envelope towards making us believe He is God...I think part of the problem is in the subtle ways He says He is God...This subtleness and His humbleness gives the non-believer wiggle room to say He is not God in the flesh...Jesus wants us to think about our own personal eternal life...Maybe generally speaking, we do not want to think about the eternities...But the eternities are what Jesus taught...For He is Eternal Life...Back to the subject of deepness, eternal life and the eternities are very deep subjects and do we want to talk about them out of our lack of knowledge about them or for other reasons?...
St. Matthew writes when Jesus had resurrected and before He ascended He told His Disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you...St. Luke tells us that He told His Disciples that they soon would receive power from the Holy Spirit, and they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth...Both St. Matthew and St. Luke mention the involvement of the Holy Spirit...So it is clear that Jesus was to be taught to all nations, not just some nations...And it is clear His witnesses shall go to all parts of the world, to the very ends of the earth to get His message out...
Jesus wanted His Disciples to be witnesses to Him and to make disciples of all the nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit...This was not a process that was to stop with just the original Twelve Disciples...Today this process still goes on...I wonder since God has given everyone a Holy Spirit, how does the Holy Spirit mix and work with our free choices (that He gives us)?...That question is in context to "Why do rational people get angry and defensive when you want to talk to Jesus with them -even in the nicest and kindest of ways?"...If everyone has a Holy Spirit doesn't this Spirit inside us hear what is being said, and want to praise and thank our Father?...Maybe this is a place where free will and the Holy Spirit collide a little bit...And why isn't the controversy the same over Buddha or Confucius or Mohammed?...God and Jesus only work with the Holy Spirit that is indwelt in us...Maybe it possible that the Holy Spirit is in everyone, and people who react angrily or get riled up -is when the Holy Spirit is moving about inside of them...Maybe the soul has been touched by the Holy Spirit, in this arousal...This defensiveness or anger could it arise from something personal inside us that is uncomfortable?...Jesus did not come to our world to bring us peace, but a sword...When one is a true disciple of Jesus, they do not set out to make people angry or mad or create this Jesus Controversy...But something inside some people will get up and leave if they are uncomfortable about listening to things about Him?...Even if one talks about Jesus, in a gentle, soft, and accepting way -and one might think there would be no controversy about Him...Is He really at my door awaiting to come into my life?...Why all the controversy over this One Man?...And I still do not know why that is?...But I do know that God made His Son much different than everyone else...Jesus came to teach us about His Father...And I do believe God sent His Son to us so that we may have a relationship with Him and God the Father...And I believe that this controversy is in us and is Something stirring inside us...