The days are getting longer. Summer vacation is just around the corner. Can there
be any better time to check out this summer’s must-reads?
This year’s must-read winner is The Sayings of Jesus which is the Appendix of Discovering Life’s Purpose. What makes this work a must-read? It’s that it contains the words of our
creator – God Incarnate! Could any story be more important to internalize? Is that why the Bible is known as the greatest story ever told? Is that why more copies of the Bible have been sold than of any other book throughout history?
But if the claim that Jesus is God Incarnate is unsubstantiated, would The Sayings of Jesus still be a must-read? Probably not. What substantiates the claim that Jesus was God Incarnate?
In How Can a Man be God, we examine this question and reference a significant amount of research about it. If you, like most people, harbour any doubts about Jesus’ divinity, this
research may resolve them. Even if you don’t find it convincing, what do you think of this proposition? Either Jesus is God, as he repeatedly claimed to be and reinforced with countless miracles, or He is not. If He is not, even though His teachings are thought-provoking, they are not a must-read and you can safely ignore them. But if He is, are not the consequences of not internalizing what God is insisting upon greater than any other consequence we face? Even though the position that Jesus is God may be hard to accept, can you afford to not act as though He is? Does that possibility not make His words a must-read?
But why not simply use the Bible’s gospels to internalize God’s Word? Like me, you may find it doesn’t work!
Although each gospel is a compelling narrative of Jesus’ time on earth, each is a scattered portrayal of His teachings. When readers come across something He said on a topic of interest, they don’t have access to what else He said on that topic. As they continue with the narrative, their attention is diverted to something He said on another topic. When later He again addresses the earlier topic, they have likely forgotten (or be unable to re-locate) what He said on His earlier commentary.
As well, readers can’t relate what He was quoted as saying in Mark to what He is quoted as saying in Matthew, Luke or John. We are unable to see all His sayings on any topic together and discover how they support, expand on and reinforce each other to produce an overall message on that topic.
In addition, Jesus is quoted almost 400 times and addresses almost five dozen topics. Like most people, do you find you can do only one thing at a time? How can you determine the relative importance of the almost five dozen topics to guide your study?
The answer is provided in the book The Sayings of Jesus which is the Appendix of Discovering Life’s Purpose. It assembles everything Jesus is quoted as having said on each topic in a separate chapter, determines the relative importance of topics and sequences its chapters in order of importance. Pursuing a dozen or so topics, in order of their importance,
enables you to synthesize Jesus overall message.
Can you afford to overlook Jesus’ overall message? Is not The Sayings of Jesus a must-read?
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author
of the Amazon Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.