{"id":6551,"date":"2013-03-17T15:51:01","date_gmt":"2013-03-17T20:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=6551"},"modified":"2013-03-17T15:51:01","modified_gmt":"2013-03-17T20:51:01","slug":"book-review-jesus-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=6551","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Jesus Is"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?attachment_id=6552\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6552\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6552\" title=\"Jesus-Is-3D\" src=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Jesus-Is-3D.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Jesus-Is-3D.png 300w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Jesus-Is-3D-195x300.png 195w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Relationship over Rules.<br \/>\nLove over Judgment.<br \/>\nGrace over Everything.<br \/>\nJesus Is.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Jesus-Is-Find-New-Human\/dp\/1400204755\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1363552942&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Jesus+Is\" target=\"_blank\">Jesus Is<\/a><\/em> by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/judahsmith\" target=\"_blank\">Judah Smith<\/a> is one of the most compelling looks at the true meaning of grace in light of the gospel message.\u00a0 I would recommend this book to new believers as a foundational look at what true Christianity is all about&#8230;and longtime believers that need a reminder to clear away the clutter and get back to what the gospel is truly about.\u00a0 I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those below&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A giant chalkboard in our church lobby now reads, &#8220;Our mission: to show you who Jesus is.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>God doesn&#8217;t share our rating system.\u00a0 To him, all sin is equally evil, and all sinners are equally lovable.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus is not your accuser.\u00a0 He&#8217;s not your prosecutor.\u00a0 He&#8217;s not your judge.\u00a0 He&#8217;s your friend and your rescuer.<\/li>\n<li>We need to abandon our scale and adopt God&#8217;s because our misguided labels keep us from the right kind of interaction with people.<\/li>\n<li>I find that righteous indignation comes a lot easier than humility and compassion.\u00a0 Mentally chastising the bad deeds of other people is more comfortable than dealing with my own.<\/li>\n<li>So now I have to ask myself, how come I assume I&#8217;m near the top of that food chain?\u00a0 And on a related note, who is looking at me and using my mistakes to prop up their self-esteem?\u00a0 Just the thought puts me on the defensive, but it&#8217;s a fair question.<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t mean to insult anyone.\u00a0 But freedom starts with honesty.\u00a0 We aren&#8217;t doing ourselves any favors by defining ourselves as good and others as bad.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s just agree that we all ned help, that we are all in this together.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus befriends the worst of sinners, so Jesus befriends me.<\/li>\n<li>No sinner is irreparable or irredeemable.\u00a0 No sin is so great that the blood of Jesus cannot cover it.\u00a0 His love is so deep and wide that he can, in one moment of our faith, forgive our past, present, and future sins.\u00a0 Sin is simply not a problem for God.<\/li>\n<li>Love is.\u00a0 Grace is.\u00a0 Mercy is.\u00a0 Jesus is.<\/li>\n<li>Webster&#8217;s top definition comes closest to the biblical meaning of grace: &#8220;Unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Spiritual birth happens by grace when we believe.\u00a0 Ephesians 2:8-9 says, &#8220;For by grace you have been saved through with, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.&#8221; (NKJV)<\/li>\n<li>Grace is more than a principle, more than an idea, more than a doctrine or dogma, more than a cover-up for sin.\u00a0 Grace is a person.\u00a0 And his name is Jesus.<\/li>\n<li>When we meet grace, it becomes the fuel of our faith.\u00a0 We pray, we read our Bibles, we worship, and we live the purest lifestyle we can because we love a person.\u00a0 Allegiance to a doctrine can only last so long, but relationship trumps everything.\u00a0 We&#8217;ll do anything for someone we love.<\/li>\n<li>Rules are meant to lead us to relationship, not to replace relationship.<\/li>\n<li>Grace is God-given power to live differently.<\/li>\n<li>Once you savor God&#8217;s goodness, sin holds no lasting appeal.<\/li>\n<li>We don&#8217;t have to earn anything.\u00a0 We don&#8217;t have to pay anything.\u00a0 We don&#8217;t have to deserve anything.\u00a0 That&#8217;s what grace is all about.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t cheapen Jesus&#8217;s sacrifice by trying to pay him back.<\/li>\n<li>Our righteousness doesn&#8217;t depend on our present performance but on Jesus&#8217;s finished performance.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.&#8221; (Romans 5:20 NKJV)<\/li>\n<li>Grace is so simple that we have a hard time believing it could be true.\u00a0 But I&#8217;m convinced that unless it&#8217;s too good to be true, it&#8217;s not grace.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.&#8221; (1 John 4:17 NKJV)<\/li>\n<li>Grace is supernatural by definition, so it transcends our ability to reason and comprehend and calculate.\u00a0 It&#8217;s bigger than our minds.\u00a0 It&#8217;s bigger than our understanding.\u00a0 God&#8217;s ways are higher than our ways.\u00a0 His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.\u00a0 He is God and we are not.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man&#8217;s all.&#8221; (Ecclesiastes 12:13 NKJV)<\/li>\n<li>Jesus is the point of life.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;You love justice and hate evil.\u00a0 Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.&#8221;\u00a0 (Hebrews 1:9 NKJV)<\/li>\n<li>One of the greatest indictments against Christians is not sin or hypocrisy.\u00a0 It&#8217;s our lack of joy.\u00a0 Something is wrong when we call ourselves Christians\u00a0 but we practically have an aneurysm just trying to crack a smile.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Don&#8217;t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!&#8221; (Nehemiah 8:10)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.&#8221;\u00a0 (Psalm 51)<\/li>\n<li>Religion says: &#8220;Behave, believe, and then you will belong.&#8221;\u00a0 That&#8217;s the order many of us have known our whole lives.\u00a0 &#8220;First I have to act right, think right, and talk right, then I&#8217;ll fit in.\u00a0 Then I&#8217;ll belong.&#8221;\u00a0 The gospel says the opposite. &#8220;Belong, then believe, then behave.&#8221;\u00a0 Another way of saying that is: &#8220;Amazing grace, great faith, and good works.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.\u00a0 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.&#8221;\u00a0 (Ephesians 2:8-10 NKJV)<\/li>\n<li>God is with us, and he is for us.\u00a0 This is the gospel.<\/li>\n<li>God saw us, dead in our sins, and he couldn&#8217;t sit still.\u00a0 His rich mercy and his great love propelled him to provide a way to bring us back to life.\u00a0 That&#8217;s why he sent Jesus.\u00a0 In Jesus, every person can truly live.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God&#8217;s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.&#8221;\u00a0 (Romans 5:21) Sin, death, and the devil hold no threat when we know who we are in Jesus.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus gave me a new way to be human.\u00a0 At the core of my being, I am holy, righteous, godly, compassionate, generous, loving, and sensitive.\u00a0 I have a new nature, and it mirrors the God who created me.<\/li>\n<li>We have to stop seeing ourselves as sinners.\u00a0 In heaven there is no concept of us as sinners.\u00a0 As far as the east is from the west, the Bible says, that is how far God has removed our sins from us.\u00a0 He does not remember them.\u00a0 When God sees us, he does not see a sinner.\u00a0 He sees a saint.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relationship over Rules. Love over Judgment. Grace over Everything. Jesus Is. Jesus Is by Judah Smith is one of the most compelling looks at the true meaning of grace in light of the gospel message.\u00a0 I would recommend this book to new believers as a foundational look at what true Christianity is all about&#8230;and longtime [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,14,23,28,17,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study","category-book-review","category-generosity","category-integrity","category-leadership","category-truth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}