May 16, 2023 - Good Morning! It's Tuesday, May 16.
As a young minister, I attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. One of my favorite courses was called "Comparative Religions", a study of the history and beliefs of all the faiths around the world. Here in America, we not only see a cross section of ethnic groups and languages, but also religions. Ministers - and we are all ministers, by the way - need to be prepared.
On the first day of that class, the professor, near retirement age, stood before 50 young students. After telling us that the course would be a challenging experience, with a great amount of information to learn, he paused to give us a single bit of instruction, a teaching that has stayed with me ever since. "When studying a religion," he said, "begin by asking one single question - Who do they say that Jesus is?"
Almost every religion has a view of Jesus. Some see Him as a great teacher, others as a powerful prophet, or a holy man. I'm reminded of Mathew 16:16, where Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" And then we see Peter, in one of his finest hours, stand and say, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
