Horizontal Jesus

Tony Evans

Description

Do you want to sense God's encouragement, comfort, and love for you every day? Dr. Tony Evans reveals that as you give these things away to others, you will personally experience them with God in a new way.Jesus empowers His church to be His hands and feet in the world todayto share His life in your horizontal relationships. Dr. Evans demonstrates how you can become a horizontal Jesusa channel of God's blessings to everyone around youusing several "one another" passages of Scripture, including...Love one another (John 13:34)., Welcome one another (1 Peter 4:9)., Encourage one another (Hebrews 3:13)., Forgive one another (Colossians 3:13)., Accept one another (Romans 15:7)., Restore one another (Galatians 6:1-2)., As you fulfill your God-given destiny to be a conduit of God's grace, you will experience His flow of life in and through you like never before.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Harvest House Publishers
• Date de parution: 01 août 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780736959001
• Langue: English

Extrait

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible , 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. ( www.Lockman.org )
Verses marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Verses marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Italicized emphasis in Scripture quotations is added by the author.
Cover by Harvest House Publishers Inc., Eugene, Oregon
HORIZONTAL JESUS
Copyright 2015 Tony Evans
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Evans, Tony, 1949-
Horizontal Jesus / Tony Evans.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-7369-5899-8 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-5900-1 (eBook)
1. Love-Religious aspects-Christianity. 2. Christian life. I. Title.
BV4639.E93 2015
241 .4-dc23
2015004973
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author s and publisher s rights is strictly prohibited.
C ONTENTS
Introduction: Jesus s Hands and Feet
1. The Theology of It
2. The Law of the Harvest
3. Encouraging One Another
4. Loving One Another
5. Connecting with One Another
6. Accepting One Another
7. Welcoming One Another
8. Unifying with One Another
9. Serving One Another
10. Forgiving One Another
11. Admonishing One Another
12. Restoring One Another
13. Comforting One Another
Conclusion: Faith with Feet
Appendix 1: One Anothers in Scripture
Appendix 2: Small-Group Leader s Guide
About Dr. Tony Evans
The Urban Alternative
Take a stroll down the yellow brick road as Tony paints a word portrait of the critical part we play in each other s lives.
GO .T ONY E VANS.ORG /HJ
I NTRODUCTION
J ESUS S H ANDS AND F EET
C an the things we do for others affect what God does for us-for better or for worse?
We might think the answer is no. God has saved us by grace through faith, not by our works. So how could what we do for others possibly affect what God does for us? Doesn t that sound legalistic, as if we could earn God s blessings? Besides, God is sovereign. He has a plan, and no one can prevent Him from accomplishing it. Surely a few small details-such as the way we treat other people-won t keep the God of all creation from doing what He has purposed to do, right? We can t influence the heart and hand of the sovereign God of the universe simply by the way we treat other people, can we?
Then again, maybe we can.
In fact, the answer from Scripture is a resounding yes . Our relationships with other people do affect our experience of God. Not because we can earn God s answers to our prayers (we can t), and not because God hasn t already decided what to do (He most surely has). His plan is never in jeopardy. Rather, the reason why our horizontal relationships with each other affect our vertical experience of God is simply this: That s how God designed it to be. This is His kingdom. God is the one who decided that the way we interact with others impacts the way He will interact with us. This is His design for us.
God s love is pure, and His grace is great. The question is, how much of that love and grace will we experience in our own lives? God freely pours out His blessings, but we can receive them only if we allow them to flow through us and out to others.
Maybe an illustration will help us grasp this truth. I have four kids, and I love them dearly. My love for them is secure. They never need to worry about losing my love, and they never need to worry about no longer being my children. Each one will forever and always be my child.
However, when the kids were growing up, we had certain standards in our home-behavioral expectations of how they were to treat their parents and how they were to treat each other. When they broke these standards, we never stopped loving them. They never stopped being our children. But they did experience a different side of us.
For example, if one of my daughters was playing with a friend at our house, and if my other daughter wanted to join in, both of our girls knew that they were to be polite and inclusive as an act of love. They also knew there were consequences for the way they handled the situation. If my daughters treated each other with love and respect, they knew what to expect from me when I got home. But if they decided to snub each other and be rude and unkind, they knew they would experience another response from me when I arrived.
This wasn t because I loved them any less. It wasn t because our relationship was severed-just the opposite. It was because my job as their father included training them and enforcing the relational expectations in our home. So if one daughter excluded the other, I would sit her down and explain that what she did was hurtful and wrong. And perhaps that night, she would not be included in family game time simply as a reminder of what it feels like to be left out. Again, my love for her hadn t changed. My role in her life as her father hadn t changed. But her actions changed her experience of me for that evening.
God is a loving Father, and He loves each of us passionately. Just as any parent s heart aches when their children hurt one another, God s heart is burdened when that happens in the body of Christ.
In addition, when God bestows His favor on each of us-good health, blessed finances, unique skills, or relational acumen-He doesn t do that simply for our own benefit. He does that so that we can be conduits of His blessings to others. When His blessings stop with us and don t flow through us to others, do you think He s going to continue pouring out His favor on us? What would you do with your child?
Imagine you re in a candy store with two of your kids, and you decide to buy one bag of candy for them to share. You pay for the candy, hand the bag to the older child, and ask him to share it with your younger child. The older child is the steward of the candy, but he s not the owner. It belongs to both of them because it ultimately belongs to you.
Now imagine that your older child begins hoarding all the candy and refusing to give any to your younger child. What would you do? When the candy ran out, would you refill the bag with more candy and give it to your older child again? Or would you make other arrangements this time? Your love for your child wouldn t change. But your child s experience of your blessing and provision in his life would definitely change.
Similarly, none of us are owners of what we have-our time, talents, or treasures. These things all belong to God. He entrusts them to us so we can use them to advance His kingdom on earth, benefit one another, and glorify Him. When we don t align our actions with God s teaching on how we are to be with one another, we are not removing ourselves from God s family. We are not cutting ourselves off from Him. But we are limiting the full expression and experience of His presence and goodness in our lives-not because He is mean, but because He is good.
When our son Jonathan was in training camp with the San Diego Chargers, my wife, Lois, and I flew to San Diego from time to time to watch him at the stadium or to visit him at his home. San Diego is a beautiful place, and we always enjoyed our visits. An interesting statue in San Diego is erected at Christ the King Church. The statue is of Jesus, but its hands are missing. As the story goes, vandals broke them off in the mid-1980s.
Rather than having the statue repaired, the pastor chose to put a plaque at the base of it that reads, I have no hands but yours. It is declaring that because Jesus has ascended to His rightful place in the heavens and is not physically present on earth, we, His body, are to be His hands to one another. We are to be His feet to one another. We are to offer His help to one another. We are to live out our horizontal relationships with one another in light of our vertical relationship with Christ. We are to be the manifestation of Jesus to one another. That is our ultimate calling as His disciples. That is our highest aim and the truest reflection of the two greatest commands, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength [and] You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31).
No one knows for sure who wrote this poem, but it is widely attributed to Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth-century nun.
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
The apostle Paul shares a similar sentiment in his letter to the church at Rome.
How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will t