Jesus Is My Hero

Dr. Scott Rawlings

Description

Jesus is so much more than just being a savior who died on the cross for our sins. He is a hero that has called us to follow in his heroic steps to change the world.
One of the most frightening trends in our culture today is the exodus of churchgoers. Churchgoers who before felt inspired to worship and fellowship in their local church community are now leaving at a record pace. It is happening in every denomination, effecting every church. The crazy thing is, people are leaving and it is not because they no longer believe in God. They still believe in God and believe that Jesus is their savior. But, could it be that somewhere down the line, Jesus quit being their hero? Sure, He is our savior, but somehow we forgot that He is also our Lord. Jesus Is My Hero reminds us again how important it is to see Jesus for who He really is, a hero that we would want to emulate. A hero who not only has the power and the ability to make this world a better place, but also a hero who will make us better people. A hero who will bring out the best in us as we dare to do the impossible against supernaturally impossible odds. A hero who will inspire us again as he shows us how life is meant to be lived.

Sujets

• Christian Living
• Personal Growth
• Philosophie et théologie
• Jesús de Nazaret
• Jesus
• Gospel of Luke
• Religion
• Savior
• Lord
• Jésus de Nazareth

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 19 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664270183
• Langue: English

Extrait

Jesus is MY HERO







DR. SCOTT RAWLINGS









Copyright © 2022 Dr. Scott Rawlings.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.



WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
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Bloomington, IN 47403
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7019-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7020-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7018-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022911588



WestBow Press rev. date: 08/19/2022











This book is dedicated to:
To my wife, Charlotte! Your love for Jesus is contagious! Thank you for endlessly and graciously supporting everything I do. I love you with all my heart!
To the members of Living Stones Church for having to put up with me for so many years! I love each and every one of you! Your generosity and love for Jesus make me proud to be your pastor and friend!
To the best mother-in-law a son could ever ask for! Thank you, Linda Stewart, for breaking out of your retirement to help edit another paper!
To all those who, for whatever reason, have lost their first true love. I know we all have busy and hectic lives and it is easy to lose sight of the real reason for living. This book is dedicated to those who want to rise above the mundane and do something supernatural in their lives. To believe in a hero again.



CONTENTS
Introduction

Chapter 1 Something Has to Change
Chapter 2 Still A Long Way Off
Chapter 3 You’re So Irrational
Chapter 4 A Long Way Off
Chapter 5 Behold, A Leper Came
Chapter 6 It’s Okay To Interrupt
Chapter 7 Things Are Not What They Appear
Chapter 8 Is it Ready Now?
Chapter 9 I’ll Take Your Only?
Chapter 10 Taking the Plunge
Chapter 11 Time to Fight
Chapter 12 Ultimate Authority
Chapter 13 Time to Surrender

Epilogue
Work Cited



INTRODUCTION
Seeing Jesus As Our Hero…Again

There is nothing like a good hero story. People love heroes. They love them so much that Hollywood has capitalized on this. Marvel and DC Comics have made billions of dollars making movies based on our favorite heroes. At the writing of this book, Marvel has grossed over 22.5 billion dollars, which amounts to about 980 million per film. DC Comics is a close second. These movies sell because there is nothing like a hero taking on an evil villain that gets our imaginations and emotions flowing. We grew up wanting to be Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, or the Black Panther. Those heroes display honor, integrity, strength, and a love for what is right and worthy. Heroes make us see what is wholesome in this world and a desire to right our wrongs and live with the noble and good intentions that our heroes have displayed for us.
I know that not all heroes are alike, nor do we associate with all of them, but there are some that we adore and cannot wait to see on the big screen. Maybe it is because of their wit, or perhaps their cool catch phrases that attracts us to them. Others, we come to love because of their uncanny abilities to see good in this world and want to do all in their powers to help make this place a safer and healthier world.
One thing is sure, as kids we all loved heroes, and we wanted to be like them. On any given Halloween, you can see hundreds of thousands of little children running around in neighborhoods with their candy-obsessed eyes dressed up in superhero costumes. From Iron Man to Super Woman and Thor, they are all out there knocking on doors and looking as cute as buttons. Why? Because little children love their heroes! They crave someone to look up to, to emulate—to worship. Unfortunately, as we get older, hero-worship ends as we run around relentlessly pursuing all the menial tasks that being an adult includes. Life plays no favorites, and all of us are busy with work and kids and, well—stuff. I get it, I really do, but it shouldn’t be that way. Hopefully, this book will show us why going back to worshiping our hero is so essential.
This book is for those looking for a hero to follow. It is for those looking for someone who has the power and the ability to not just make our world a better place, but someone who will make us better people. It is for someone looking for a hero who will not only kick down evil’s door and bring justice, but someone who will be loving, caring, and kind, even to the less fortunate, or those who think and act differently than we do. We want a hero who will make us his sidekick as we go on adventures together. We want a hero who will bring out the best in us as we dare to do the impossible against supernaturally impossible odds. We want a hero who will show us again how life is meant to be lived. That hero is Jesus Christ!



1
CHAPTER
Something Has to Change

CHURCH IS NOT OUR HERO
I had a problem, and I am talking about a big fat ugly problem. When I became a Christian, I found out early from many other Christians that the church was the be-all and end-all for my Christian faith. Pastors and Christians repeatedly told me that I was supposed to invite people to church. I mean isn’t a church where God solely resides and pours out his Holy Spirit on the heathens who need to be there? So from the time I gave my life to Christ at nineteen, I was constantly devoted to bringing people to church. I ended up taking classes at a local church where they taught FAITH, an acronym that means ... well ... umm ... I have no clue; I already forgot it.
Nevertheless, I am sure it was a very clever acronym that stirred my emotions for action. It was an outreach class where we would go house to house every Wednesday evening and invite ourselves into some stranger’s home and talk about our church, how wonderful it was, and how they should be there. I am sure there was one single old lady who was influenced by this approach. Still, I don’t ever remember seeing the people into whose homes I intruded come to our church.
Later, it was all about “Evangelism Explosion.” This approach was meeting random people (mostly at the mall) and forcing them to hear me give a thirty-minute presentation on how they were sinners and how I had all the answers. After the thirty-minute presentation (full of excellent illustrations, I might add), I would encourage them to pray and accept Christ as their Savior. No one ever did. Spoiler alert: it was probably because it took thirty minutes to present.
Not all of that was bad. It taught me how to have the courage to meet anyone and have a conversation about Christ. But I won’t lie; it was very discouraging when no one wanted what I was giving. So I went back to the tried and true. Just invite them to church. That was easy and simple.
If we are honest, the church is familiar. The church is home. We know everything about our local church. We know how long the pastor will preach. We know where the children’s ministries are. We know where the bathrooms are. Side note: I had a woman working at a previous church’s front desk. I am always curious why people go to a particular church when millions are nearby, so I asked her why she ended up here. No joke, she said she loved our church because our toilet paper was soft! She said—with a straight face, I might add—that her previous church had rough toilet paper! Who knew?
However, when we make church our hero and not Jesus, we are in for a world of hurt. The church was never meant to be our hero. Jesus is. When we replace Jesus, take the easy way out, and make the church the thing we worship, we become a part of the problem, and it’s a big fat ugly problem. For example, I had a neighbor. Let’s call him “Neighbor.” (Who knows? He might buy this book and read it.) I worked hard to get to know him and invite him to my church. I would tell him what our church was about because the church is familiar, right? As I got to know him better, I kept inviting him to attend our upcoming Christmas Eve service. And guess what? He came! I was so jacked up! I made sure that several of our regulars went up to him and said hello. I wanted him to feel as comfortable as possible, and hopefully, prayerfully, he would enjoy it and come back. In the back of my mind, I imagined he would give his life to Christ and become some super-Christian!
He never came back.
Talk about a total bummer. But worse, I’d built my entire relationship with him around my church, and now that