{"id":9076,"date":"2011-10-09T13:55:08","date_gmt":"2011-10-09T02:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2011-10-12T13:20:12","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T02:20:12","slug":"seeing-god-in-the-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2011\/10\/09\/seeing-god-in-the-person\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing God in ‘The Person’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve read the weekend papers, listened to the news, participated in societal debates: my conclusion deepened by my morning’s devotional reading:<\/p>\n

We see God not through a philosophy but in and through a Person: Jesus of Nazareth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I know that this is not new! But how refreshing to come to it again and again.<\/p>\n

I am reminded of Bishop Lightfoot’s comment on the Gospel (the Good News of Jesus Christ),<\/p>\n

though the Gospel\u00a0is capable of doctrinal exposition, though it is eminently fertile in moral results, yet its substance is neither a dogmatic system nor a moral code, but a Person and a Life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the uniqueness, the\u00a0particularity, of\u00a0Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Though he was 100% human and lived his humanity fully as one of us, yet he is 100% divine.<\/p>\n

The ‘scandal’ of his ‘particularity’ compels to rejection or worship.<\/p>\n

As for me, I am compelled by his\u00a0love to worship, and hence to prayer:<\/p>\n

\n
Almighty God and heavenly Father,<\/address>\n
through your Holy Spirit keep me focused on your Son,<\/address>\n
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Person, the Life which gives life.<\/address>\n
My life is often filled with people and demands which are good<\/address>\n
but which too often leave little time<\/address>\n
for Christ, for us, for growing to know Him more.<\/address>\n
Help my scattered life to be centred on Christ,<\/address>\n
not on philosophy but on ‘The Person’.<\/address>\n
Empower me through your Holy Spirit<\/address>\n
to\u00a0know your Son more and more<\/address>\n
to rejoice in His love and purposes for life<\/address>\n
to live with thankfulness a life of generosity<\/address>\n
and\u00a0to worship\u00a0God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0Amen.<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve read the weekend papers, listened to the news, participated in societal debates: my conclusion deepened by my morning’s devotional reading: We see God not through a philosophy but in and through a Person: Jesus of Nazareth. I know that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9076"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9076"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9101,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9076\/revisions\/9101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}