Profiling
Are you one of those nuts who has
searched genealogy records until you have a family tree the size of a giant
redwood? Don’t feel bad. It is sort of like an addiction. You really can’t help it. I now you can’t help it because I can’t help
it either. Ok, I actually didn’t
personally work that hard at it. A
relative did most of the work. I just
bought the book. Of course the book was
published years ago and is out of date, but then who cares about living
relatives? After all, if they are
relatives who are still alive you have to talk to them and even socialize with
them. It opens a whole new can of worms
when it comes to a family getting along smoothly. (For adoptees searching for
family there should be an entirely different category. Their search is different. My heart certainly
goes out to them, and I wish them well.)
Most of us can be very thankful for
the blessings of family and for the help and comfort given to us by our family
through all sorts of trials. Still,
there may be a few relatives we don’t care to know any better than we already
know them. Now, ancestors from our
distant past can be a lot of fun. We can
imagine they were the perfect or heroic relative that everyone would love to
have in his or her past. We can ignore
the fact that even semi-perfect and heroic people are in fact just people. They would have had really good qualities and
a few irritating quirks about them just like favorite relatives living still.
If you have an interesting relative
from the past how could you get to sort of know that person? This is beyond just filling in the blanks on
a genealogy chart. This would be knowing
enough about that person to actually feel like you knew them personally. It is time to profile when you want more than
a name filling in its proper slot in the genealogy chart. You want to feel like you sat down and
chatted with them over a stiff cup of tea and slice of homemade pie.
If you can come up with a photo or two
that would be nice. Just studying the
face sort of gives an impression of what a person is like. If you can’t get a photo, just imagine
someone who is average in every way until you get to know them.
Can you find out what they did with
their life? Shoe maker? Farmer?
Home-maker? Married? Church goer?
In my husband’s family there is a
person of interest to most of us. It is
Jerry’s uncle who was killed D-day, 1944.
We have talked to those who knew him, especially those in the
family. All we really know is that he
‘was a very nice person’ and people burst into tears when his name is
mentioned. So, we really didn’t get much
out of them. Even all these years later,
that is really all we know. People who
served with him the war are not prone to burst into tears, they just get a
little choked up. They say the same
thing. ‘He was a very nice person; what a shame; what a friend; I think of him
often;’ and things like that. They don’t
even mention what a hero he was. They
just say he was very nice. We do know he
was brought up in a Baptist church under a good preacher. He was a professing Christian. His army buddies said he was definitely a
g-rated guy. He was barely 25 when he
was killed while carrying wounded to safety.
The first four books of the New Testament
tell us many things about Jesus. Each
was written by a different person with a different perspective, but each book
tells the same story.
They tell us Jesus was crucified to
death, buried, rose the third day, was seen by many people, and ascended to
heaven to be with the Father, leaving the promise He was coming back.
We know that:
Jesus loved children. Of children He said, ‘Such is the kingdom of
heaven.’Jesus had compassion. He was always feeding the hungry and healing the sick.
Jesus had power never seen in a mere human being before or after Him.
Jesus had power to raise the dead.
Jesus came especially to seek out and save those lost – those separated from God because God is perfect and they are not. The Bible calls them sinners. Today we think of a ‘sinner’ as a very evil person. In truth a sinner is anyone who isn’t entirely perfect and righteous.
Jesus came to call sinners to repentance.
Jesus’ Kingdom is not of this world.
Jesus died to make a way to enter heaven for those who turn to Him.
Also in profiling Jesus we can follow
the prophecies of Moses and the Prophets found from Genesis to Malachi. We have the entire Bible to use in getting to
know Jesus.
Pay strict attention to the eye
witness evidence of Jesus’ character.
Watch what He did in specific situations, how He reacted to pain and
suffering, and how He took the penalty of sin on Himself. These things will help you not to confuse
Jesus with other’s who claim to have a way of salvation also. People have a right to follow others instead
of Jesus, but they cannot combine Jesus with any other and still be
truthful.
Weigh the answers given in the Bible
Test the arguments
Look for prophecies yet to be
fulfilled such as the two witnesses who will proclaim Jesus from Jerusalem for
3 ½ years.
Look for false prophets who have no
mention in the Bible. For instance there is no prophecy of Joseph Smith and the
Mormons, nor any indication of the blatant changes made to the Bible in the
book written by Joseph Smith. It isn’t
there. Don’t be fooled.
Neither is there any prophecy of
Mohammad or any of the things he wrote in his book. Don’t be fooled. By the way, Mohammad denied Jesus was
crucified at all.
Neither did Jesus teach that all roads
lead to heaven. He taught no one was
going to heaven except through Him.
Neither did Jesus teach that ‘if your
good works outweigh your bad works you will get into heaven’. He taught salvation by grace through faith
and not of works.
In heaven I will see daddy and
granddad and my father in law and his brother Gerald.
These beloved people are there waiting
for us in the place where Jesus is.
In the Sweet By and By
Goin’ Home
He is the way that leads to life
everlasting.
We don’t have words to describe
heaven. We really don’t even have the
mental capacity to understand the wonders of heaven. We do know it will be better than anything we
can imagine. It will be filled with the
wonder of little children. We also know
there is room for all those we can show the way to Jesus. Part of our personal Christian profile should
be our willingness to point others to Jesus.
Our strength is in the Lord. He
will strengthen us to tell others the wonderful words of life found only in
Jesus Christ.
Rock of Ages
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJW22t143bwThe Old Rugged Cross
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDCK7J7pWtk&feature=related
