Editorial Note:

It is an exceedingly beautiful and wonderous paradox: that the sovereign God of the universe has called us not unto blind, rote, or automatic conformity with His will, but unto willing obedience and submission to His will.

...the question is not one of our capability, but one of our willingness.

Relevance and Impact; it's what men seek. 

I want to be found relevant.

I want my ideas to be heard and recognized as valuable. I want to have something of substance to contribute. I want to make a contribution of measurable value. 

Last week, in our Fundamentals of the Faith class, I found myself extemporaneously expositing the following thought: 

"I believe that God, in His compassionate dealings with those whom He loves, sometimes allows trials to come to the ones He finds especially submitted to His will, who are eager to discover what path He has laid out for them. 

Today's question is, "Who is Jesus?"
The following partial list came to mind as I wrote what follows. This is a very thin cross section of the whole answer:

• Alpha
• Word
• Source
• Savior
• Perfect
• Man
• God
• Brother
• Judge
• Omega

Jesus is the Alpha.

Where can I go
to escape my daily troubles in this life?
And who'll be a friend
who'll scratch my back with something other than a knife?
People seem to be so cold, as though
the fires of humanity have been extinguished.
Whence comes this rain down on us all
as if we all must in this chill forever languish?

The term "self esteem" is actually pretty new on the scene, having hardly been mentioned prior to 1970. Yet today, in 2017, virtually everyone will agree that we cannot live without it. The inquisitives will wonder… if self-esteem didn't exist prior to the sixties, how on earth did people get along in life? 

Everyone likes exclusivity, right?
"Join this exclusive club,
Enjoy these exclusive priveledges… "
It's a great sales angle, because everyone wants more priveledges, right? Only just don't be racist about it.

Excuse me, but: No wonder our society is so conflicted! We all want something that we all know is wrong. It's something to think about...

Okay, this is not doctrine. This is not dogma. It's just my imagination... I am putting myself in the place of Jesus, as he faces the cross at Calvary, and even as He is going through the throes of His crucifixion. Please do not think I am being irreverent or presumptuous. I do not pretend to be holy or to identify with the Deity, as Christ surely could.

This is, from the viewpoint of a man (of which Jesus was one) standing before his God at the point of persecution from those whom he loves, my imagined prayer of Christ, who loved others more than He loved life itself...