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The Gospel of John Questionary #2

1:10 ...the world did not recognize him.

God made the world and everything in it (1:3).  God enters the world he created as a stranger.  Obviously Jesus did not morph every time someone saw him and so he was not recognizable.  God was not recognized in the form of Jesus Christ.  He is still not recognized as Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is not universally accepted as the God who created and then entered creation.  Eyes that see, minds that think are created and sustained by a God who is rejected by eyes that see and minds that think.  Why is God so hard to see?  What does it reveal about God that he allows himself to go without recognition?

The Gospel of John Questionary #1

Setting the stage
(1:1) In the beginning …

before the beginning there was God.

God is the fountain at the center of reality (C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity)
"Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prizes which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are dose to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?"

God is the cause behind all cause (A.W. Tozer - The Attributes of God Vol. 2)
"Origin is a creature word.  The trees had an origin, space had an origin, the mountains, the seas - all things have an origin.  But when you come back to God, you come back to the One who has no origin.  He is the Cause of all things, the uncaused Cause."

Think about your surroundings.  A fan is running.  The cat is snoring.  Your heart is beating.  Pick one.  How did it come to be?  What caused it?  Can you think of something which has no cause?  Who can tell you your cause?

(note: this is now the first entry in Questionary.  I wasn't happy with the previous start.  I did save the comments from that post and will put them back up if you want them.)

Questionary: a new section

I've noticed reading the Gospels how many times Jesus questions people and lets them question him.  He doesn't seem to be afraid of questions, he seems to invite them.  Christianity has not been as tolerant as it's namesake.  It (the religion) has too many times become obsessed with getting standard answers and presenting them in commentaries or (more familiarly) the great American study bible notes, which are midget commentaries. A questionary is the opposite of a commentary.  It looks for the place where a quest can begin instead of where it 'should' end according to some anonymous expert.  Some of the questions generated do have generally accepted answers among people who follow Christ, but finding those answers is not the point of asking - finding Christ is the point.

A few years back I was part of a play.  I read the script and memorized my lines before we went to the first rehearsal.  During the first couple of run throughs we all got into the flow of the story, but there were still some rough spots.  I kept fumbling around with this one line.  The author of the play was there so I asked him to help me.  He took the script and said, "This place right here is supposed to be funny.  It's very sarcastic, like this.." and he did the line.  As soon as I heard him, not only did the line make sense, but the whole scene AND who I was supposed to be in the play overall was more clear.  You'd guess it would be that way, he was the author.  He knew what he wrote and what it meant.  I found the author of the play was very willing to help me understand.  He wasn't offended when I asked him questions. He gave me insight into the production and how my character related to his overall vision. I hope as I read the lines of the Script and ask questions the Author will whisper in my ear and turn me toward the Truth.