You really cannot judge a book by its cover.
I found this unassuming, thin book in a friend's bookshelf. The small hard-back cover was faded, the colour dull - interesting to a vintage book collector, maybe.
There was nothing to indicate the treasure within.
I've been searching for decades, but I've never found a book like that one, about the character of Christ.
The image that I had acquired from paintings and Sunday School stories of Jesus Christ was wrong.
It was thirty-nine years ago and I considered myself quite grown-up, but now I have the maturity to recognise that I am still learning. Last year I decided to revisited this topic by studying the accounts we have of Jesus' life in the Gospels.
Looking at his actions and meditating on his attitude, I saw something of the depths of his character. I realised again that I needed to modify my view of Jesus.
This series is a distillation of these thoughts.
What was Jesus really like?
What was his attitude?
What was his mindset?
Alongside the scriptures and my thoughts are some of my sketches.
What did Jesus look like?
Did he have long hair and a beard?
Did he have pale skin?
What kind of man was he?
Jesus Christ is the most influential figure of history.
2.4 billion of the world’s population identify as Christians. That is 31% of the population of the earth. Christianity is the largest world religion and has influenced the course of history in every country.
Whether you are a believer, non-believer or undecided it is good to be open-minded and to put aside your preconceived ideas and even prejudices, while we look at the first written accounts of the life of this remarkable man.
Fortunately, we have four early accounts of the life and death of Jesus in the four Gospels.
Christians want to imitate Jesus, to follow him until they became like him.
When the word ‘Christian’ was first used in Antioch in the first century AD it meant ‘little Christ’.
To know Jesus is foundational to the Christian faith
To know Jesus Christ more is the aim of our faith
What was Jesus Christ like?
I will post the articles on Wednesday and Friday mornings: