The One Thing We Must Not Say
“Observed C.S. Lewis, the brilliant and once skeptical Cambridge University professor who was eventually won over by the evidence for Jesus,
‘I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher… You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool … or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.’"
Who do you believe Jesus to be? Was he mad? It is difficult to reject Jesus as crazy when his teaching did so much to expose the madness around him. Was he a profiteer? It is difficult to suspect him of being clever or manipulative when he lived so humbly and died so selflessly. Did he suffer from delusions of Messianic grandeur? It is difficult to accuse him of this when there is so much in the prophecies of the Messiah that called for a suffering servant, prophecies that perfectly match the life of Christ.
If Jesus is who he claims to be, then your conclusions about him, one way or the other, speak more of who you are than anything else. You can't change what is true. You can only change your orientation to the truth. So, who do you say that he is? It is not Jesus who is being put to the test by this question--you are!
"Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, 'Who do people say I am?' They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.' 'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?' Peter answered, 'You are the Christ'" (Mark 8:27-29).
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The Hypostatic Union - The God-Man
“I do not think of Christ as God alone, or man alone, but both together. For I know He was hungry, and I know that with five loves He fed five thousand. I know He was thirsty, and I know that He turned the water into wine. I know he was carried in a ship, and I know that He walked on the sea. I know that He died, and I know that He raised the dead. I know that He was set before Pilate, and I know that He sits with the Father on His throne. I know that He was worshipped by angels, and I know that He was rejected by the Jews. And truly some of these I ascribe to the human, and others to the divine nature. For by reason of this He is said to have been both God and man.”
In this great mystery—called by theologians The Hypostatic Union—Jesus both shares all our needs and fulfills them!
The Jesus Nut
According to various sources:
Jesus nut is a slang term for the main rotor retaining nut or mast nut, which holds the main rotor to the mast of some helicopters. The related slang term Jesus pin refers to the lock pin used to secure the retaining nut. More generally, Jesus nut (or Jesus pin) is used to refer to any component that is a single point of failure and whose breakdown would result in catastrophic consequences, the suggestion being that in such case the only thing left to do would be to pray to Jesus. ...
... The nut/pin must be checked before the flight, even though real-world examples of the Jesus nut/pin failing are rare. For example, in 2000, the mast nut of a Bell 206B was removed to be repainted and was not restored and checked prior to a test flight. The helicopter crashed within ten minutes of takeoff, killing the two occupants.
*Some more recent helicopter systems are designed without a Jesus nut.
Whether you are a Christian who already knows the importance of the preeminence of Christ in your life, or an unbeliever who operates from the false premise that you can design your life to operate just fine without a Jesus nut, one thing is true: Absent the centrality of Christ in your life, you WILL crash and burn.
"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. 'Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing'" (John 15:4-5, NLT).
"For in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28, NIV).