Brooks Four in One

1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-68222-927-9
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

Four in One contains within it four published books written by Scott and Bonna Brooks. These four individual books work together in this Four in One book as a single unit with some concepts more fully explained in some of the books than in others. Book 1: Twos and Threes Book 2: Would you like to see an Amazing Miracle? Book 3: Deeper Friendships Book 4: At His Feet Four in One is written from a relational view of the Christian life. As such, it is a wonderful book toward a more relational Christian life that is so helpful with friendships with Jesus and each other! IF you get it, read it numerous times, digest it, and know it well, THEN may Jesus use it in wonderful ways in your life to bring you into all that the book's dedication states: 'We dedicate this Four in One book to you the reader and also to Jesus. May the Holy Spirit use this book to grow you all the more into a wonderful friendship with Jesus. And may that friendship positively affect all of your other friendships as well.'

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brooks, Scott

Brooks, Bonna

Leseproben

Introduction by Scott and Bonna Brooks   There are four books combined into this Four in One book:   Book 1: Twos and Threes   Book 2: Would you like to see an Amazing Miracle?   Book 3: Deeper Friendships   Book 4: At His Feet   These four books work together as a single unit with some concepts more fully explained in some of the books than in others. So, even though each of the four books is published and available separately, we thought it would benefit you to have all four books combined into this Four in One book, including having them in the correct order. We thought this would be better than you having one of the four books and trying to figure out how it ties to the other three books, or trying to locate a copy of any of the books that you are missing.   Even though we recommend reading the books in order, there is one exception. If you struggle with knowing that God exists, then we would recommend that you first read Would you like to see an Amazing Miracle? (Book 2), because in that book there are instructions that give easy steps for you to take so that there will be a very high percentage chance that you will get to see a miracle with your own eyes – which will let you know for sure that Jesus (who is God) is alive and is doing miracles today!   When I, Scott, first became a Christian after living the first twenty years of my life as an atheist, I would have loved to have a copy of this Four in One book! Instead, it took me many years of reading the Bible and looking to learn from Jesus in all of life, in order to learn the many things that are explained in this book. At one point, my son David shared how it had taken three months for him to learn the latest thing Jesus was teaching him. I then shared with David that the same thing took me three years – and that unlike David, I did not have anyone at that time who could explain to me what I was in the midst of learning – which in turn could have helped me to learn it much more quickly, just like David did. So, if this book helps you to learn these things much quicker than it has taken me, then I am excited for you! And I hope these things become at least as valuable to you as they have become to me!   I, Bonna, contributed only a little to writing Would you like to see an Amazing Miracle? (Book 2). But, I have read all four books many times! You might think that I would master the material after a single read. But, similar to reading the Bible, each time I read them, the Holy Spirit makes new things stand out to me and in turn helps me to grow all the more as a Christian. Not only do I learn new things, but I also really enjoy reading about such things as the wonderfulness of Jesus! I especially like to look at the character and desires of God that are so important that they are listed four times in this Four in One book, and God has used my reading of those characteristics and desires to build a stronger foundation for my entire Christian life. I hope you are as helped and blessed by the material in this Four in One book as I have and continue to be!   The Gospel   All four books contained in Four in One give an explanation of the Gospel – with the greatest details being in Deeper Friendships (Book 3). Since the Gospel is so incredibly important, we thought it would be good to now share it with you one additional time, but first taking a look at how the Gospel is often shared from a judicial standpoint instead of from the better and fuller context found in the Bible that explains it from a relational standpoint. To us, the Gospel makes so much more sense from a relational standpoint! So, we hope you find this section about the Gospel to be informative, encouraging, and of value to you.   From a judicial standpoint, the Gospel can sound like this:   A man took his son and beat him up so that the man could be nice to the other children in the neighborhood.   In this metaphor, the man is God the Father, the son is Jesus, the Father beat-up Jesus on the Cross (i.e. death by crucifixion), and we are the children in the neighborhood. If I, Scott, was a non-Christian and someone shared the Gospel with me in such a way, I would think that the Father is unloving and therefore would probably conclude that I would not want anything to do with Him.   The Gospel is also shared from a judicial standpoint by a person using a courtroom metaphor where they share about a person who is on trial and God the Father is the judge. The person is found to be guilty. But, Jesus then steps in out of His love for the person and takes the punishment for the person so that the person is then free to go. But from this judicial perspective, it is harder for the non-Christian to understand why they would be guilty in the first place.   The Gospel is often shared from a judicial standpoint and with such a high level summary that it does not make sense to the non-Christian. The following is an example of a one sentence judicial summary.   “If you do not accept Jesus into your heart, you are going to Hell!”   We (Bonna and Scott) were once taking a walk and a conversation arose with a young woman who was a non-Christian. She told us that once a Baptist pastor walked into the room that she and her friends were in, and he proceeded to tell them that they were going to Hell because they had not accepted Jesus into their hearts. The young woman proceeded to say that it did not make any sense to them that “not accepting Jesus into their hearts” would doom them to Hell. We then shared how the Gospel is often shared from this judicial standpoint rather than the more relational standpoint found in the Bible, and then proceeded to explain the differences to her. At the end of the discussion, she was not yet ready to become a Christian, but she thanked us for explaining it to her and gave each of us a hug before we went our separate ways.   So from a one sentence judicial standpoint, the Gospel can sound like the following to the non-Christian.   “If you do not accept my invitation to have dinner with me, I am going to take you to court and get you thrown into jail!”   If someone said this to us, we would most likely consider it an unloving invitation to say the least! And just from the demanding tone of it, we would be inclined to decline their offer.   Since the Gospel from a judicial perspective does not make as much sense as from a relational perspective, some people who share it judicially, water it down to present it as a free ticket to Heaven instead of as an ongoing friendship with Jesus – where it will only work if the person is very committed to Jesus as their top priority. Jesus summarized the needed level of commitment as:   Then he (Jesus) said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)   Instead of watering down the Gospel, others do include the “cost of being a disciple”, but since it is less attractive judicially, they put a heavy demand upon people to try to force them to receive it. They may become so demanding that they yell at people from street corners! But this pushy approach can give the idea to non-Christians that since the person is so pushy, therefore the God they represent must be pushy too. In other words, the person sharing the Gospel does not reflect God’s character of love where love does not demand its own way.   Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT, emphasis ours)   All of these judicial approaches tend to miss the mark since they first start with details about justice rather than starting with God’s love and His valuing of people’s freewill. So, if we start from a relational standpoint where God indeed loves people and in that love values their freewill to accept or reject relationship with Him, then the Gospel makes lots of sense! This includes the judicial aspects (such as Jesus’ payment for sins on the Cross) that are best understood within a relational context.   What follows is an explanation of the Gospel from a relational standpoint that makes use of a diagram not found in the other four books. Over the years, Jesus helped us to expand the diagram to include additional details to better clarify certain points.   We have used this diagram numerous times to explain the Gospel to non-Christians. We have also used it to help Christians gain a better understanding of the Gospel as well. When we share it, we draw part of the diagram, explain it, draw more, explain more, etc. So, when we share the diagram and explanations with you, we will share it as if we were drawing it out and sharing it with a non-Christian in real-time dialogue so that you can get a feel of how it would flow conversationally. And each time we add to the diagram, we will bold the new part so that you can distinguish it from what was drawn before. We will then explain the new bolded part.   It has been...