God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.
Today I’m delighted to share with you a post written by my friend David E. Vincent.
Jesus Betrayed: Matthew 26:47-56
While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
Matthew 26:47-56 (see also John 18:1-12)
Peter’s AR-15 vs. God’s Legions
When the Roman night op showed up, Jesus told Peter to put away his AR-15, because He could radio in 12 legions of angels. A Roman legion in that century could have been as many as 5,120 soldiers. Multiply that by 12 and you’ve got 61,440 angels. When you look back in the book of 2 Kings, one angel wiped out 185,000 men. Multiply that, and 12 legions of angels could have finished off 11,399,040,000 men. The world’s population at the time of Jesus’ birth is figured to be 300 million. So, those angels could have annihilated earth’s population 38 times over. Peter’s defense of Jesus was to start chopping heads for God; because, maybe, he thought God couldn’t defend Himself. (John 18:1-12, 2 Kings 19:35)
I love how God’s plans are always outside our reasonable solutions.
Sources:
Ben Courson
ChatGPT
Image: God and Angels’ Tug of War wood burning art by Bob Sharp, 1982
Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus) available on Amazon!
Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others.
Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:
- Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
- How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
- The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
- How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
- How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
- How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
- How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
- How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
- How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.
With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.
A life of loving like Jesus.
