Reframing Jesus

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Reraming Jesus

A Fresh Look Into a Familiar Face

2014 Rick Lawrence, Kur Johnson, and Jeff A. Sorm

group.com

simplyyouhminisry.com

All righs reserved. No par o his book may be reproduced in any manner

whasoever wihou prior writen permission rom he publisher, excep where

noed in he ex and in he case o brie quoaions embodied in criical aricles and

reviews. For inormaion, visi group.com/cusomer-suppor/permissions.

CREDITSAuhors: Rick Lawrence and Kur Johnson

Illusraion: Jeff A. SormChie Creaive Officer: Joani Schulz

Edior: Rob Cunningham

Cover Ar: Jeff A. Sorm and Veronica Preson

Projec Manager: Sephanie Krajec

Unless oherwise noed, Scripure quoaions are aken rom he New American

Standard Bible. Copyrigh 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977,

1995 by The Lockman Foundaion. Used by permission. All righs reserved.

Scripure quoaions marked (NIV) are aken rom he Holy Bible, New Inernaional Version ,NIV. Copyrigh 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission o Zondervan. All

righs reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New Inernaional Version

are rademarks regisered in he Unied Saes Paen and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripure quoaions marked THE MESSAGE rom THE MESSAGE.

Copyrigh by Eugene H. Peerson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001,

2002. Used by permission o NavPress Publishing Group.

ISBN: 978-1-4707-2071-1

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 20 19 18 17 16 15 14

Prined in he U.S.A.


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CONTENTS

02 An Acronym Gone Bad

04 Why All he Shoulds?

06 Whas he Big Deal Abou Jesus?

08 The Disappearing Jesus

10 Be he Pig

12 The Real Thing

14 Atachmen Trumps Talen

16 Paying Ridiculous Atenion

18 From Knowing Abou

o Knowing

20 Sheep-i-ness

22 Remembering o Remember

24 Why All This Useless Beauy?

26 Following he Beeline

28 The Truh Isel

30 The Firs Quesion Tha

Really Maters

32 The Second Quesion

Tha Really Maters

34 Sripped Naked

36 The Smell o Jesus

38 No More Funhouse Mirrors

40 The Too-Familiar Jesus

42 The Thicker Lie

44 I You Don Need Him,

You Won Know Him

46 Scaring Yoursel or Good

48 Where Would Jesus Be?

50 Anyhing Can Happen

52 The No-So-Nice Jesus

54 Can You Sand Jesus?

56 Sanding In Mud Puddles

58 Ask he Oprah Quesion

60 Jesus Did/Jesus Didn

62 Did, No Do

64 Oblieraing he Disance

66 Primary Pursui

68 Three Quesions

70 The Jesus Push-Back

72 Lesser Gods

74 Playing Sherlock

76 Bie, Don Balk

78 Pursuing Parables

80 Your True Name

IV Inroducion


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Reframing JesusA Fresh Look Into a Familiar Face

For more han wo millennia, Jesus

has been a he cener o prety much

everyhing. No one has had a big-

ger influence on your daily lie han

Jesus, wheher or no has obvious

o you.

Did you know

Unil Jesus, mos human

beings were slaves, condemned

o perpeual hard labor and

capive o he whims o heir

owners. Jesus upended

ha sysem o slavery

Unil Jesus, women had

no righs whasoever in

sociey. Jesus gave women

digniy and saus

Unil Jesus, many pagan

religions ried o appease

he gods wih humansacrificeofen children were

he mos popular sacrifices.

Jesus elevaed children as

reasures o be nurured

Unil Jesus, each culure and

sociey deermined he passage

o ime differenlymany

creaed calendars based on

when he curren monarch

assumed his office. Because

o Jesus, all o human hisory

is organized around his birh

and deahi eiher happened

beore him or afer him

Unil Jesus, becoming a

learned person was a goal

reserved only or he rich and

elie. Jesus called everybody,

no mater heir social saus,

o love God wih our whole

mind, and insiuions o

higher learning and libraries

sprang up as a resul

Unil Jesus, he mos common

orm o governmen was

oaliarian and despoic.

Jesus sripped rulers o heir

sel-proclaimed deiy, paving

he way or common law

and limied governmen

Unil Jesus, he sick, infirm,

and disabled were considered

disposable. Because Jesus

emphasized he digniy o

he person and elevaed he

pligh o he poor, mercy or

intro

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hose who are huring became

a socieal norm, leading o

he building o hospials and

social service organizaions

Unil Jesus, orgiveness was a

disgusing sign o weakness.Jesus old us o orgive

seveny imes seven, and

made he love o our enemies

he marker or rue love

Yale hisorian Jaroslav Pelikan

says his: Regardless o wha anyone

may personally hink or believe abouhim, Jesus o Nazareh has been he

dominan figure in he hisory o

Wesern Culure or almos weny

cenuries. I i were possible, wih

some sor o super magne, o pull up

ou o he hisory every scrap o meal

bearing a leas a race o his name,

how much would be lef?

Everyhing seems o orbi around

he hings Jesus said and did. So youd

hink ha someone whose influence

is so widespread, whose name is so

well-known, and whose impac is so

lasing would be he mos understood

person in he world.But hes not.

Mos o us hink we have a prety

good handle on who Jesus is and

wha he did. Bu we don. Hes he

mos-known, leas-known person in

hisory. Is like hissomeimes he

people we know he leas are he peo-

ple were around he mos. We ake or

graned ha we know who hey really

are, because heyve always been par

o he wallpaper o our lie. So we

need o be re-inroduced o he people

and hings we hink we already know,

because we don really know hem as

well as we hink we do.And has he poin o his book

o rerame wha you hink you

already know abou Jesus, so you

can grow in your relaionship wih

him. The hree o us are no differen

han you in hiswere very aware o

how much weve missed who Jesus

really is, and were hungry o know

him beter.

Thanks or going on his journey

wih us We believe i will change

your lie he way is changed our

lives

Kurt Johnston, Rick Lawrence,

and Storm

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Ever heard o he Wha Would

Jesus Do? movemen? Someyears ago i was really bighe

cenral quesion people were

asking hemselves was simple:

I Chrisians are supposed o be

ollowing Jesus, why aren hey

making more o an impac in heir

daily lives? The movemens an-swer was o imagine wha every-

day lie migh be like i all o us

simply alked and aced more like

Jesus. Well, ha would change

everyhingespecially i we ook

a Taco Bell burrio, blessed i,

and ed a sadium ull o people

wih i. Bu, by any measure, he

WWJD movemen didn change

everyhing.

Maybe he Chrisian lives we

hink were living are acuallydisconneced rom who Jesus re-

ally is. Is fine o imagine wha

we hink Jesus migh do when a

riend berays us or he es comes

back wih a D on i or we break

our finger in a fluke acciden righ

beore he big game, bu really hewhole hing desperaely depends

on how well we really know he

rue Jesus, doesn i? Heres

somehing proound: We can

miss Jesus enirely by arroganly

assuming ha our imagined re-

sponses o a parially undersood

Jesus mean ha were really ol-

lowing Jesus.

Q:Inonesentence,whatdoes

followingJesusmeantoyou,anyway?

START

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As you work through

this book, come back to

this first exercise from

time to time to see how

your picture of Jesus

is changing, maturing,

morphing, and, best of

all, how its beginning to

change you along the way!

Quick, go find a pencil...

Well wait for you to get back.

Since this little book is all about reframing Jesus,

its a good idea to discover how you currently framehimhow you view him, imagine him, and describe him.

In the frame above, write down a bunch of stuff

about Jesus; anything you want. One-word descriptions,

things you know he said, miracles he performed,

whatever comes to mind. Fill that thing up, as quickly

as you can. You might even want to write your answer

to todays question, What does following Jesus mean

to you?

Re-Frame-able

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Wy All theWed like o apologize or somehing were pretysure has happened o yousomewhere along he

way, someone in a church has probably old you ha

you shouldlove Jesus because, well, youre supposed

toJesus doesn wan a supposed-o relaionshipwih us; he wans o be known and loved or who he

isand he only way has going o happen is or us

o slow down and ge o know his hear.

Have we really soaked in he personaliy o Je-

suspursued him as he mos ascinaing, magne-

ic, lighning-bol person who ever lived? And i hes

really all ha incredible, why are supposed-oseven necessary? People who are caugh up in a ro-

manic relaionship don have o be old o ocus on

he person o heir affecion; is hard o sop hink-

ing abou hem, acually. No mater wha were doing

or who were wih, our houghs sray o he objec o

our passion. And has no because we should be

zoned in on he objec o our affecionwe simply

can help ourselves, because were mesmerized byso much beauy. Jesus wants to capture our hearts,

no orce our obedience.

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Shoulds?If youre reading this

book, were guessing

youd likely say that you

love Jesus. But why?

Hopefully, its not simply

because you feel like

you shouldlike youre

supposed to! So what is

it about Jesus that hasdrawn you to him; what

about him has made you

want to love him? Never

really thought about that?

Thats OK; most people

havent. So heres your

chance! Theres some

space to jot down some

of the things you love

about Jesusthings about

him that have drawn you

toward him, not because

you should, but because

you want to!

Re-Frame-able


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him (John 6:53). That freaks them out, so they abandon him.

And Jesus asks his remaining disciples this vulnerable ques-

tion: You do not want to go away also, do you? (v. 67). Peter

responds with this equally vulnerable declaration: Lord, to

whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have

believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of

God (v. 6869). In effect, hes saying: I dont know what

eat my body and drink my blood really means, and a lot of

what you do and say is a mystery to me, but youve ruined me

for you. The ultimate reason we put other things, instead of

Jesus, at the center of our life is that we can. Were not yet

ruined for him.

Yet many contemporary followers of Jesus have painted a picture that following

him is supposed to be easy, fun, and full of sunshine. Maybe you need to reframe

Jesus? Maybe following him is, in some ways, more like a bunch of other stuff in

your lifenot easy, but so worth it!

Heres an idea! Jot down your top not easy part of being a teenager who is

trying to follow Jesus. Then, under it, write down why, even though its not easy,

its SO WORTH IT!

About Jesus?

why its so worth it


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THE JESUS-CENTERED SUITEfor Every Youth Ministry!

1 2

JESUS-CENTERED

SUITE

$39.99

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INCLUDED IN THE SUITE:1.Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry

2.Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry: Guide for Volunteers

3.Reframing Jesus DVD Curriculum

4. Reframing Jesus Devotional


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To learn more and purchase this essential suite for your ministry, go to

simplyyouthministry.com

SHIFT THE FOCUS OF YOUR MINISTRY

Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry

Moving From Jesus-Plus to Jesus-Only

By Rick Lawrence

DRAW YOUR TEAM CLOSER TO JESUS

Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry: Guide for Volunteers

Moving From Jesus-Plus to Jesus-Only

By Rick Lawrence

REINTRODUCE TEENAGERS TO THE REAL JESUS

Reframing Jesus DVD Curriculum


4-Week Small Group Video Curriculum

By Kurt Johnston(with 6 Bonus Training Videos for Leaders by Rick Lawrence)

HELP STUDENTS LIVE A JESUS-CENTERED LIFE

Reframing Jesus Devotional


By Rick Lawrence and Kurt Johnston;

Illustration by Storm

GUIDE YOUR ENTIRE MINISTRY TO

A JESUS-CENTEREDFOCUS WITH

THESE INNOVATIVE RESOURCES.

SAVE

25%when youpurchasethe suite!

JESUS-

CENTERED

Guide your entire ministrytoward a passionate

Jesus-centered focus withthis series of innovative

resources. Harness the powerof these dynamic tools that

will help you draw teenagersand leaders into a closer orbit

around Jesus.


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ISBN 978-1-4707-2071-1

ThinkyouknowJesus?Think

again.

Foraround2,000years,Jesush

asbeenatthecenter

ofprettymucheverything,andn

oonehashadabigger

influenceonourdailylivesthan

Jesus.Mostofusthink

wehaveaprettygoodideaofwhoJesusi

sandwhat

hedid.

Butwedont.

Sometimesthepeopleweknowt

heleastarethepeople

werearoundthemost.Isntthat

weird?Wereconvinced

thatwereallyknowthem,becaus

etheyvealwaysbeen

partofourlives.Butweneedto

getre-introducedto

them,becausewedontreallyknowthe

maswellaswe

thinkwedo.

Thishighlyinteractive,chunk-siz

edevotionalwillhelp

youreframewhatyouthinkyou

alreadyknowabout

Jesus,soyoucangrowyourfrien

dshipwithhim.

Getreadyforanexciting,life-changing

adventure!

RICK LAWRENCEis the longtime editor of Group Magazinehe lovesleading teenagers into close encounters with Jesus.

KURT JOHNSTONis a youth pastor whos spent his entire life helpingteenagers understand how much Jesus loves them.

STORMis the art director for Group Magazine and author/designer forStripped Clean. He is also the father of two teenagers.

JESUS-

CENTERED

Guide your entire ministry

toward a passionateJesus-centered focus withthis series of innovative

resources. Harness the powerof these dynamic tools that

will help you draw teenagersand leaders into a closer orbit

around Jesus.

Reframing Jesus

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Transcript of Reframing Jesus