Manga Messiah

Finally have the chance to blog out of the comfort of my own home. What's the use of having a laptop if I use it at home, right? Might as well just use a desktop.

I tried blogging an entry on another occasion, outside somewhere and spent an hour on it (was Facebook-ing and Gmail-ing in between) and due to some error, the multiply page closed without publishing my entry. I was so exasperated that multiply has no auto-save function.

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Anyway, I got myself the Manga Messiah book which I think is pretty cool. I picked it over a book by C.S. Lewis (I forgot the title but it's not any of the Narnia Books. It was one of his theology books and it was about miracles). When I picked up the manga I was a little skeptical because I thought what good can come out from a manga? However, I turned to the first few pages and I just felt goosebumps reading some of them. The words taken from the Living Word and portrayed in graphic form felt so full of life. I just knew that I had to get the book.

Ultimately, it was a good decision because through it I have come to know the life of Jesus much better. Most of the stories I know of him are those told during Sunday School and in some television shows or movies and I was slightly aghast at myself that I actually know so little of Jesus' life.

It's surprising that there are things I thought I knew but they turned out to be assumptions. As an example, take this simple one question test with me.

Time yourself and be honest about this and you might possibly have a shock yourself.

Within 4 seconds, name 4 of the disciples that were chosen as apostles. Ready GO!

....

If you answered Matthew, Mark, Luke and John you would have been WRONG!

Out of these four, only Matthew and John are apostles. If you knew that already then I applaud you but all these years I thought that Mark and Luke were part of the twelve apostles.

It's things like this that now spur me to really read the story of Jesus for myself from the Word. I'm glad that the manga indicates from which passage the scenes are taken from.

It brought me to an interesting nugget in Luke 1 about grace.

In Luke 1:68-80 Zacharias, John the Baptist's father, prophesies over John's life and I am just reminded that John means "the Lord is gracious" so when he talks about his son, I took it as he is talking about the grace of God and so in that perspective, it reveals something wonderful about grace. I'll make the necessary changes for you to follow along and indicate them with [ ].

From verse 76 onwards he says, "For [grace] will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins..."

Telling people about the grace of God is a way that they can know about the salvation which is found in Christ. I grew up hearing of the "scare" tactic of bringing people to Jesus by telling them of the consequences of not believing but God's way is better. It is by telling people of how gracious God is that will cause them to believe.

In all my years in New Creation I've never heard anyone be threatened by the prospect of Hell but I realize that people still chose to follow Jesus and it is because they can see how good God really is. When they hear of Jesus and his goodness, his person, his sacrifice, it cannot but bring them to salvation.

Just as John the Baptist was called the greatest prophet for pointing people to Jesus, telling people of God's grace will also lead people to Jesus. When people see the super abounding favour and goodness that we receive by grace we can point them to the source of it all; Jesus.