Extract from Straightforward Christianity
Straightforward Christianity by Nigel Scotland writes the plain truth for the plain man! How can following Jesus affect your life? Taken from the authors experiences, who has written 23 other books.
CHAPTER 1
A Founder with Universal AppealOf all the founders of the world’s religions Jesus has a universal appeal. This fact is powerfully captured in Salvador Dali’s famous painting Christ of St John of the Cross. It depicts Jesus with his arms outstretched and looking down over the entire world. The picture demonstrates Jesus’ deep compassion and concern for the entire human race. This is the truth so profoundly expressed in John’s gospel that ‘God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life’. Today the followers of Jesus are numbered in billions and they are found on every continent in the world.
In 1971 two clergymen were standing together on a New York City Street corner and looking up at the billboards outside one of the theatres. One said to the other, ‘Do you know that show grossed two million dollars’? The other said: ‘Where did we miss out’? The show was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar! Two million dollars was a huge sum at the time. The show’s popularity was testimony to the universal appeal that Jesus still holds for so many in more recent times. This was followed in 1973 by Stephen Schwartz’s Broadway musical Godspell with a parade of much loved songs including ‘Prepare ye the Way of the Lord’. It’s not just the musicals which have proved to be so popular, epic films such as Franco Ziffirelli’s 1977 Life of Jesus were feted in many of the world’s countries. Mel Gibson’s 2004 The Passion of the Christ shattered the box office records. – Extract from Straightforward Christianity
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