Mark Strauss Book Report

Mark Strauss has written an intelligible book to help readers gain a better understanding one may have after reading the Bible. The Bible can be very confusing most of the time, and the questions asked in Strauss’s book are the ones will be a helpful addition to anyone, regardless of religious views. Mark Strauss discusses interesting and controversial questions about Jesus that arise when reading the New Testament. He uses comparisons to show whether or not one idea is completely wrong, completely right, or maybe both. I found him to be fair in summarizing them and presenting their better arguments.
First of all, in chapter one Strauss discusses about how two billion people around the world proclaim Him as our Savior. Muslims believe that …show more content…
In the story, Strauss highlights how the oldest son refers to his brother as “your son” and not “my brother”. The same instance happens when the lawyer could not bring himself to say “The Samaritan” in the story of the Good Samaritan. Instead, he described him as “The one who showed mercy.” Strauss was not particularly critical in his treatment of the Gospels. He referred to the Parable of the Prodigal Son to argue that the historical Jesus was to teach about God and his main priority was tell the world about God’s Grace. One part that was confusing was where the young, rich man tells Jesus he is a good man. Jesus tries to explain that no human being is fully good. With that argument, one could argue that Jesus is also not fully good, which is the opposite with what most Christians believe. I think a better answer would be that Jesus deflected a compliment like He always does because to accept a compliment puts one in a relationship where they are obligated to be in debt to the person. Jesus instead deflects the compliment to God and in fact tests the young man saying “You say I am good. You know what? God is the one who is good. What kind of level are you putting me on? Are you ready for that kind of commitment?”
For some areas of improvement, I wish more had been said about the honor-shame motif found in the ancient near eastern world and much of the world still today. For instance, in Chapter 3 the Pharisees believed …show more content…
The word translated “looking” has the idea of zeroing our gaze on something with confidence. The NIV captures it: “fixing our eyes.” Jesus is our encouragement in this race, both as our example and as our help. As an example, Jesus is the forerunner who has gone before us. He has lived faithfully in this world, trusting the Father and yielding to his will. He has left us an example that we might follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21). As our help, Jesus is the one from whom we draw power. He is the one who has given us life (John 5:21) and has sent the Helper to be with us forever (John 14:16). Many people who do not believe in God get angry, embarrassed, and even scared when they are shown why they should believe in God and look to him for guidance. When we look to Jesus it means we are not going to avoid Him. Looking to Him means we turn our backs on all bad distractions. Forget the approval of those around you. Of all the good things we could look to and draw energy from, Jesus demands our attention. Looking to anything else will eventually be exposed as the hollow pursuit it is. We live our life only by the power of His love and spirit. So we look to him. We lean on

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