humanity and deity.

The whole team has been taking a theology course over the last week and into this week and looking at "Christ, Man and Salvation." It's been heavy material to take in Spanish at 8am but I've been learning a lot and have being challenged to think on concepts I normally think I grasp. And reading through some material this morning I was encouraged by something and just wanted to pass it along....

"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village. He worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant pastor. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with the world except the power of His divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He was nailed on a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on the earth while He was dying- His coat. When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. And on the third day He rose from the dead. Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of man as powerfully as has that One solitary life The explanation? He is the Son of God, the risen Saviour."

-Phillips Brooks, 19th cent. preacher