The Sky Is Falling

Fellow Labourers-

The events since Sunday (May 23, 2010) will have a lasting impact for many lives. For some it could be a turning point for greater service in the Kingdom. For some it could be a life worse than before. For yet others it could be business as usual. The 'sky is falling' could be a perspective or it could be reality. Reality or perspective is not the issue, but what impact it could have. For years a lot of preparation went into preparation for Y2K. I don't know the numbers, but a lot of Churches had increased membership. A lot of businesses went into extravagant expenditures. But again was the sky falling?

Sir John Haughton CBE, FRS, professor of Atmospheric Physics at Oxford University and author of the book "Global Warming" had this to say. "About every three to five years a large area of warmer water appears and persists for a year or more. Because they usually occur around Christmas these are known as El Nino ('the boy child') events. They have been well known for centuries to the countries along the coast of South America because of the devastating effect on the fishing industry; the warm water top waters of the ocean prevent the nutrients from lower, colder levels required by the fish from reaching the surface."

Global warming-fact or fiction- or a little of both? I don't know how many of us are aware that the term "Climate Change" is now more politically correct than the term "Global warming". Why? That's your homework. So is the sky falling?

One thing that I have observed is that mankind is getting progressively worse even in light of "Karma". This was said long ago by the Bible that in the last days perilous times shall come. Today perilous times are upon us. How are we going to respond?

"The Christian alternative to a culture of fear is a kingdom of hospitality and abundance, vulnerability and generosity, love and self-sacrifice—the very kingdom Christ shaped with his living and dying, and invites us to do the same." - Jill Carattini

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Focus on Jesus

Fellow Labourers-

Psalm 82 was my devotional scripture for this morning (May 27, 2010). I commend it to all of us, because I have found it so apt at this time. In the meantime let us pray for each other and our nation. In the introduction to his book "Deliver us from evil" Ravi Zacharias asks this potent question, "How, for example, does America (Jamaica, The Church) today make decisions on the deepest questions of life if there is no single vision or consensus of spirit?"

Psalm 82 (King James Version)

1. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
2. How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
5. They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6. I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
7. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
8. Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

A Beautiful Foolishness

Fellow Labourers-

I know most of us are familiar with these words "If loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right." Why would anyone even thing of this contradiction. One of the signs raised in the recent demonstration reads "Jesus died for us, and I will die for Dudus." What a commitment to a mere man. Have we ever considered why people can in the face of death make these commitments? Oh how we wish we could find this level of commitment in the Church of God. Today it seems we are not even willing to die for the faith we claim to believe. The beautiful foolishness which once make us distinctive, hated, and admired seem no longer anything to stand for much less to die for. Like water we have become a people who seek and are seeking for the least path of resistance.

Today we are faced with a challenge and an opportunity. Are we making the plans to grab this opportunity with both hands? This is an opportunity to offer an alternative. Are we equipped, and are we ready to be transitioned out of our complacency? Remember Carpe diem (Seize the day or make the most of the opportunity.) We cannot throw up our hands in despair, we must step in and fill the void, since nature abhors a vacuum.

Terrence (ca.195-159BC)
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE.
Antipho: Wretched me! How can I find a remedy for the sudden ruin?
For if it is my fortune, Phanium, to be divided from you, Life is no longer desirable to me.
Geta: Now that it is so, Antipho, So much the more ought you be watchful: fortune favours the brave.

Yes, the preaching of the cross is still to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it is the power of God. Here are some different translations of the same text.

New International Version
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

New Living Translation
The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.

English Standard Version
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

New American Standard Bible
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

What Are You Looking At?

Fellow labourers-

The events of the past weeks in our country summons us to behold the Lamb. The Revival for which we pray is in the making. Revivals came about when there is a hunger and thirst for God. If as a Church we are not driven to our knees and our faces, then we would have missed the clarion call "Behold the Lamb."

For a long while we have lost our focus, and suppose gimmicks and 'everything goes' would lead to more souls. If that was our thought, then history has taught us nothing. Unless we are focused on Jesus and people get a real dose of the Spirit's anointing we will forever sing "They come and go." People must begin to Focus on Jesus the risen Lord. The Church must make him known. We want a Church that is not cyclical like the ecomomy, where we have boom and bust. We may experience drought, but there is always the sign of an abundance of rain. So the question is asked "What are you looking at?" Oh I want to see him just to look upon his face.

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Faithful Disillusion

Fellow Labourers-

Slowly read this quote extracted from the article below. "Disillusionment, while painful, is evidence which shows the myths that enchant us need not blind us forever, a sign that what is falsely believed can be shattered by what is genuine."

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Faithful Disillusion

"[W]e are perpetually disillusioned. The perfect life is spread before us every day, but it changes and withers at a touch."(1)

The author of this comment did not have the dashed hopes of a person weary of contemporary political promises; nor the disappointment of a child after his once-adored Wii lost its thrill; nor the dispirited outlook of a modern youth disenchanted with rampant consumerism and the daunting purposelessness of life. No, long before video games existed, long before Generation Y was disillusioned with Generation X or X with the Baby Boomers before them, disillusionment reigned nonetheless. Indeed, it was a social commentator in the late 1920's who made this comment about his own disillusioned culture, words which in fact came more than a decade after a group of literary notables identified themselves as the "Lost Generation," so-named because of their own general feeling of disillusionment. In other words, disillusionment is epidemic.

As humans who tell and hear and live by stories, the possibility of taking in a story that is bigger than reality is quite likely. (Advertisers, in fact, count on it.) Subsequently, disillusionment is a quality that follows humanity and its stories around. Yet despite its common occurrence, disillusionment is a crushing blow, and the collateral damage of shattered expectations quite painful. With good reason, we speak of it in terms of the discomfort and disruption that it fosters; we frame the crushing of certain hope and images in terms of loss and difficulty. The disillusioned do not speak of their losses lightly, no more than victims of burglary move quickly past the feeling of loss and violation.

And yet, practically speaking, disillusionment is the loss of illusion. If we are to think of it in terms of theft, it is the equivalent of having one's high cholesterol or a perpetually bad habit stolen. Disillusionment, while painful, is evidence which shows the myths that enchant us need not blind us forever, a sign that what is falsely believed can be shattered by what is genuine. In such terms, disillusion is far less an unwanted intrusion than it is a severe mercy, far more like a surgeon's excising of a tumor than a cruel removal of hope.

The crucifixion of the Son of God is something like this. The death of God? There are no categories with which to understand it. For those who first held hope in the person of Jesus, it was the same. The death of the one thought to be the Messiah? It was an event that leveled them with disillusionment. New Testament scholar N.T. Wright describes the force of this dissonance: "There were, to be sure, ways of coping with the death of a teacher, or even a leader. The picture of Socrates was available, in the wider world, as a model of unjust death nobly borne. The category of 'martyr' was available, within Judaism, for someone who stood up to pagans... The category of failed but still revered Messiah, however, did not exist. A Messiah who died at the hands of the pagans, instead of winning [God’s] battle against them, was a deceiver."(2)

For those who loved Jesus most, it took time to see that it was not hope but their hopeful illusions that died with him on the cross. Everything they thought God was, every hope for a messiah wielding power and control, every image of God winning the battle, everything they thought they knew about religion, painfully, but mercifully died on a shameful, Roman cross. We, too, bury our illusions with the body of God. And it is no simple journey. The powerful words of poet W. H. Auden describe what is often the case in a world filled with illusion:

We would rather be ruined than changed;
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.(3)

Yet if we will allow it, this death can be far more than loss. While advertisers count on our moving from one dead illusion to another, the death of Christ tells a different kind of story, a demythologizing story, which cuts through the storied layers of illusion we continually create about ourselves, the world, and others. Within such a story, disillusionment is the precursor to nothing short of resurrection. And faith is the audacity to confront our illusions with a cross. In the words of author Parker Palmer, "[F]aith is the courage to face into our illusions and allow ourselves to be disillusioned about them, the courage to walk through our illusions and dispel them. Faith...[is] a disillusioned view of reality...that lets the beauty behind the illusions shine through."(4) Burying our illusions with the body of God, we mourn our losses and lament over the graves of dead dreams and expectations, hopes and visions. We stand in painful, faithful disillusionment. But so we stand aware that we may be equally startled by what emerges from the tomb.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
(1) John Boynton Priestley, "The Disillusioned," in The Balconinny and Other Essays (London: Methuen, 1929), 30.
(2) N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 658.
(3) W.H. Auden, Collected Poems (New York: Random House, 2007), 530.
(4) Parker Palmer, "Faith or Frenzy: Living Contemplation in a World of Action," The Clampit Lectures, 1972

Wounds Still Visible

Fellow Labourers-

How deep and how visible are our wounds? Are our wounds emotional and hidden to the eyes? Are our attitudes manifestations of our wounds? Whether we see the wounds or its manifestation, they are still visible. The problem with the manifestation is that it has the ability to hide the real you. In other words, you are wearing a mask. Remember masks are not permanent and the longer we wear them the longer it takes for us to see the wounds we are hiding. Jesus was not afraid to show his wounds because they were proof of his resurrection. Could you be hiding a wound that if exposed would release you from years of mental torture?

Sometimes our sordid past is only visible to us for a purpose. Yes we may be carrying wounds still visible only to us as a reminder of our frailty. Let us not treat all wounds as equal, but let us find the purpose. "From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the mark of the Lord Jesus."

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Dead People Walking

Fellow Labourers-

This article should cause all of us to look deep into our souls and see if there are grounds for healing, forgiveness and reconciliation. This week for me was interesting in many ways. On Monday I got a call from a friend in Trinidad asking me to pick up a couple and take them to Montego Bay. I changed my schedule and obliged. When I met the couple at the airport and we introduced ourselves they told me that they were briefed on my activities in the Church. As we started the trip the wife said to me "As a Pastor what are your views on marriage and divorce?"

Now this question in my mind came from nowhere, since nothing we were talking about had anything to do with marriage or divorce. After I gave my initial response she said to me "we are on the same page". Then I told her about a book I read recently on the subject from a Jamaican Pastor living in Trinidad. After we spoke about the book for a while she smiled and said to me that that Pastor was her Pastor, but most of the congregation did not know he was a divorcee before he wrote the book. He is no longer at the Church.

She then told me that Woodrow Kroll of Back to the Bible fame was in Trinidad the week before and the same question was posed to him. In his response he said one word always operates in his mind, and that is the servant of the Lord must be "BLAMELESS".

The subject above is very relevant at this time. We must present our bodies a living sacrifice. If we bear in mind that a sacrifice is a dead thing, then we must present our bodies a living dead thing. We must be "Dead people walking." Help me Lord!!

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Leaders Love Growth

Fellow Labourers-My heart burns within me for more than the ordinary. I sleep, dream and eat revival. It is here!!

Read the article below:

Robert A. Stewart J.P. Pastor

Leaders Love Growth

By James Smith

Only those leaders who act boldly in times of crisis and change are willingly followed. (Jim Kouzes)

Within the church, God has placed men and women who love to see growth. It is what keeps us to our tasks. The lack of increase can kill the joy of our calling so we lean forward looking for any type of progress we can possibly measure.

Growth however, requires change. Going from where we are presently to a place of increase requires seeing what most people are not able or willing to see. Seeing change before it happens is called a vision. Few people are capable of a vision as most would rather stay in a climate that is comfortable. Comfort however can cause one to never imagine anything better. A Pastor or congregation who is comfortable with an attendance of 90 will never see a crowd of 300 because they are not desperate enough to make the kinds of changes it would take to gather that kind of increase.

Change means leaving a place that is familiar and going to a place that is unfamiliar. Few churches are willing to follow even the most seasoned pastor into a place of unfamiliarity. Here is why so many of our churches stagnate numerically. This is why the average church in America only runs about 85 people. Even in cities with populations in the hundreds of thousands, churches often find it hard to get over the 100 person hump.

Change requires casting a vision. Within the church it requires faith in the leader who is casting a vision of a place of revival we have not yet seen. As Moses of old preached of a Promised Land that was ahead, the current day Preacher must be willing to stand in a desert of nothingness and promise something far better than the status quo. As Joshua shouted, “Let’s cross over this river!” present day church leaders must be willing to look at obstacles as opportunities for miracles instead of places of failure.

No walled city ever came down without some great leader first standing far out front of the crowd and saying it could be done. No bridge was ever built nor building raised where some imaginative mind did not first dream it. No church ever grew exponentially without first, the Man or Woman of God casting the vision for it’s growth.

Where are the End Time revivalists who would tell our generation “Jesus is Coming”. Who are the men and women who will affect the kind of change necessary for a great Latter Day outpouring? Where is the Pastor who will stand in a dormant church and declare “Revival, Growth and Increase”?

Visionaries too often lose their hunger for growth and change when the congregations constant fear, doubt and resistance diminish the leaders own zeal. Are we so afraid of people that we would tell God “no”? Would we abstain from the zeal within our own hearts to sooth trepidation of the naysayer’s? Would our own passion be disquieted by those who would doubt God’s promises?

Even He who could have stayed on His throne in Heaven, stepped off of his place of being worshipped to communicate to this planet a promise of something better. His willingness to leave His place of magnificence so that we could come up a little bit higher should convey to us His desire for His church to move forward.

Courage establishes leadership. A leader without the courage to create needed change is no more than a manager. The parable of the men with the talents tells us what becomes the person who would simply manage our Lords resources. Investing people takes courage. Investing in the lives of those who take pleasure in comfort takes courage to push them to places of the extreme. Should Moses have stopped at the obstacle that was the Red Sea, all would have been lost. However, he was willing to take people from a place of relative safety to a place of extreme promise. Do or die, all would be lost or all would be saved by his visionary genius and willingness to believe God for the impossible.

Being the first to believe something can be done takes courage. Courage however establishes leadership. Without a leader who acts with courage, a congregation will lack the courage needed to follow into God’s promises. David was willing to do battle with a giant whom other more seasoned men feared and as a result he won the hearts of the nation. No Pastor would ever need fear another taking his church if he is a Pastor who leads with courage. Courage is attractive. Few have it and as a result, people want to be near it.

Simply knowing what needs to be done to create change is not enough. We must act upon our insight. Many people know what needs to be done. Few do it. As a result we fail to move into the Promised Land of Revival.

Having saved the best for last, our Lord is desirous to enable His church to have great endtime revival. Are we willing to move into it? Are we willing to move out of the ordinary? Are we eager to leave the comfort zones we have created for ourselves? The God of the miraculous is beckoning us into the realm of the impossible. He calls us into the impractical that the naysayers could be astounded. Those whom would say it cannot be done do not know the God of the impossible. They have not seen Him turn water into wine. They have not seen him open the blinded eyes. They have not witnessed for themselves His ability to turn a small boys lunch into a feast that would feed a multitude. So their faith is small. Their trust unearned. Their vision blurred by their own knowledge of what is and what is not, possible.

“But let us believe God”. Let us believe Him for what he wants to do in our churches. Let us believe him for what He is trying to do in our cities. Let us face those with doubt and say, “It can be done!”
Copyright 2006

The Anatomy of a Journey

Fellow Labourers-

We are all on a journey, and somewhere along the journey we will meet someone in need. The need could be for a number of things, but the need for God beckons. It beckons in many ways and at different frequencies. As pilgrims we have a responsibility to respond to these needs to get others on the same journey on which we have embarked. We have grown accustomed to meeting the needs from a distance, and thus our impact is not as impactful as we might have wish. We are not sitting in the chariot and gently sharing God by sharing ourselves. Sometimes it is not that we are too busy, but we are afraid to trust enough to draw near.

But, "there is call come ringing o'er the restless waves: send the light, the blessed gospel light. Let it shine, from shore to shore." Os Guinness in his book The Call quite poignantly observed "Is the Church of Christ ready to meet the challenge? Are followers of Jesus sufficiently gripped by the gospel to 'behave as he would wish us behave'? Do we know in reality the great living truths of the faith that have a proven capacity to affect history and transform cultures as well as radically alter individual lives? Calling, as we shall see in a score of ways, is indispensible to the integrity and effectiveness of the Church at this momentous hour."

"I am often asked how one can be radical in analyzing what is wrong, yet hopeful about the prospects for the Church. Part of the answer is that the very crises themselves are opportunities-some people in both the Church and wider society must surely blush to think of the things in which they trusted so recently. But the deeper answer is the character of the gospel itself. The gospel is a constellation of truths that simply cannot and will not be worsted. Put differently, in the decades I have followed Jesus, second only to the joy of knowing him has been a sorrow at the condition of those of us today who name ourselves his followers. If so many of us profess to live by the gospel yet are so pathetically marginal to the life of our societies and so nondescript and inconsequential in our individual lives, is there something wrong with the gospel, or does the problem lie with us?"

On this journey let us listen to Jesus of Nazareth.

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

The Last Enemy

Fellow Labourers-

Does the thought of the last enemy perturb your sleep? If so then try singing- "Death has no terror o'er the blood washed one, O glory Hallelujah to the Lamb." If you sing it then absorb the truth of it and rest in the Lord.

For the fatalists among us listen to the writer "Affronted by such an in-your-face, unapologetic reality of human mortality, one finds oneself face to face with a dilemma: why should you devote all of your energy to making a meaningful difference in the world if it is true that everything done under the sun will eventually amount to zero? Once one has come to the conclusion that the emperor has no clothing, what sense does it make to keep up with the pretense? Sadly, some see through the emptiness and choose to end their own lives. From a naturalistic perspective, that seems to be a perfectly consistent step to take.

Yet the Bible grasps this nettle with astounding authority. Not only has God placed a yearning for our true home in our hearts, God has also promised to clothe the perishable with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality through Christ's own death (1 Corinthians 15:54)."

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Sibling Rivalry in the House of Faith

Fellow Labourers-

What a timely subject. I lift this quote from the article for our consideration.

"In spite of the fact that Jesus prayed fervently for unity among his followers, the visible church is often a conglomeration of competing factions, each equally convinced of its solitary possession of divine favour. Those who seek signs and wonders through the Holy Spirit are usually suspicious of those who emphasize exegetical approaches to the Scriptures. Christian scholars are sometimes content just to talk to each other, and the uncanny tendency of apologists to sniff out what they deem rotten doctrine is not always appreciated."

I wonder if we were walking in the Spirit instead of our spirit, if we would overcome the sibling rivalry. This is a universal problem and must have a universal cause. What do you think that might be? Sin of course. Yes, sin does not want us to get back to our original state. We are so afraid of each other after we are "saved", that I wonder what are we saved from. Paul in writing to Timothy in the second Epistle chapter 1 took him through a journey. He reminded him of his grand mother Lois, his mother Eunice, the laying on of his hands and the infilling of the Holy Ghost. He went from the distance, to the near, to the proximate and to the reality. That reality is, "God has not given us the Spirit of fear, but of love, of power and of a sound mind." Armed with this truth we should be able to live as one. Is it possible?

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

In the Name of Peace and Quietness

Fellow Labourers-

Can you handle this- "Into every generation and every life, Jesus comes to upend and disrupt the status quo. He is not dull. And he calls those who would follow him to forsake self-righteousness and the pride of piety. Like those before us, would we instead do away with God in the name of peace and quietness? The journey to Golgotha is lined with the righteous as well as with sinners."

How about this- "His was a righteousness of compassion and not sacrifice, of reconciliation with offended brothers and sisters, of faithfulness and not lust, of commitment to spouses and not divorce, of keeping one's word and repaying evil with good.(2) His was a righteousness that pierced straight to the heart transforming mind, body, and action. His was a righteousness that did not maintain peace and quietness."

Pax Vobiscum,

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Obstacles, Enemies and Neighbours

Fellow Labourers-

As you read this article I would suggest you read, underline, question, digest and regurgitate its contents. Why? I have been observing that even when we are among ourselves we come with swords drawn. We argue from mindsets, and preconceived notions that sometimes have no bearing on the matter at hand. Hence, we do not develop logical and cogent arguments, but end up with a set of conclusions without agreeing on anything.

Note the author of the article intimated that the Apostle Paul begins his argument at the beginning. He had certain facts but he did not assume that his facts coincided with those of his hearers. He did not repeat the oft quoted remarks made about his hearers. He did not appeal to their baser sensibilities, but sought to take them to a place where they were more comfortable in their minds. This was appeasement without disagreement. This was moving from the known to the unknown in a fashion that kept his audience in an attentive mode. No sword or daggers were drawn.

"When the apostle Paul spoke to the Athenians at the Aeropagus, he did not come with a barrage of clever answers, trite comebacks, and confident Scriptures. In fact, he didn't quote Scripture at all. In his own words, he told them the story that changed his life. He also told it not in the language and imagery with which he would have most fluent and comfortable, but in a language the Athenians themselves would recognize. While those of the Aeropagus kept themselves current with every new and coming school of thought and religious conjecture, they were likely unfamiliar with the Jewish Scriptures, the story of Israel, and the God who chose them.

Thus, Paul began at the beginning, but he did so in a way that invited them to see he was telling their story, too. "Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands" (Acts 17:23-24). His arguments, reasoning, teaching, and commending were all offered in humility, respect, and love."

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Who Is This?

Fellow Labourers-

That is the question- Who is this? Well did Isaiah ask "Who is this that cometh from Edom? Can you answer the question unquestioningly? Who is this? If you should see Jesus now would you recognize him? Jesus said no man has seen the Father at any time-but Jesus reveals him. Do you have an image of the Christ? I have one, but it is like a moving target. My circumstance alters my image, but never my hope. My faith may be shaken, but yet I hope. Why? Because he whom my soul loveth still causes me to ask Who is this? Life is filled with paradoxes especially for the child of God. So we will continue to ask who is this?

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

The Rule of Compartmentalization

Fellow Labourers-

This article poses some challenging questions, especially for those of us mired in inertia. There is a question on my mind that I am asking myself over and over. What do we mean when we say we are waiting on the leading of the Lord? The bible says if any man be in Christ he is a new creature. It also says if we walk in the Spirit we would not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So I ask myself, if I am walking in the Spirit I must be led by God. And if this is true why am I waiting to be led by God?

I recently discovered that some people use this "waiting for the leading" as a cover up for their laziness and ineffectiveness in the Kingdom. You see God moves by principle and not by sentiments. I am certain that when we get up to go to work none of us say we are waiting on the leading of the Lord. We arrive at work and start working without "waiting on the leading" of the Lord. But we come to Church and we are ask to do a task and immediately we are waiting on the leading of the Lord. Isn't there a big disconnect somewhere here? Could it be Compartmentalization?

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Editor's comment: Compartmentalization is defined as division or separation into compartments; to partition in to discrete sections. In the context of Christianity it is the attempt to separate the 'spiritual' from the 'secular', particularly in aspects of one's daily living and even conduct. The article notes that this is "unlivable" and was not characteristic of Jesus.