The 12 beliefs of jesus

Does Jesus believe like you, or do you believe like Jesus?

I'd venture to guess most of us grew up assuming that the beliefs espoused by our church matched those of Jesus. At some point, though, don't you think we need to question how much our culture and worldview has influenced what we believe? As someone raised in a white evangelical American church, it took me a while to recognize that the Jesus of the Middle East may have thought differently about some things.

This was the gist of my reading yesterday in Carl Madearis's great little book '42 Seconds: The Jesus Model for Everyday Interactions.' "Do I believe what Jesus believed?"

Carl shares what his friend and mentor, Bart Tarman, lists as 'twelve beliefs of Jesus' (and he notes there are more than this shown in scripture, but Bart listed these twelve in a sermon or something):

The Twelve Beliefs of Jesus:

1. Jesus believed that God is like a daddy.
2. Jesus believed that faith is the key to opening every door -- not correct thinking but childlike trust.
3. Jesus believed in love.
4. Jesus believed in humility.
5. Jesus believed that dying is the key to living.
6. Jesus believed that everyone is welcome.
7. Jesus believed that the best life is lived in community.
8. Jesus believed in being generous.
9. Jesus believed that change comes from the inside out.
10. Jesus believed in an upside-down Kingdom. An opposite world. If you're rich, you're poor. Be friends to enemies. Live to die. Be a child to be mature. Become empty to be full. Forgive to be forgiven.
11. Jesus believed in empathy -- treating others the way we want to be treated.
12. Jesus believed in forgiveness, received and given.

While not an exhaustive list, I think it's pretty good. I also wish the link he shared to the sermons was still active, but I couldn't find it (I'm assuming that's where the Scripture references were). Anyway... I would guess there are a number of "Christians" who maybe don't believe all those things, or haven't believed them all their life (like me!). For instance, I haven't always thought of God as "daddy." I used to think he was a stern taskmaster. I haven't always believed in the power of generosity. I used to think I had what I had because I'd earned it, and it was MINE (all mine!). Things like that.

Then, at the end of the chapter, Carl drops this little line in there:

"Thankfully, I'm being reoriented to believe what Jesus believes. We call that healing."

Wowza! Healing. Yes! Isn't that exactly what becoming more "Christ-like" is? I'd always thought of it as maturing - becoming more like the One perfect being. But healing... yes. I like that.

So, here's to immersing ourselves in the beliefs of Jesus with the intention of believing those same things, and expecting our actions to eventually follow (someday). Expecting to become more like Jesus - in love, generosity, welcome, empathy, and so much more.

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^"So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking...That is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:17-24)