Napoleon's Perception of Christ: It was Napoleon who said, "Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. His ideas and His sentiments, the truth which He announces, His manner of convincing are not explained either by human observation or the nature of things. His birth and the history of His life; the profundity of His doctrine, which grapples the mightiest difficulties, and which is of those difficulties the most admirable solution; His Gospel; His apparition; His empire; His march across the ages and the realms-everything is for me a prodigy, a mystery insoluble, which plunges me into a reverie from which I cannot escape-a mystery which is there before my eyes, a mystery which I can neither deny nor explain. Here I see nothing human. The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine. Everything is above me. Everything remains grand-of a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revelation from an Intelligence which certainly is not that of man."
Mat 16:13 And coming into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say Me to be, the Son of Man? 14 And they said, Some say, John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. 15 He said to them, But who do you say I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 Jesus answered and said to him, You are blessed, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father in Heaven.
Who is He in your life?
To many, Jesus Christ is only a grand subject for a painting, a heroic theme for a pen, a beautiful form for a statue, and a thought for a song; but to those who have heard His voice, who have felt His pardon, who have received His benediction, He is music, warmth, light, joy, hope and salvation,
a Friend who never forsakes, who lifts us when others try to push us down. We cannot wear Him out; we pile on Him all our griefs and troubles.
He is always ready to lift us; He addresses us with the same love; He beams upon us with the same smile; He pities us with the same compassion.
There is no name like His. It is more inspiring than Caesar's, more musical than Beethoven's, more patient than any man's. The name of Jesus throbs with all life, weeps with all pathos, groans with all pains, stoops with all love. Its breath is laden with perfume.
Who like Jesus can pity a homeless orphan? Who like Jesus can welcome a prodigal back home? Who like Jesus can make a drunkard sober? Who like Jesus can illuminate a cemetery plowed with graves? Who like Jesus can make a queen unto God out of a lost woman of the street? Who like Jesus can catch the tears of human sorrow in His bowl?
There is no metaphor with which to truly express Jesus. He is not like the bursting forth of an orchestra; that is too loud and it may be out of tune. He is not like the sea when lashed into a rage by a storm; that is too boisterous. He is not like a mountain wreathed in lightning, canopied with snow; that is too solitary and remote.
He is the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, a gale of spices from heaven.
He desires to be all of this to you. Please let Him be that.
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