The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg
Week 4: Chapter 3 — The Genius of Jesus
Read Chapter 3 of The Life You've Always Wanted. Key passages: Matthew 5-7 (Sermon on the Mount); John 1:14.
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Before asking us to practice any disciplines, Ortberg asks us to look very carefully at the person we are trying to become like — and to be astonished by him.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Ortberg argues that Jesus was not only morally perfect but also extraordinarily brilliant, joyful, and fully alive. How does this portrait of Jesus differ from the images of Jesus you grew up with or most commonly encounter?
2.He emphasizes that Jesus was 'the most joyful person who ever lived' — that his life was marked by a deep and contagious gladness. Does this match your intuitive sense of who Jesus was? Where in the Gospels do you see this joy most clearly?
3.Ortberg points out that Jesus was a carpenter — he spent the vast majority of his life in ordinary labor, not in formal religious activity. What does the 'hiddenness' of Jesus' first thirty years suggest about how God views ordinary, everyday life?
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