Once again he displays wisdom in the public forum. He fails to embarass the Christian community, instead, without compromising his own values and beliefs, he reaches across the religious and racial divide, while still declaring, that Jesus is my Lord.
Three key points.
1. There are echoes of the most important aspect of his life work, the “purpose driven life” in his opening statement,
“Almighty God, our father, everything we see and everything we can’t see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory. History is your story.”
2. He then, without compromising his own beliefs, reaches out to those of different faiths in his use of scripture. He quotes from the Christian bible, yet he uses scripture which Jewish people revere, often using this piece of scripture at special events, the second part of it can be found in the Koran, and is a common Muslim expression….(wise and CS Lewis like in my view)
“The scripture tells us , Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one. And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.”
3. Finally, he does use the name of Jesus, which some might say is exclusive, and it is, and the Christian faith is exclusive when it comes to Jesus, He is the only way. But Warren does it in the sense of saying Jesus is my Saviour, this is what He has done for me. No one can deny that, it is his experience of Jesus. Also, he uses the English, Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew names for Jesus.
He says,
“I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus (hay-SOOS), who taught us to pray,”
Discern for yourselves…..
