Demonstration of love- the Greatest influence!

I wish to continue to elaborate on the subject of influence from my previous blog. We are influenced everyday by individuals and factors. As we are all aware it is not only the rich & the powerful, the big guy who is on the top of the ladder or celebrities that influence, but also the poor and the vulnerable. We also choose to be influenced by a God and we seek by following religion. 

Steven Covey writes on influence as to ‘live the law of love’, which is a powerful influence over so many other factors. He states, ‘People are extremely tender inside, particularly those who act as if they are tough and self-sufficient. And if we’ll listen to them with the third ear, the heart, they’ll tell us so. We can gain even greater influence with them by showing love, particularly unconditional love, as this gives people a sense of intrinsic worth and security unrelated to conforming behavior or comparisons with others.”

Sincere love can only be bestowed upon by a God of love. There cannot be any greater influence than love. The Bible states, “God is love”. Jesus qualifies it by saying this, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”. He proved his power of love and forgiveness by submitting himself to the cruel death. Dr Michael Brown reminds us about the cruel punishment exercised by the Romans for the criminals. In it he states, ‘There were tens of thousands of Jews crucified by the Romans in the first century AD, but the world only knows the name of one of them today. That’s because only one was the Son of God and only one rose from the dead.’.  Jesus has, by far, the highest name recognition throughout the world. Fully one third of our world’s population – about 2.5 billion people follow Christ, because they are strongly influenced by the demonstration of His love. Let me portray from History how the crucifixion is vouched by some of the greatest historians. The influence was so much that they took a stand to record it in History.

Peruse through history, which confirms the crucifixion event. For example, the first-century Roman Cornelius Tacitus, who is considered one of the more accurate historians of the ancient world, mentions Christ who suffered under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. Flavius Josephus is the most famous Jewish historian. In his book the "Antiquities of the Jews", he refers “that Christ appeared to people alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.”

Julius Africanus quotes the historian Thallus in a discussion of the darkness that followed the crucifixion of Christ. The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a) confirms Jesus’ crucifixion on the eve of Passover and the accusations against Christ of practicing sorcery and encouraging Jewish apostasy. What can be greater for anyone than to know someone who had to undergo the cruel death by Romans and yet be resurrected on the third day. This fact confirms that the influence of this man created and promised to give life in abundance. Not only does He have the power to forgive our sins but can also transform us, is an undeniable fact. He is God and not a founder of a religion. He does not turn away anyone, who honestly call him for help.

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