i must say, i have been thinking about this a lot. it is bothering me!! then, saturday, i had some friends in town. and i sent out a terrible message! i was pretty hateful, and i just am not going into detail about the whole weekend. what made it even more terrible, was that i can not stop thinking about this topic of message/motive. everything i read, it pops up! when i am watching something, the topic is brought to my mind. when i am playing with the kids or NOT playing with the kids, the message pops into my head.
As Christians in America, we often complain about how antagonistic people are toward Christ. Personally, I'm not sure that Americans are really rejecting Christ. Maybe they just haven't seen Him.
Try to be COMPLETELY honest with yourself right now. Is the following true of you?
You passionately love Jesus, but you don't really want to be like Him. You admire His humility, but you don't want to be THAT humble. You think it's beautiful that He washed the feet of the disciples, but that's not exactly the direction your life is headed. You're thankful He was spit upon and abused, but you would never let that happen to you. You praise Him for loving you enough to suffer during His whole time on earth, but you're going to do everything within your power to make sure you enjoy your time down here.
In short: You think He's a great Savior, but not a great role model.
Francis Chan wrote that. you should read the whole article to get the full jist of what he is talking about. but this hit me. i'm not sure what to do with this or how to respond to it. this is going to take some evaluation and processing...
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Speaking of passionately loving Jesus- the pastor we heard this weekend talked about the word passion. How we overuse it He said it's from the latin word which means "to suffer." Do we really suffer for Jesus? I think no. So, He is capable of passionately loving us, but we can't passionately love Him. I can't anyway. How do we suffer for Him?
Sorry, I know that's a tangent, but now when I hear that word I'm always going to think about the point he made.
As far as motive, message, and method- I haven't thought or researched it enough to make an intelligent comment. Sorry...
Imagine that your honeymoon is just over. You have just arrived at your hometown airport and are ready to drive home. You load your new wife's luggage into the trunk of the car, escort her to the driver's side door, open the door for her and seat her in the car. Then you kiss her good-bye.
As she looks at you with that "What's going on?" look in her eyes...you simply say, "I really do love you, baby...but I don't want to live with you."
Maybe it's a stupid picture and a stupider (I know that's not a word) analogy, but I think that is what we (Christians in America) have done with Jesus. We tell Him (and ourselves) that we love Him...we just don't want to live with Him! Stupid, isn't it?
Any way you lok at it, I think that the best method; the best message is to love people and to let them know that God loves them, too. Too often, churches get in the way of real evangelism. Churches have a way of making people feel like they have to fit into a certain type of mold. Jesus never did that. He just loved them and invited them to follow Him and His ways. It sounds like it's too simple. There is no program, no class to take, no instruction manual to follow, no scripted outline...so we say it will never work! It seemed to work well for Jesus and He says it will work for us too!
Maybe we could just try that for a while...loving people.
BTW, I've enjoyed following along. Sorry I haven't commented 'til now.
I recently read in "Velvet Elvis" that the "problem is not with Christ, it's what comes with him!" The BIGGEST problem with Christ is us! OUCH, we must do a better job!
I think that is a great analogy, JOhn. We seem to put Christ in a box and pull him out when it is convenient. Sometimes it depends on what crowd we are with. Sometimes it depends on our mood. I have been so into this motive thing for several days - not sure it has changed how I act much - but sure has made me realize how I act. Unfortunately it is usually after the fact!
One more thing - I like what Chan wrote, well, maybe not like but think it is true. How many times have we heard that we may be all of Christ that a particular person sees. When I think of some of the representations of Christ I have seen, and have been - I don't wonder that people turn their back on the entire idea of Jesus.
great thought leslie... tell scott i said good job! then tell him, i can take him any time, any where! lol
great analogy John...
"Too often, churches get in the way of real evangelism"
what do you think we should do? i would love to hear more thoughts on this.
fran,
i am re-reading The Shack, our small group is reading it together. One line in the book says that Jesus' life was not an example to be followed. We had a great discussion on that the other night. What that meant? Not sure I know, but I think it means we don't have to strive for perfection.
I don't want to get too deep on this subject now, maybe another post...but i thought of this as you were being pretty hard on yourself. .... maybe another blog for another time...
Daniel - I will have to think on that - I tend to think we are always supposed to be becoming more Christlike - so is that striving?? I know there is no perfection on this earth - but do think most of us can do a much better job than we are doing. I need to go back and look at The Shack - it has been a while since I read it.
The Shack is an interesting book...not necessarily one that you want to base your theology on, but interesting none-the-less. It certainly challenges how we perceive God--Father, Son and Spirit.
I think the thing that people seem to miss the most in the book is the great story of forgiveness--first God's forgiving us and then our forgiving others.
Hey John...I agree about The Shack. It is a great book and brings lots of thought provoking ideas into play, but it should be read in one hand with a Bible in the other. I guess that is why it is Christian Fiction... :-)
i think the story of forgivenss is amazing! having lost someone very close to me, i find the book comforting in a way.
there are lots of great debates over at www.theshackbook.com for anyone who wants to discuss the book further in depth.
i am very glad you are joinging this conversation, John. i love your insight! have a good weekend.
I've always been taught that we are to be Holy like Christ was Holy. I don't have a Bible right at the moment, but somewhere it says that without Holiness no man will see God. With that said how can we not try to pattern our lives after Christ? As far as methods go, I've observed some Christians who have walked all over people on their way to implementing the method of their choice. They seem successful in their ministry right now. I just can't seem to get past the fact that they basically didn't care what they had to do to get to this point. Will god truly bless if you unapologetically hurt people? If you are bragging about all your new members when several baby Christians who were just starting to get it are no longer in church at all? Very discouragng to witness to your friends for months, get them in, saved, only to be destroyed for the sake of changing --very drastically-- the methods. We have to live Christ every day in all things without compromise or we are not credible at all.
I may not be very clear here, but I feel better getting it off my chest.
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