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From time to time I need something to really grab my attention, to get me back on track. I was lucky enough this past weekend to experience one of those great Ahhh moments, when I went to an Acts 29 conference. An Acts 29 conference is where a couple thousand pastors and others that have an interest in rebuilding the church for God’s kingdom – come together to here some terrific speakers talk about theology and the church. Neither of which is what made me experience the Ahhh moment. Instead, it was the underlining theme to make preaching once again Christ centered, instead of this self-help crap we hear some much in our pulpits.
This got me to thinking whether or not I’ve really been centering my life on Christ, or have I been trying to make Christ fit around my life? If I’m honest with myself it has been the later for some while now. But to be a Christian, a Christ follower, I need to make my life revolve around the teaching and life of Christ. I am a fool, because I now when I have done this in the past, my life seems to go a lot better. I don’t seem so overwhelmed with life in general, but it is easy to get off track, isn’t it? I’m sure I will veer off course sometime in the near future. Although for now I have a new fervor for my Savior and I am taking steps to help keep it around a bit longer than usual.
· Reading my Bible 1st thing in the morning
· Praying right after my Bible reading
· Doing an in depth study on 1 Timothy
· Trying to look at people & things with the eyes of Christ
I know this is like a schedule. But we’ve got to start somewhere, until the heart desires more than anything to follow after – no viciously pressure Christ and His teachings. Then once we have the heart felt desire we do it out of love, we do it because we truly want to be more like Christ! I thank God that in my older years I have experienced more up times in my relationship with Him than the down times. I believe it is partly to do with all those years of following Him and with each attempt to follow Christ more closely – it seems to become more natural.
I read about the 2nd coming and I, like most evangelicals, think of a big to do! I imagine Jesus riding a white stallion with clouds rolling behind him as He comes down to earth, like the pictures I see. I also imagine everyone waking up to angles playing trumpets.
But what if my view like many other evangelicals in America is wrong. What if instead of angles playing trumpets, it’s a couple of homeless guys in New York playing. Instead of a great white stallion it is a donkey? Then what if after Jesus got here He first visited the homeless shelters and bars and drank and ate with the kinds of people evangelicals have declared war against? And when it says in the Bible that He comes like a thief in the night it means that He did not make a big deal of his return, that He kept it on the down low. Now to top it off, what if He did not have long waive hair and a good complexion, but was just average or below average looking. And what would we think if he talked with a hick accent and spoke in parables all the time.
I think if He comes back like this not many will believe He really is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Those that did follow Him would probably be the poor and marginalized. I can’t help but wonder if the ugly Jesus came to America if we would fulfill the Isaiah 53:3 prophecy once again, where it says He that was rejected by men.
It’s probably easier for you and me to believe Jesus is now in Heaven with God in all his splendor and glory. I feel this way because I’m afraid the Jesus that exists in most of our minds is hardly the real Jesus at all. The Jesus that sells books, that is on TBN, the Jesus of many evangelical Americans, is a lot of times the Jesus of the suburbs. A Jesus that wants you to be a better person, a Jesus who supports your political party, a Jesus who dresses in a suit, who speaks eloquently and says what we want to hear and above all does not rock the boat in our lives.
I think some people live in a fantasy world where Jesus is holding our hand telling us we are the ones that are right and some day soon all the other idiots will pay. And we are going to make it because we are Pentecostal, Calvinists, Catholics, and Armenians; because we attend the right church and support the right political party. Or is Jesus actively pulling our heartstrings to feed the hungry, help the marginalized, and the desperate. Is He the Jesus that is telling you to reach out of your comfort zone to eat and fellowship with those you would not normally talk to? The Jesus that compels us to pray for our enemies instead of talking about them – the Jesus that says put others before ourselves, the Jesus that said to model our lives like him. The latter of these is the Jesus of the Scripture, the ugly one. The first one is definitely more popular in evangelical America, but is a myth, a make believe Jesus sharing a genre with Harry Potter.
