Too Much Cream in the Coffee

So I'm on the verge of no longer being a 'Christian' but being a follower of Jesus. I live in America so naturally I am a part of the Christian movement here in the United States, but I am really starting to feel like a foreigner in my land.

When I look at Jesus and I look at American Evangelical Christianity I barely see the same thing. Jesus taught that the pursuit of happiness was to rid our self of all exterior affirmation and solely find our identity in Him. He called us to sacrifice everything, our time, pursuit of happiness, our will...everything to follow Him.

To the Christian this is absolute death to self and it SUCKS.

To use a Mark Driscoll analogy; the Christian is the only one who has the right to complain about following Jesus. We all choose hell. We all want nothing to do with God. BUT, God intervenes in our life and saves us from our self. Literally, He took our free will of not wanting to follow Him and overwhelmed us with His grace to follow Him.

Somehow, A.E. Christianity has done away with surrender and allowed us to continue to have both. We can now be 'Christians' AND pursue our own desires.

The foundation of our country was a little about religious freedom and A LOT about pursuing happiness.

Sure we had to have a little genocide and get rid of those red people, sure we needed those dark people to build our empire....BUT we can practice our religion free from the Queen AND pursue our life, our liberty, and our happiness.

So now-a-days the church isn't as racist as it used to be but, boy, we sure like to pursue our 'self'. Sure, we're a generous people that donate money to causes but we'll leave it up to 'those people' called to serve the poor. Sure, we like new 'sexy' words like community and discipleship but we don't actually have to do it outside of Sunday's.

I've realized something about myself. I've always wanted to live more radically but have always been scared. I've tried to attach myself to communities that can pursue surrender together but I realize others are scared as well.

I just want to be able to pray with people, worship God, LEARN who Jesus is, and go freaking do the stuff! And I don't just want to do this once a week. The really hard thing about this is that I have to sacrifice myself and my impulse. My 'old creation' is always beneath the surface. My old creation just wants to surf, drink beer, and watch porn. I'm just being honest. My old self doesn't want to gather with people and pray, worship, learn about Jesus, and serve others. My my old self, surely, doesn't want to do that daily.

This is probably why Jesus calls the road "narrow and difficult" and "FEW will go down it."

Maybe this is why I'm so skeptical of Christian's, because FEW people actually will follow Christ. Jesus might me our 'homeboy' but are we willing to give up all of us to live in community with Him and others?

This is why I say I'm on the verge of no longer being a Christian but being a follower of Jesus: It's just too EASY to be a Christian in our society.

Repent, Believe, Repent and Believe

My buddy Brad gave a good analogy on having faith in Jesus. It goes: I can believe that a chiropractor is a legitimate doctor that is licensed, works on people, and is available; however, I don't believe that going to a chiropractic works, so, I use modern medicine and go to the hospital instead.

What I have began to witness, a lot, lately is that people believe in Jesus to the extent that He existed, died, and rose from the grave but when it comes to Him solving their problem they turn to 'modern medicine' instead.

Faith is believing that the teachings of Jesus offer healing and wholeness. Our faith rests in the promises of the Christ. Jesus dying on the the cross and raising from the grave is backwards thinking. Repentance is our admittance for the need of the cross but BELIEF is faith in the promises of the cross.

To say we have faith in Jesus but not turn to His teachings for healing illuminates our lack of faith in Him.

Here's something pretty hardcore: When we deny Christ, and sin, we confess that we do not have faith in His promises. We actually don't believe in Jesus, not salvationally, but that He offers a better solution.

Faith says, "Yes!" to Jesus' teachings. "I believe that the teachings of Jesus IS the solution to my problem."

Simply repenting and acknowledging Christ death and resurrection isn't all that hard to do. Putting FAITH in Jesus' teachings as a better way of life is.

The world didn't end?

I'm just taking a chance here, being that it's Tuesday night at 7:18 and the results aren't final yet, but the world didn't end! A liberal African-American is the president of the United States!!! For many this is amazing and for many there is fear.

The election of Barack Obama says a lot. It's demonstrates that an African-American from a broken home can have hope, that in and of itself is beautiful. It demonstrates that an inexperienced Senator with a liberal voting record can become the leader of the free world by being inspirational and eloquent in his speech. It demonstrates that Americans are willing to take risk and not just be conservative or centrist. It also demonstrates that a majority is counting on government to help solve their problem.

So what does this mean? For the Christian it should mean nothing. After all, hasn't the church been on the foreground of racial reconciliation, spreading our wealth, fighting for social justice, making peace with our enemies abroad, etc.? Don't forget I tend to be sarcastic.

Let's go down the fear road for a minute. What if the worst judgments about President Obama are true? What if he's a closet socialist, maybe even a Muslim? What if the the rich are taxed more than 40% of their income. What if jobs continue to dry up and go over oversees like they have been? What if we get attacked again by terrorists? What if our freedoms are threatened?

Will this effect how you live as a Christian?

Let's go down a more positive road. What if President Obama brings us out of our economic disaster? What if the middle class is restored? What if disenfranchised African-American community see President Obama's election as the last hurdle for equality and begin to thrive. What if America rebuilds it's reputation with other countries continuing to lessen the threat of terrorism at home?

Will this effect how you live as a Christian?

Remember, YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH. It was never, "Behold, Obama who will restore the middle class" nor "Behold, McCain who will protect us and allow us to pursue prosperity", rather, it was, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Jesus didn't come here to put the church in power politically but to empower her spiritually to help solve the spiritual problem the world, our nation, is in need of.

So please remember, the day after, that our security is not in the policies of elected officials, our wealth is not measured by hard work in our vocation, our freedom is not in democracy but, instead, you already live in the Kingdom of Heaven when you are poor in spirit. Also, our influence as the church is NEVER dependant on what government we are under but we are influential when we are willing to care for the sick, fight for the oppressed, seek justice, and live a life of love that is foreign to the very culture we are a part of.

MxPx once said, "Politics-Shmolitics, it's too confusing" and I would agree with this below average punk band.