Marketing Jesus

It seems to me like there is a tremendous effort in the Christian world today to market Jesus.

"Jesus will make your life better," well-intentioned Christians preach to their unsaved loved ones. But "better" is a vague term and leaves room for incorrect beliefs to creep in. John 10:10 which says Christ came to give us life more abundantly is a reference to our eternal inheritance and not earthly riches.

Especially around the holidays, when we find ourselves among non-Christian relatives we don't see too often or sitting next to co-workers at office Christmas parties it can be easy to begin searching for a way to market our beliefs as something that may be appealing to other people--if we even dare to bring up our beliefs at all.

Sure, "God wants you to have lots of stuff" is a much more fun message to hear than "God wants you to live a holy life." But the problem is, it just isn't true.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I had a relative tell me that Jesus was similar to John Lennon and Gandhi in the message He preached. "Jesus was all about peace and love and getting along with each other," this relative said.

As I sat there trying to formulate a response, the one thing that kept coming to my mind was this: Jesus didn't come to earth promoting some hippy version of peace, love and understanding. He came to give His life for the sins of all mankind so that unrighteous people could be made righteous and have access to a perfect and holy God. The crucifixion was a gruesome thing. His death was a violent act.

But even during His life on earth Christ wasn't some happy go lucky peaceful guy. He constantly clashed with the religious elite of His day. In fact, it was the religious elite who sent Him to the cross. Jesus wasn't about creating one world religion and harmony among all. He didn't tell the Pharisees that they could believe one thing while He believed another, and it would be ok because they would all wind up in heaven anyway. He wasn't about lining your pockets and making you rich. He didn't remove every ailment that plagued His followers and promise them a lifetime of happiness. But He was all about setting sinners right with a holy God.

And as all of these thoughts rushed through my mind, I found myself thinking I don't think this truth is going to go over well with my peace promoting, Lennon loving relative.

And as soon as I opened my mouth to explain who Jesus really was, a Christian relative sitting nearby quickly told me to be quiet and change the subject. Apparently it was more important that we all get along on the holiday than it was that the truth be discussed in a mature way.

Sadly, the concept of marketing Jesus isn't a new one. Right now I'm reading the biography of Amy Carmichael and the book details numerous accounts of how Amy faced opposition at the hands of her fellow missionaries because she believed that it was imperative that new Christian converts get rid of their idols once they came to Christ. In the cultures of Japan and India, this wasn't a popular message and missionaries feared they would have fewer converts if people were forced to forsake their idols in order to follow Christ. These missionaries actually held prayer meetings where all they prayed about was that God would show Amy the error of her ways, instead of focusing their efforts on making true (and idoless) disciples of Christ.

So, this Christmas I invite you to take the same challenge I am issuing to myself. Work at presenting an accurate portrait of Christ in your words and actions and not a marketable one. When you find yourself in a conversation with a non-saved family member or co-worker don't try to package Jesus in a way that is appealing. Don't confuse Him with John Lennon or Gandhi or an ATM machine just to keep the peace.

Instead, mediate on 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 which says:

"When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."

It's not about eloquent words and marketable messages. It's not about promising people lots of stuff if they will repent and turn to Christ. We are all sinners in desperate need of grace. Preach Christ and Him crucified this holiday season--nothing more, nothing less and nothing else...

Christmas from the Realms of Glory

I know it's not Thanksgiving yet. But I've already indulged in listening to some quality Christmas music. Bebo Norman, of whom I'm a huge fan, released a new Christmas album last month entitled "Christmas from the Realms of Glory."

During this time of year it's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holidays, and to think of the true meaning of Christmas only in passing.

Not so with this album! While Bebo beautifully sings several Christmas classics like "Silver Bells" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," the rest of the tracks sound more like those off of a worship album. He does an excellent job at weaving the true meaning of Christmas all through this album. It's left me filled with new awe and wonder over the fact that Jesus Christ came as a baby so that He could pay the ransom for my sins!

In fact, I might forgo listening to other Christmas albums this year because I just can't get past this one. I highly recommend this album to everyone. You can list to some sample track s via Amazon by clicking here.

Ever had one of these days?

I went to church this morning wearing two completely mismatched earrings. There wasn't even a resemblance between the two. One was a long crystal dangle, and the other was a big round mother of pearl circle. The problem with this is, I didn't realize my mistake until after church-until after I had spent time in up close conversation with ten or twelve people. No wonder I got so many odd looks. Thankfully, when I saw my friend Karen later at a BBQ and I explained my faux pas, she kindly said she hadn't noticed.

There's a reason behind my earring fiasco. This morning, as I was getting ready for church, I found out that my parents had spent the night in the emergency room as the result of an accident my dad suffered while sailing yesterday. His injuries are pretty extensive and will require surgery. Needless to say, I was pretty rattled as I put on my earrings and headed out the door. Prayers for my dad and his healing would be appreciated.

As embarrassed as I was to notice that my earrings were mismatched, I didn't care as much as I would have in the past. Because at this time in my life, God has brought me to a community of believers who really seem to care about one another. At CBC people genuinely listen when you have a prayer request, and they follow up so persistently that you know they've really been praying.

So, even if anyone did notice that my earrings were significantly mismatched, they were probably more concerned with my prayer request about my dad than they were about my fashion mishap. I like that about them. Today was one of those days where I walked away from church thinking, "I am so glad that these are my people." Lately, there have been a lot of days like that.

Now, there is absolutely no take away value from this post that I know of. But a girl can't go to chruch in mismatched earrings and not tell someone about it. It's just too funny (and it gives me a good story to share as I ask for prayer for my dad).

The Holiness of God

Have you ever been flattened by a sermon? I mean pushed flat on your face, prostrate on the ground as a result of hearing God's Word taught. Up until the past few months, my answer would have been no. But that changed in August when Michael and I found what is now our church home. Pastor Mike Fabarez knows how to preach the Word, and he preaches it each week in a way that makes me want to go home and examine my life and clean up my act.

This past Sunday, he taught a sermon on the holiness of God that left my mouth hanging open for the better part of an hour. To here it for yourself go here and click on "Our Fight with Sin Part 8." Recently I have been going through a period in my life where God was constantly confronting me with areas in my life that needed work. I had to let go of some relationships that had been ravaged by gossip--and stop gossiping & listening to gossip in other relationships, I needed to delete almost everything in my Tivo queue, and I needed to spend more time working on disciplines like Scripture memory and prayer. Simply put, my life had become a shallow version of what I really wanted it to be because I had gotten lazy.

But here's where Pastor Mike comes in. I hadn't realized why I was lazy. There were areas in my life that needed work, I could admit that. But I couldn't connect the dots between all of those areas. He connected the dots for me. My life was shallow because I had a very low view of God.

What? Right about now you might be thinking, Aren't you a Christian author & speaker? Yes. And I am in the Word on a daily basis. But I still got to a place where my view of God was low. How do I know this? Because I began to create standards for my life based on what I did or didn't have a right to do, not on Who God is. God is holy. His standard for me is holiness--perfect holiness. I will never hit that mark, and I know it. But for the rest of my life I will have something to strive for.

1 Peter 1:13-16 says: Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

Wow! That's a high standard. I've got a long way to go before my attempts at holiness are even worthy of being called attempts at holiness. Even when my life appears to be cleaner than the lives of those around me, the cleanest part of my life is still completely filthy compared to the holiness of God. And yet, I thought I had the Christian life mastered.

A.W. Tozer said, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." You see, I always knew God was holy. But I somehow managed to disconnect that from my daily life. So I gossiped, I watched shows that promoted sinful lifestyles, and I made a ton of other seemingly small choices that fell short of God's standard for my life.

It was never that I consciously thought God was small or unholy. Instead, I just didn't think about Him as much as I should have or with the reverence that I should have. Because, if I had, my life would have looked a lot different.

So, that's my aim now. To acknowledge the holiness of God and to strive to be holy as He is holy. That means I will talk different, I will live different and I will be different. My view of God just got a whole lot bigger. When you catch even the smallest glimpse of Who God really is, you cannot help but adjust your life accordingly. And if you're anything like me, there are plenty of places where you can start...