Stamps, comics, pokemon?

I recently discovered that a new friend of mine is a regular blogger. I started reading a few of her earlier posts and realized that she has something that I do not have. She is a skilled writer. I made the comment to one of our pastors today that I wished that I was a better writer... he simply said, "start writing." So here I am.

Usually I read blogs and am either entertained by the humorous ministry/"Christian" based jargon or challenged by a theological/ doctrinal thought. Sadly, I do not currently sustain the wordsmith-ness to allow the sliver of humor I do have to be revealed. Therefore, I will simply share what God has been laying on my heart.

I have been teaching through the Gospel of Luke for over a year an a half now. In the past four weeks we have looked at Jesus, the long awaited Messiah entering Jerusalem and going straight to the temple, running the leaders out and stating pretty clearly that he is bringing a Kingdom that is unlike any other.

Jesus Leaves three options...
1. Accept him as true King, ruling a kingdom unlike any other and follow his teachings
2. Reject him as king and ignore him
3. Stand by and watch... but only for a while. At some point one must pick 1 or 2.


Now, #1 seems pretty simple to us today... at least the idea of it. We like to say that Jesus is our Lord, or King. Right?
yea.... right. Good.

#2 is a bit harder to pin down for us today. Yes, There are some who say "No. Jesus isn't real" or "I don't care" and reject Jesus. But I think that many more of us are in danger of doing #2 without realizing it.

We may not be bold enough to reject Jesus totally but often we do a dance around it that looks like this....

Jesus says Turn left and we don't want to (for any number of reasons) So, we turn right..... over correcting.

For example, Jesus lays on your heart (through prayer, reading or numerous other ways in which God speaks to us) to Love your neighbor... the one that constantly parks in front of your drive way, lets trash blow in your yard, allows his dogs to poop in your yard, turns the music up WAY to loud at 11:30pm.... you know the one...
You don't want to do that... so you commit to going to another LifeTeam meeting... or joining a coffee ministry at your local church. You go a direction that God didn't ask you to go simply because you didn't want to do what he asked.

Or we get in our heads that God wants us to be happy... and if God wants me happy, he wouldn't ask me to do anything that would make me unhappy... SO I make up a fake Jesus.... (mine would be wearing a floral shirt and drinking a Margarita) that is only concerned with my happiness.... He doesn't ask me to do things that I don't want to do and He only wants to bless me (aka. make me rich and happy) The problem with this Jesus is that he doesn't exist.


Sadly, we live in a culture and maybe a country where Christianity is displayed more like #2 than #1. We might come to church every week and do all the "right" things, but we have no intention on allowing God to change and mold our hearts. We have made Christianity a hobby. We put in our time, watch, listen but have no intention of allowing God to change our hearts.

One can stand back and watch as Jesus moves throughout his church today, but at some point one must decide to either accept him as true king or reject him.

Christianity is the worst hobby in the world. It doesn't pay or improve with time. Try collecting stamps, comics or pokemon. At least you'll have something to show for it.