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Jesus Isn’t What You Think

Uncle Luther — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:36:00 +0000

Jesus was conceived out of wedlock to a poor family from an underprivileged city and in a stable inhabited by livestock.

His mother was surrounded by scandal. His earthly father was a common day laborer.

When he grew up, he was homeless and a bit of a drifter. He was tried and sentenced to a criminal’s death for upsetting the religious establishment of his time.

Yet, his Father was royalty. If you are impressed by pedigree, you can not find one better. If you are drawn to power, you cannot find one with greater power. If you like influence, there is no one more influential.

But Jesus was despised, ignored and rejected. He was the envy of no man. He was sacrilegious, untraditional, kept close friendships with bad company and taught a message so repulsive to religious leaders that they had him killed.

If He lived today, the outcome would be no different.

What Does Jesus Love?

Uncle Luther — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:51:00 +0000

Jesus loves His people unconditionally, but that doesn’t give His followers a blank check to do whatever they want and to act in any manner they choose. Here are some actions Jesus loves:

When we feed the hungry.
When we give to the poor.
When we give second chances for real or perceived wrongs.
When we meet the felt needs of the suffering.
When we meet the needs of the infirm and visit the sick in hospitals.
When we make an elderly person smile.
When we forgive people who do and say things we don’t understand.
When we show love to one another.
When we show love and compassion to those outside the church.
When we show love and act in compassion to those who consider themselves our enemies.
When we admit we are wrong.
When we come to Him for healing, direction, forgiveness and love.

A Real Savior for Real People With Real Problems

Uncle Luther — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:34:00 +0000

Jesus is not a sedative. He is not a “magic pill” to be taken in small doses to numb momentary struggles. All of life’s problems will not disappear if someone who is struggling merely “trusts in Jesus.” So many people go through life thinking that if they just have enough faith all of their troubles will disappear. If it were that simple, if we could just speak the name of Jesus and life’s troubles would disappear, there would have been no need for the cross.

Jesus is not a sedative, but He is a savior. A Savior is necessary when someone needs rescuing. Picture a drowning man. He has been treading water and using all his energy just to survive, but hours have passed and he’s exhausted. Now the water is getting rough, a storm is coming, and he has absolutely no hope of keeping his head above water. He can keep trying, but eventually His strength will run out. He can believe and trust and have faith all he wants to, but that isn’t going to stop the storm or send a boat. What he needs is to be rescued. His situation is so incredibly bad and hopeless that there is absolutely nothing he can do about it. He needs someone to save him.

That’s us. We can believe all we want, we can trust all we want. We can keep striving and treading water all we want, but at the end of the day, our situation is so bad that we need to be rescued. We are so incredibly helpless that God had to leave His throne. The almighty creator of all things had to lower himself and become the son of a carpenter. He had to live a beggar’s life and die a criminal’s death to rescue us from a problem so enormous that we had no means of fixing it ourselves.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say following Jesus is easy, or that there are any simple solutions for life’s problems. The truth is, if the world’s problems are so big they can only be solved by God himself shedding blood, we can expect that nothing will be easy.

In fact, Jesus says in this world we will have trouble. He will give us peace, hear our prayers and give us strength, but life is not easy. There is no magic Bible verse you can turn to that will fix all of your problems. If you need a sedative take a sedative, but please, don’t cheapen the message of Christ by trying to make him some sort of magic pill. If you do that, you miss the point of the cross and you lose the gravity of your own helplessness.

Time Well Spent

Uncle Luther — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:29:00 +0000

How much time do you spend:
Fighting against abortion? Lobbying against gay marriage? Boycotting Disney and Hollywood? Worrying about the future of our country if your political party isn’t elected?

Defending the war effort? Criticizing welfare? Spending money on the building fund? Fighting global warming? Watching Christian movies and listening to Christian music? Praying for prosperity?

How much time does the Bible record Jesus spending on these things?

If we follow Jesus, we should spend our time as He did:
Healing the broken.
Fighting for the rights of the oppressed.
Giving to the needy.
Visiting the infirm.
Feeding the hungry.
Forgiving people who have hurt us.
Showing compassion to people who need forgiveness.
Making sacrifices out of love.
Engaging those outside the church in conversation and friendship.
Praying for those whose lives we may touch.

Are You Authentic?

Uncle Luther — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:24:00 +0000

You say Jesus lives inside of you. Does he? I mean, where it really counts? Let’s take an inventory.

Is Jesus in your racism?
Is He there in your homophobia?
Is He the one throwing stones at prostitutes and strippers?
Is it Jesus who is causing your self-righteousness and arrogance?
Is He the one that makes you so angry?
Is it Jesus calling you to boycott movies and demonize Hollywood?
Is it really Christ in you that determines how you vote?
Does the Jesus in you tell you not to help the poor and the hungry?
Is it Jesus who allows you to be greedy and store up as much treasure as you can on this earth?
Is this Jesus inside of you telling you not to recycle and be a good steward of the land and air?
Are you representing the God who lives inside you, or have you trapped him and kept Him from getting out?

Do we expect anyone to believe that Jesus lives in us? Are we kidding ourselves?