What is he really like?
I read the following on a page I follow on Facebook. (See link below). It made me seriously consider how I picture Jesus- many of the things he says are true. It's so easy to "Americanize" him. I want to be sure I am getting to know who he really is though, not who I want him to be...
By Christian by Association
On Jesus, politics, and unicorns.
"...We are at a huge disadvantage because the Jesus that exists in our minds is hardly the real Jesus. The Jesus on CNN, the Jesus in our books and in our movies, the Jesus that is a collection of evangelical personalities, is often a Jesus of the suburbs, a Jesus who wants you to be a better yuppie, a Jesus who is extremely political and supports a specific party, a Jesus who has declared a kind of culture war in the name of our children, a Jesus who worked through the founding fathers to begin America, a Jesus who dresses very well, speaks perfect English, has three points that fulfill any number of promises, and wants you and me to be, above all, comfortable. Is this the real Jesus?
"Is Jesus sitting in the lifeboat with us, stroking our backs and telling us we are the ones who are right and one day these other infidels are going to pay, that we are teh ones who are going to survive and the others are going to be thrown over because we are Calvinists, Armenians, Baptists, Methodists, Catholics; because we are Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals; because we attend a big church, a small church, an ethnically diverse church, a house church; or is Jesus acting in our hearts to reach out to the person who isn't like us—the oppressed, the poor, the unchurched—and to humble ourselves, give our money, build our communities in love, give our time and our creativity, get on our knees before our enemies in humility, treating them as Scripture says, as people who are more important than we are? The latter is the Jesus of Scripture; the former, which is infinitely more popular in evangelical culture, is a myth sharing a genre of unicorns."
-Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller
"...We are at a huge disadvantage because the Jesus that exists in our minds is hardly the real Jesus. The Jesus on CNN, the Jesus in our books and in our movies, the Jesus that is a collection of evangelical personalities, is often a Jesus of the suburbs, a Jesus who wants you to be a better yuppie, a Jesus who is extremely political and supports a specific party, a Jesus who has declared a kind of culture war in the name of our children, a Jesus who worked through the founding fathers to begin America, a Jesus who dresses very well, speaks perfect English, has three points that fulfill any number of promises, and wants you and me to be, above all, comfortable. Is this the real Jesus?
"Is Jesus sitting in the lifeboat with us, stroking our backs and telling us we are the ones who are right and one day these other infidels are going to pay, that we are teh ones who are going to survive and the others are going to be thrown over because we are Calvinists, Armenians, Baptists, Methodists, Catholics; because we are Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals; because we attend a big church, a small church, an ethnically diverse church, a house church; or is Jesus acting in our hearts to reach out to the person who isn't like us—the oppressed, the poor, the unchurched—and to humble ourselves, give our money, build our communities in love, give our time and our creativity, get on our knees before our enemies in humility, treating them as Scripture says, as people who are more important than we are? The latter is the Jesus of Scripture; the former, which is infinitely more popular in evangelical culture, is a myth sharing a genre of unicorns."
-Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comments make me smile and I enjoy reading each one.
I love to reply to all of your comments. If you would like to be alerted to my reply please click the subscribe by email link at the bottom of the comment form.