Inverted Christianity
This was an incredibly insightful post from Mark Batterson that you need to read.
Two thousand years ago Jesus extended an unbelievable invitation: “follow me.” And the invitation is still on the table. But let me drill down on this a little bit. I think there are lots of people who think they have accepted the invitation. They think they are following Jesus. But the reality is that they have invited Jesus to follow them. And there is a world of difference!
For the first nineteen years of my life, if I’m being totally honest, I think it was more about Jesus following me. I didn’t want to go anywhere without him. But it wasn’t about me serving His purposes. It was about Him serving my purposes. I think many Christians have an inverted relationship with Christ. Call it spiritual selfishness. Our relationship with Him is all about us. And then we wonder why we’re unfulfilled and bored with our faith.
Are you following Jesus? Or is Jesus following you?
X GAMES vs. Church
How can you not love watching the X games? I love all the tricks and I love all the spills and just the thrill of the competition gets me going. Tonight while watching the freestyle moto x one of the announcer’s said, “Oh and he went up without a trick.” If you were not watching you would have thought that the rider simply went over a jump, however, if you were watching you would have seen the rider do a back flip over a 145ft gap. The other announcer corrected the first guy buy saying, “Well he did do a back flip.” I remember watching only 5 years ago when a back flip would have won a competition. Three years ago a guy named Travis successfully landed a double back flip in competition making the single back flip not even worthy to be called a trick.
I have been pressed to remember that Jesus is the best “thing” going when it comes to the church and life. No matter how relevant we try to dress church up and how hard we try to make it flashy it is still Jesus that changes lives and takes ordinary people and allows them to be a part of something extraordinary. [Not that dressing it up or making it flashy or anything like that in church is wrong. I personally believe church should be fun and engaging because Jesus is. I personally believe that if more churches met people where they are than people would see that Jesus was standing there all along.] I do wonder though if we look at Jesus and simply go it’s “just Jesus”. I wonder if Jesus has become like a single back flip? I wonder if we have become so unimpressed with Him in our lives, so unimpressed with His power and the way that He changes lives? I wonder if we have forgotten what it was like to know Him just a couple years ago when He rescued us?
I was reminded again this week at camp that it is Jesus that changes lives and it is Jesus that rescues the broken and that it is Jesus that is still the best “thing” going for this world and for the church. Jesus may never come across flashy like a back flip to knack knack with a no hand-er lander [That's what 6 hours of x-games will do to you] but He doesn’t need to. He’s Jesus and He loves us for who we are and where we are.
What does Jesus look like to you today and is it any different than a year ago?
Intro To Jesus Video
Just a fun video clip I found of Steve Harvey introducing Jesus. What do you think?
