John 3:17

3:17

Before I became a Christian, I had heard what is probably one of the most famous passages of scripture, John 3:16.

16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

I think that we have all heard that passage a million times, it is a go to passage for explaining who we are as Christians and is one of the core beliefs of Christianity.

As a non-Christian though, John 3:16 sounded nice, but it didn't really have a lot of meaning to me. In my mind, churches were full of people that had it together, who were goody-goody, near-perfect people who would look down on someone like myself because I was a punk kid, (yes, literally an 80s era punk that thought shorts and combat boots was an acceptable fashion statement) I was a person who did not have it 'together' in any form or fashion. I was someone who did a lot of bad things and even more things that I wasn't proud of because they hurt other people. I thought that if the people in church found out who I was and that I was such a 'bad person' in the past that they would run me out of the building on a rail. To me, all of those people behind the friendly smiles and welcoming messages were just waiting for an excuse to not smile and be like the rest of the world and judge me from the outside. That is how the world works, once someone finds out that you have a few skeletons in the closet, they then have something to hold against you. I didn't think that these Christians would be any different.

As I started to learn more about Christianity, and actually picked up and read a bible. The passage that followed John 3:16 really stuck out...

17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

Wait a minute here! You mean to tell me that Christ isn't here to bash me down for being a bad person? Christ wasn't sent here to tell me that I am the lowest of the low? You mean to tell me that I did not need to get my act together before I went to Him for salvation?

As someone who was raised as a Non-Christian, that was huge for me. Christ was here to save me and not condemn or judge me? Really? How could someone who was supposed to be so 'perfect' actually like a scummy person like I was. It sounded too good to be true. Little did I know what path I was starting on.

Fast forward a few years...

I am the one that is now on the flip side of the coin. I am the Christian who is spending my time trying to lead those who do not know Christ to knowing Him and having a close, personal relationship with Him.

And that verse keeps coming back to mind when I talk to someone and they feel that they will start the relationship with Christ when they 'get things together' or 'When I get cleaned up.' or 'I'm glad that Christ works for you, but it isn't for me.'

It doesn't say that Christ came to save the 'cleaned up' people or those who 'had it all together'. Christ came to save you now. He wants that close, personal relationship to start yesterday. Christ isn't there to judge you and look down his nose and think 'Gosh, once Kelly cleans up his act, I sure hope that he gives me a call.'.

Christ is here to start showing you how to Live Life and not just live life. Through Christ we get to live a life that we were created to live. A life that may not be perfect, but a life that is truly Lived to achieve what we were put here for. Sure, there are going to be stumbling blocks and sure, once in a while we are going to fall flat on our faces. He will not condemn us though, He will help us brush the dirt off our knees and pick the gravel out of our foreheads and point us back to that path of Living Life.

Danger Will Robinson!!! DANGER!

Ya know, sometimes things occur to us at the strangest times.

I was sitting with my family at dinner the other night, and as I finished saying the prayer, I noticed that it was one of the generic script 'Thank you for -fill in the blank- , -fill in the blank- , -fill in the blank-. Amen.' prayers and this brought something in my prayer life to light.

Sometimes I fall into just going through a 'canned' version of prayer.

“Father God,

Thank you for this food, thank you for this day, thank you for you blessings and Grace. Please keep my family safe.

Amen.”

Wow, think about it. If your cell phone went off and you looked at the caller ID and it was one of your most favorite people in the whole world, a person that you're just dying to talk to. Someone that you don't get to talk to enough. Someone that you love so much that you would be willing to die for them without even a second thought. You would be excited wouldn't you? You would be so happy that this person wanted to talk to you that you could hardly contain your joy. You would rush to push the talk button as fast as you could.

Now, what if the conversation went like this?

“Hi Buddy,

Thanks for coming over and helping with that fence last week. Thanks for the fruit cake at Christmas. Hey! Maybe next time the wind blows it down you can come help me again.

Bye.*click*”

Not much of a conversation is it.

I would dare to say that you might upset and even be a little bummed out because that 'conversation' seemed pretty one sided. Really, it wasn't a conversation at all. It was a checklist.

Are prayers supposed to be a checklist that we go through with God?

Sometimes I think we fall into a trap of being too comfortable with our relationship with Jesus and prayer becomes something that we do because... well... that is what we do. Prayer becomes something that is required before a meal, or before bed because that is just how it is done. We shotgun a few generic thank you message up or we send up a few personal requests and then we sit back and await an answer. It becomes more of a one-way telegram instead of a two-way telephone.

It seems that a lot of times, at least in my own prayer life, I ask for the same things over and over.

Peace, safety, strength and wisdom are common threads in my short, shotgun prayers to Him.

“Give me peace. Give me strength. Pow! Pow! POW! Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub! Amen!”

Not much of a conversation with He who created the universe ehh?

I wonder, Do we sometimes see Jesus as a prayer request vending machine?

Do we drop a couple prayers into Him for what we want, and then wait for an answer to drop like a gumball from a storefront machine?

Are we cutting ourselves way short by not stopping long enough to have a actual conversation with Him? Are we trying to cut Him short by keeping the conversation one sided because we really don't want to hear what He wants for us? Are we stunting our spiritual growth by not allowing Him to mold us because the molding might cause us a little, or a lot, of pain? Are we taking the easy way out because

Think about this.... of all the things that you have requested in prayer....

Have you ever asked God to make you dangerous?

Yup, dangerous, you read that right. Have you ever asked God to make you dangerous?

Dangerous huh? That doesn't sound very Christian-like right!? Aren't we as Christians supposed to be nice and kind and loving towards others? Aren't we supposed to be known by our love? Wasn't love one of the greatest gifts that God has given us?!

How can we love Christ, love others and be dangerous?!

Well, you might be asking, what exactly do I mean by 'dangerous'?

I mean being dangerous to the ways of the world.

I mean being a danger to things that God doesn't like.

How about asking to be a danger to poverty or a danger to hunger or even a danger to the slavery that binds people? How about being a danger to the addictions that hold people in chains? How about being a danger to the loneliness that torments the elderly woman who lives across the street from us? We could be a danger to the yard work that the disabled vet around the corner fights with just to keep in check.

How about being a danger to the enemy? Could we ask to be a danger to the one that would lead people astray and away from God?

What if a whole group of us decided that we wanted to be a danger to these things? How much of a danger could we be then?

Yes, as Christians, I believe that we can be very dangerous.

God wants us to grow. God wants us to be willing to be changed into what He wants us to be. God wants us to make a difference in the world and that is going to make us danger to the ways of the world.

How about we go out and live dangerously?

Fluffy Bunny Jesus?

Fluffy Bunny Jesus? Huh ?What? What do I mean by this?

Recently, I was blessed to be able to attend a Youth Ministry Conference with a group of friends. One class in particular really stood out to me. The topic of the class was how to have a Christ Centered Youth Ministry. During a session of the class, we discussed what our view of Jesus was. Was He mean? Was He kind? What does Jesus mean to us? How do WE see Jesus? After we discussed it as a group for a while, the presenter showed us a small video containing brief interviews with youth. The interviewer asked, “Who is Jesus?” and the prevailing sentiment was that Jesus was a “nice person” and that He was a “kind person”. Nothing about being a savior. Nothing about God becoming man to save the world from an eternity removed from Gods presence.

Ya know, at first glance, it seemed pretty cool that all of these youth that didn't know or might not even follow Jesus thought that He was a “nice person” and that He is “kind”.

In a way, they are right. Jesus is kind and nice. We are taught that Jesus is love and that we are to pass that love onto others.

I wonder though, are we selling Jesus short? Are we presenting a “Fluffy Bunny Jesus”? A Jesus that is always nice? A Jesus that is only nice and kind? Are we only showing one side of Him that is the “Sunday Best” side and are we leaving some of the most important aspects of Him out because they are not always the nice and kind ones? Are we putting Jesus into a cute bunny suit and showing the world that our Savior is always meek and mild?

Looking though the gospels of the New Testament, you can see a number of different things that Jesus did that certainly would not be called “nice” and "kind".

Take a look at Matthew Chapter 15:1-14, Jesus calls the Pharisees out for worshiping God falsely. He calls the religious leaders of his day hypocrites! He tells that that they were using their own, man-made traditions to disobey God! Jesus pretty much tells them that they are not really the high-classed religious leaders that they are posing as, but lowly sinners that are using their own beliefs to disobey God and mold God into what they wanted God to be! That doesn't sound very “nice” at all.

In another instance contained in Matthew 21:12-16, Jesus once again does something that wouldn't be considered by many to be something “nice”. He goes into the temple and tears the place apart! Turning tables over and sending the vendors running doesn't sound very nice at all, it sounds pretty radical to me! What reaction do you think something like that would have in our day?

Again in Matthew 23:1-36, Jesus tears into the Pharisees, and this time it is a no-holds-barred discussion about the very core of what they are and what they believe in. He systemically breaks down the current belief system and chastises them for not practicing what they preach. He tells them that they block others from entering the kingdom of Heaven and that they themselves are not going to enter it either. I remind you, the people that Jesus is talking to are the leaders of the community. The Pharisees were the cream of the crop, the top dog on the block and Jesus was telling them that they were false.

Jesus went against the grain of His time. He was considered a rebel, a danger to the “normal” ways of thinking. In His day, and in ours, Jesus' message is something that goes completely against the established ways of the world. He calls us to be different and to stand out. He calls us to not walk in the ways of the world, but to be radically different from people who do not know Him. He calls us to reflect His light into a dark world and to show others the way to that light.

Are we willing to fully embrace this? Are we willing to step out of the 'norm' and show that Jesus has made a radical difference in our lives? Can we outwardly show that when you follow Him that it isn't just a cliche when the Word says that we are reborn in Him? Can we step outside of our own comfort zones and show the world that we don't just follow a Fluffy Bunny Jesus and follow the One who wants to completely change the world?