If Jesus isn’t strong enough to motivate you to live Biblically, you don’t know Him at all.” Paul Washer
I moved here from Texas a little over three years ago and what I learned is, everyone is a “Christian”. It’s kind of a thing in the south. I thinks it’s a kind of a thing everywhere. We take just enough Jesus to satisfy our ideas of faith and what we believe to make us “Christian”. You know, ideas and thoughts we’ve created in our minds.
In ministry you hear all kinds of crazy thoughts and opinions. I’ve heard many say, “Well, my Jesus is this way and my Jesus does that. My Jesus doesn’t get angry or demonstrate wrath. My Jesus isn’t offensive.” Oh, and my favorite, “My Jesus just wants me to be happy.”
Well, let me tell you something about your “Jesus”, that Jesus that you have created is nothing more than an idol built with idolatry and deception. See, we want Jesus the way we want Him and everything outside of what we want or our own ideas is not “our” Jesus. I mean, how dare Jesus tell us the definition of marriage or how to live. That doesn’t fit into our narrative or how we see life. It doesn’t make sense. It seems unfair. Therefore, if you tell me otherwise, your Jesus is mean and that isn’t my Jesus.
I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you, but you are standing behind an idol, and that idol you’ve created, will burn.
So many people are on a fast track to hell because they are following a Jesus that they have created in their minds. Tell me where in the Scriptures does it say Jesus wants us happy? Where does it say that we have a license to do whatever we want, when we want and how we want? Where are those words? You won’t find them because they don’t exist.
Good thoughts, random acts of kindness, and being a good person won’t get you into heaven. It won’t even get you close. Because without Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, without repenting and turning away from this broken world, you are no closer to heaven than Hitler was on his deathbed.
Harsh, maybe, but I am tired of this cheap grace we sell. I am tired of preachers preaching a watered down Gospel that is full of fluff catering to people who want it both ways and building churches with lukewarm people whose eternity is in jeopardy.
People want assurance of salvation without repentance. I’m not just talking about forgiveness, I’m talking about full on repentance. And without repentance, there is no salvation.
See, most folks don’t even know what that is these days. Repentance is turning away from the ideas, morals, and standards that have generated from a broken world and then, running to Jesus Christ. Aligning yourself with His way, and not yours. It’s aligning yourself with the Word of God, not with what the schools and colleges teach. Not what the culture spits out or what our politicians say. And it’s definitely not what we think and feel.
Jesus is so for us. And He has far more to offer than our simple minds can conceive. When you truly turn from this world and chase after Him, He fills you. You begin to produce this fruit and He changes you. The more you turn from this crazy world the more He works and the more your eyes become opened to reality. Things that were once blurry, or fuzzy, you see clearly. Things that were confusing, make sense. Jesus is not a kill joy that is trying to disrupt your good time. His ways are so far higher, better and more amazing than we can imagine.
I pray that people come to a point in this journey called life where they can finally be done with this world and pursue Christ in the fullness of who He is because He is Lord.
Many ponder the question, “There’s got to be more to life than this….” Friend, stop living empty. This world has nothing to offer, and will leave you ravished. Run to the only One who can truly fill; the Father of life.