Aikido Jesus is My Easter Bunny

A friend posted a story on FB a couple days ago about a church in Texas that is giving away over $2m worth of luxury items as "an opportunity to share Christ with people who may never go to a church for any reason." I commented back that it makes complete sense for a church where Jesus is the Easter Bunny.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100402/texas-megachurch-to-give-out-cars-tvs-at-easter-services/index.html

So many criticisms come to mind from the utilitarian--how about putting that money to good use reaching people that are desperate to hear the good news? Who need simply to eat, get clean water and some help back on their feet? Christ cleaning out the temple is another easy response, "It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'" (Matt 21:13 NIV). I'm learning to be careful of the con when something like this seems so easy to criticize--it's like there is some cosmic aikido just waiting to happen.

The most unsettling word came from an old friend in Florida this week, ney, today. She highlighted her own turmoil over Oswald Chambers' devotional for today (April 4th) from My Utmost for His Highest:

After we have been perfectly related to God in sanctification, our faith has to be worked out in actualities. We shall be scattered, not into work, but into inner desolations and made to know what internal death to God's blessings means. Are we prepared for this? . . . Are we prepared to let God do as He likes with us - prepared to be separated from conscious blessings? Until Jesus Christ is Lord, we all have ends of our own to serve; our faith is real, but it is not permanent yet. God is never in a hurry; if we wait, we shall see that God is pointing out that we have not been interested in Himself but only in His blessings. The sense of God's blessing is elemental.

What struck me the hardest about my own condemnation of the church in Texas was that it was really a condemnation of my own personal desires for God's blessings--very scary stuff indeed when it is presented in such a clear mirror with such harsh lighting.




















what i want from god
spring blessings rust and decay
mammon stares at me