Is Christianity About Meeting My Needs?

I got this thought from recent tweet by @fhdavidchadwick: Modern day Christianity is more about getting our needs met than it is about a radical call to give up everything in life to follow Jesus.

That’s pretty much where the rubber meets the road isn’t? Are we the type of Christians who are more interested in what Jesus can do for us, or are we the type who try to follow him regardless of where we have to go?

It’s funny where the brain goes when presented with such a question. You’d never guess, so I’ll just come out and tell you that when the question really hit home, an old song almost immediately came to my mind. I don’t think it was written for any Christian inspiration, but one never knows. Any way, I had to go look up the lyrics to see if they were anything like I had remembered. The title of the song is want made it jump into my head, but last two lines of the first verse really say it all: “Where my dad never promised that our blue moon would turn gold - But he laid awake nights wishin' that it would.”

It is the same with our Heavenly Father. He never promised us that if we followed Jesus that our blue moon would turn gold, but just like the song, many modern day Christians “lay awake nights wishing that it would.”

I had a pretty severe ear infection last week. I did not just lay around and pray that it would go away. I went to the doctor. But in the few days I had to wait to see the doctor because of an unusual southern snow storm, I did pray for the strength to see me through until I could get to the doctor.

Did Christ meet my wants? Did my blue moon turn to gold? Hardly. I wanted the pain to stop; right now. On the other hand, did He meet my needs as He promised. I made it through, the infection is nearly gone, and I am nearly pain free.

Although the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band didn’t specifically mention anything about Christianity, I feel it would have been apropos. Real Christianity is a “Long Hard Road.” It is not for the faint of heart or for those that want a quick fix for all our needs. But, if I want to spend eternity with Christ, I don’t think spending this life concentrating on my needs is the answer. I need to follow Jesus now.

Does Religion Cause Evil

When I look at all the atrocities going on in the world, I am filled with sorrow. I suspect that most of the world’s people feel that way. For when it gets down to brass tacks, most of us can see evil for what it is and we do not like it. We even go so far as trying to assess where it comes from. Some blame religion. Some blame politics, racism, etc. We could probably agree that evil will manifest itself in any of the above. But it is violence manifested in religion, and therefore blamed on God, that I am the most interested in.

Why is that? It is because when God is blamed as a source of violence, blame is usually assigned without regard to all the available information. I’ll give two biblical examples:

God is attributed as being evil when he caused the flood. Here are a few biblical facts:
• God created the world, and in Genesis 1:31 it says, “God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good.”
• By Genesis 3:6, man had rebelled against God by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
• In Genesis 4:8, Cain slew his brother Able.
• In Genesis 6:5 “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.
• The flood happened in Genesis 7:11
So, was the flood evil? Or was it to remove the evil people from the earth and give everything another start?

God is said to have been evil when he sent terrible plagues on the Egyptians. But it is clearly stated in Exodus that God had been watching how the Egyptians were treating the Israelites and told Moses that he had promised to rescue them from their enslavement (Ex 3:16 & 17). Moses was then sent to speak to the Pharaoh. Ex 5 is the account of that meeting, and it is not pretty. In Ex 6:1, God states that he will deal with the Pharaoh. From there through Ex 12, God sends plague after plague on the Egyptians to force the Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave. Each time the Pharaoh’s heart remains hard and he will not release the Israelites. So, were the plagues sent because God was evil? Or was each sent as a response for the Pharaoh not following through with his side of a deal with God negotiated by Moses?

What I really find ironic is when someone who does not believe in God, takes statements from the book that is all about God (the bible) to prove he is evil. I find no credibility in that approach.

So, here is my bottom line. Yes, there is evil in the world; far too much of it. But, is it caused by religion, politics, racism, etc.? I think not. I think evil originates in the heart of man and goes on to manifest itself in whatever endeavor man is involved with.

The Red Part

Picture a rope. A really long rope. Infinitely long (you know, something that never ends). The rope is white except for a foot or two at the beginning, which is red. So, let’s concentrate on the red part. Just forget the white part even exists. Sounds silly doesn’t it?

Well, here’s where it really gets interesting. The red part represents your life on earth. Good thing to pay attention to. Right? After all, we have to get an education so we can get a good job and buy all the good things this earth has to offer. We’ve got a family to raise, some partying to do, some friends to please, and the list goes on and on. Wow, this can be one busy place! Lets get to it. This red part is really a blast (well it may be a bummer for some people, but I plan to make the best of it and get all I can while I’m here). Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

Oops, I may have forgotten that pesky white part; you know the part that lasts for -- ah -- eternity? Oh well, I can take care of preparing for that just before I run out of the red part. Now how long did I say the red part was? Oh yea, it’s a foot or two. But that’s not always true. For some, it ends up being just a couple of inches.

Are you getting the picture? We are going to spend eternity some where. It’s pretty much up to us to decide where. God gave us free will because He did not want a bunch of automatons who were forced to love Him (maybe; who could tell?). He wanted people who freely chose to love Him or love something else; like the red part. But since we don’t know how long the red part will be, it seems like a very good idea to start living the red part commensurate with where we want to spend the white part.

If you want to spend the white part separated from God, just tell Him you don’t want to spend it with Him. Then get on with living the red part like the red part is all there is. He is an accommodating God. Even though He created you so He could pour out His love on you, He will let you go; if that’s your choice. He will never choose to let you go, but He will let you have your way.

If, on the other hand, you want to spend the white part with God, there is a very simple answer: Accept that His son died for all your sins, past, present, and future. Accept that you must repent of your sins. That means be sorry for them and (this is a biggie) quit them. To go on intentionally sinning is NOT the definition of repentance. And finally, accept God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to guide your life. In other words, you need to start a lasting relationship with God; now, while there is still time.

None of us has a clue how long the red part will last. God has ordained that the white part will last forever. It’s up to you whether you spend it with or without God.

A Cup of Coffee

I hope you enjoy the following as much a I did when I found it a few years ago:


A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complains about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups; porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:

“If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups. Then you began eyeing each other’s cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentration only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us.” God brews the coffee, not the cups…. Enjoy your coffee! The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

Live simply
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak Kindly.
Leave the rest to God.
You are the miracle, my friend,
Your life either shines a light – or casts a shadow.


Author Unknown

The Power Of The Holy Spirit

As Jesus was preparing his disciples for his death, he told them he would not leave them alone. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world at large cannot receive him, because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you do, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.” John 14:16-17

Later in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit entered each of them and they received miraculous gifts to heal, change people’s lives and grow the body of Christ throughout the world. This all happened because these simple men surrendered to Christ’s authority and opened their hearts and lives to the power of the Holy Spirit.

I spent most of my life questioning the bible and claiming that it was written by man to control people. Then on Palm Sunday a few years back, as I listened to the importance of accepting Christ and confessing my sins to Him before I took communion, I was convicted to give my life to Him. In that one moment, I learned the power of the Holy Spirit. I sat and silently cried at having been such a fool for so much of my life.

Recently I have been listening to some archived sermons on the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan at Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley California. The sermons alone should have been an adequate reminder of what a small part of my life has been actually surrendered to God. But the Holy Spirit did not rest there. The following story was related to me as a further reminder of God’s promises.

The story is centered around a company car that was intended for personal as well as company business use. Company rules stated that personal miles were to be turned into the company and would then be charged back to the employee. With the current economic downturn, most all of the miles were now personal. Some employees continued to turn in a token personal use mileage. This employee began to increase his percentage of personal use miles, but for various reasons the percentage remained lower than he was actually using. That is until he attended a Christian financial seminar. At that point, he knew something had to change because he was not right with God. He decided to go to his boss and rectify the situation by either turning in the car, or if he could settle on a price he could afford, to buy it from the company. The man was just about to leave his office to talk to the boss, when the boss walked in and said, “I’d like to talk to you about the company car.”

You can imagine what must have gone through his mind at that moment. But in the ensuing conversation, it was made clear that due to the economic downturn, the company needed to get out from under the car, and for them the best way to do that was to donate the car to the employee. A short time later, after it had all sunk in, and it became clear that this was the work of the Holy Spirit, the man sat and cried.

When we pray “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven”, what do we really mean? Are we willing to let God’s Holy Spirit work in our lives as the apostles did? Are we willing to surrender it all? Or do we intend to keep some control for ourselves?

Although I am in my third bible reading plan, I still have not read every word in it yet. But I can say this: I have not found one verse that implies that God is willing to accept less than our full surrender to Him. I am convinced after reviewing Rev 3:15-16 that when I have completed the entire bible, I still will not find a verse implying that anything less than full surrender to God is acceptable.

Getting more out of sermons

I recently listened to a sermon by Erwin McManus (Mosaic) where he stated that one of the ways he keeps from overeating is to walk in an area where there are great pastry smells and just soak it all in; then walk out taking nothing of substance with him. He went on to say that it was not particularly effective way to loose weight. In a way though, it does have an interesting parallel.

I find myself listening to sermons much the same way. I soak in what is being presented and seem to be really getting it. Two days later, I can’t remember what it was that moved me so much, or what I wanted to put into practice. Bummer!

But I think there is a way to turn it around. When I am in class, I am forced to take notes, or I can’t keep up. So what’s the difference? No mater what we are in class about, the object is to learn something that is useful to us. The only difference between a class and a sermon is the subject we are learning about. There are classes about a plethora of subjects. Most sermons are about God.

Just about the only reason I can think of for taking a class on any subject is to learn more about the subject. Likewise, the only reason for listening to a sermon is to learn more about God. And in my opinion, the more we learn about God, the closer our relationship is with Him.

So grab your notebooks and pens. Try to learn all you can. Increase your awe and love for God. Rise above being a lukewarm Christian. The following verse written to the church at Laodicea indicates that there may be a test.

"I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth!” (Rev 3:15-16)

The password demon has been slain! I finally figured out what it is so I can now post again. I am working on a post about paying attention. It will be up in the next couple days.