Jesus' Love Is Not Approval

 People are celebrating Christmas this morning.

(By the way, I no longer make a big deal out of Christmas. I exchange gifts with loved ones - as we do all year round - and I do respond to wishes of good tidings. So I hope everyone has had a wonderful time with family and friends this day.)

Now. I have a bone to pick with a tweet I saw this morning. I went on to Twitter to send a message to the support team for an appliance I have and I happened to see this tweet from David Corn in my feed:

That looks like a nice and positive message for the day that some people choose to celebrate the birth of Jesus. (Or for the day that a lot of us choose as a reason to go consumer-crazy.) 

The problem I have with that message is that it is all kinds of shady and misleading. Let's take a look at some of the shade being thrown.

First and foremost, the message implies that followers of Jesus (you know, Christians) are nothing like Jesus because... we follow the teachings of the Bible? It's as if we are being shamed for holding a set of beliefs that come directly from the Bible.

All of this part is true about Jesus. It's also true of many Christians today. Many.

But it makes it sound as if Christians today (or at least the ones Mr. Corn knows of?) would never be seen hanging around with "lepers, hookers, and crooks". He doesn't acknowledge the Christians who spend time working with those who are outcasts (because of illness, deformity, or otherwise), working the streets, or in jail.

Then there is this part:

Jesus was not anti-wealth. It isn't being wealthy that Jesus has a problem with. He just does not want wealth to come between man and salvation. We are not to put wealth above all. 

Because Jesus is not only the Son of God but God Himself, he was not anti-death penalty. He believed in punishment, he just did not want the condemned to die unsaved and unrepentant. 

He was certainly not anti-public prayer, he just did not want man using prayer to call attention to himself by trying to look holy and pious versus being holy and pious. Our prayers are for and to Jesus, not for the approval or admiration of others.

As far as the "anti-gay" mention, Jesus was never against any sinner - gay or otherwise. If the Lord is against sinners, he would be against me. His problem is with sin. 

Remember that Jesus is not just the Son of God but God Himself. God is anti-homosexuality - not anti-homosexual (or anti-liar, anti-thief, etc.). God made man and woman for each other and to procreate together. Man with a man or woman with a woman cannot procreate. I would not be here, you would not be here in that case. (Of course, now science is creating life from life without the need for male-female interaction. But they have not and cannot create life from nothing as God did.)

On the abortion issue, Jesus (God) saw life as it began at conception and, in fact, knew us before we were born, as mentioned in Psalms and elsewhere in Scripture. Taking life before a child is born is murder. 

I'm pretty sure Jesus (God) is not good with the abortion of the unborn child - unwanted or inconvenient - any more than he would be with the abortion/killing of the unwanted or inconvenient child already delivered.

And the birth control? Well, that comes back to the issue of procreation. We use birth control so that we can have the joy of sex without the inconvenience of pregnancy. Aren't we picky? 

This last one was the slickest one of the lot:

No, Jesus most certainly did not "slut-shame". He did, however, tell us to "go and sin no more". 

Listen. God (the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit) is not the who or what, or why that we sometimes want Him to be. He is who He is. We either chose to follow the Son or not. We can't choose which of his teachings to follow. We can't twist his teachings to fit our desires. (Well, we can if we want to, but we aren't fooling the Lord.)

I might be wrong but I don't think that Mr. Corn was trying to point out the goodness of Christ so much as he was trying to make Christ's followers look or feel bad. I think that what Mr. Corn might be trying to say is that we all need to be better people. I agree with that. I pray every day for the Lord to "create in me a clean heart" and to "renew a right spirit in me".  There are days when I am a disappointment to myself. I can be horribly judgemental and wrong-minded. I tell people that I am a work in progress. We all are, I think.

We Christians are not all walking as Christ would want us to but we are individuals. It's not fair to lump all of us in with the worst of us. It's also not fair to try tarnishing Christianity by holding every "bad" thing about it up against your personal ideals. 

I am not Christ. I am his follower. I try to live more by his rules than I do by any other. Being a "good" person doesn't make me a Christian. Being a Christian assures my salvation. It doesn't ensure that I will always be nice, kind, understanding, etc. Ask any of my family or friends or go read some of my blog posts.

By the way, although Christ loves all of us, and doesn't push any of us away because of our sins, he does not condone sin. He forgives them. But to be forgiven, we have to acknowledge that we need forgiveness. One cannot ask forgiveness for things they don't believe is sinful. 

One cannot happily, readily, purposefully, and - most importantly - unrepentantly indulge in sinful things and want forgiveness. That makes no sense. Either we want the sin or we want the forgiveness. 

Now, I am not a theologian, Bible scholar, or any kind of an expert in debate. As a matter of fact, I struggle with an illness that affects my cognitive abilities. I am just a Christian. I am sure that someone could find a better way to get across what I am trying to in this post. I just had to address Mr. Corn's tweet. I hope that he does not think I am attacking him. I think that he has a good heart. But I did have to respond in some way to his post on Twitter.

Peace

--Free

**Cross posted** Can't See For Looking

This is a post from my other blog, but it definitely belongs here.

Okay, folks, I'm going to "go religious" on you but, hang with me because there's something in here that even atheists might like.

How do you picture Jesus? I'm sure people of all faiths (or none) would be interested in knowing what he actually looked like. I have started reading other versions of the Bible in my personal studies. This weekend, I read passages from some of the Messianic Bible versions.

Years ago, my mother regularly watched a show called Zola Levitt Presents. Every now and then, I would sit and watch with her. That was the first time I ever thought seriously about the fact that Jesus was Jewish. As silly as it sounds, up until then (and I had to be at least 22 or 23) in my mind's eye, Jesus looked like this:

That's not Jesus.
That's Robert Powell

The actor Robert Powell isn't a savior but he played one in Jesus of Nazareth. Such a beautifully done movie with an amazing cast. Before that movie came along, I had imagined Jesus looking like the classic painting that was hung somewhere in the homes of most black families. You might remember the ensemble of paintings your grandma gave pride of wall space to - Jesus, MLK, and JFK.

 However, my mind's eye (and the movie and paintings and so many church fans) got it wrong.  Jesus was a Jewish man so he most likely did not have those brilliantly blue eyes and I'm pretty sure he didn't have the whole rock star look. Looking back on that movie now all I can think is that the late Michael Hutchence would've wished to be that fine. I'm not being flip. Just look at that photo again.

According to the Bible “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” (Isaiah 53:2 NIV) It's been opined that based on his racial makeup and manual labor occupation as a carpenter, he was probably of a darker complexion and had some sun damage to his skin. Along with the Bible identifying him as being not very handsome (whatever that means), he may have looked more like this:

Source: Popular Mechanics

That's more plausible, right?  The article at Poplar Mechanics makes a lot of good points. Our minds are so polluted with stereotypes about people that we want to think good people must be physically attractive. Just think of that so-called black doll/white doll syndrome - as true or untrue as that might be. Or the fact that attractiveness can play a huge role in our lives.

Listen, I am not pointing fingers at anyone else's ignorance here but my own. Not only did I have the wrong idea about Jesus's appearance, but I just about had heart failure when I heard the Lord's Prayer spoken in the languages Jesus used.

Uh, why doesn't he sound British!?!?!? I'm just kidding. Some filmmakers aren't kidding.

Now, it had at some point in my much younger life occurred to me that we Westerners had the wrong impressions of Jesus. And some people were just completely stupid on the subject. I can remember some kind of anti-semitic rally or demonstration taking place near wherever my family was living back in the mid-'70s. My mother and her friends stood in support of the Jewish people. What was so silly is that there were only about 6 Jewish people in that community. Maybe the racist idiots just wanted something to rally about. Who knows? But I remember my mother shaking her head in disgust at the people carrying crosses while they chanted about "dirty Jews". Much like the Klan and other so-called 'Christians' who hate just to hate or judge in hate, these people forgot, I guess, that their Savior was Jewish. (And, by the way, the saying is not "Judge not" with a period at the end. It is "Judge not lest you be judged."  People always forget that last part. So, you can judge others if you're free of sin. Anybody? Go ahead. I'll wait. I'll just be over here taking this plank out of my eye.)

My whole point is, I have never fully appreciated everything about the Lord I serve. Like most people (I'm assuming), I tend to think only in flavors I know of. Now that  I have it in the forefront of my mind that Jesus talked, walked, ate, prayed, and lived Jewish, I get it. I can see a little deeper into my study of what he said and did while on Earth.

Just like I did in seeing Jesus in my shallow and one-dimensional way, I do the same thing in other areas of my life. I have got to work on that. I need to start viewing people as they are and not how I want or imagine them to be. Same goes for life and situations in general.

One of the sayings I remember from my childhood in Texas was "Can't see for looking." It was your response when you saw something shocking and someone asked if you "saw that". I apply it to my life in other ways. Sometimes, when I make an immediate judgment about a person or situation based only on shallow information, I later realize I missed the bigger picture. Can't see for looking and sometimes, can't hear for listening.

I'm not the only one with this weakness. This is the reason that a lot of us have shallow and ever-changing standards of beauty. It's why we assume intelligence based on slick looks or words. It's why we so often don't see the full worth of people and life. We're too busy looking at the cover to read the book. Because that takes time, doesn't it?

At any rate, I'm really enjoying my Bible studies now more than ever. By the way, for those of you who may not own a Bible - or a lot of Bible study resources - you might want to check out eSword or My Sword  Both have a variety of Bible versions, concordances, commentaries, and other help. Both are free (with expanded options for purchase). I've been using eSword and I'm amazed at the number of tools available in both the app and pc versions.  Usually, when studying my Bible, I have to sit by my computer with 20 browser tabs open to all the different resources. A single app or program is more productive. Actually, the modules for the two 'sword' products are somewhat interchangeable and updates are being made all the time. Check out both no matter which operating system you use. I'm currently using eSword on both my Windows pc and Android phone. Here are the links:

• eSword for phone and computer
• MySword app and for computer

By the way, there are huge selections of language options in both programs. There's a slight learning curve but, hey, I managed to figure it all out so...

That's it for now. I hope that at least some of this information is useful to you guys out there. Even if you're not "religious", information is always good to have.

Peace

--Free

Sharing a few of the songs I've been listening to this evening

Amazing, amazing, amazing grace

I have loved this song for years

Oh, blessed Prince of peace

"Stop fighting a fight that's already been won."