“We are privileged. We are not hunted for our faith, we are not arrested for preaching, we are not beaten and stripped and mocked and fed to lions or burnt at the stake. Yet, if the sum of our lives aim is to have some ‘banter,’ get a good job, and be an upstanding member of society and a regular attender at your place of worship then you are missing the point.
If wearing wristbands, t-shirts, listening to pseudo-Christian music, and trying to search for a spouse in Christian gatherings is it for you – then wake up!
This world is a war zone, people are living and dying without Christ, people are heartbroken, in slavery, abused, hungry, thirsty, and looking for a way out of the sin cursed world that they see all around them. And when they see no hope, see no light, and find no one to run to, they sit in despair.
All the while, many Christians sit sipping Mocha Lattes, reviewing the latest hipster album release, queuing for iPhones, and seeking that next ‘banter’-filled party.
So if I seem serious – I am.”
[Read the full & Challenging post here]
Well said. Nothing more needs added. Christianity has become a “trend”, something thats cool because its looked at as being different. “My friends do it” is not the correct reason for becoming a Christian. We get so cosey in our Christian lives and forget about those who are struggling.
Well played Simpson.
Great blog.we touched on this last night in our laser group.enough said couldn’t agree more.
Maybe I should have included this part of Jonny’s post…
“We should straight up refuse to accept this world and it’s standards that crush people, and starve people of hope. We should live out our faith, scream out Jesus from every word, action and thought. And we should seek His glory with everything we have and everything we are.”
Yes you are right! We waste so much of our energy, time and money on stuff that is so pointless, and then say we aren’t well off enough to make sacrificial offerings of money to God’s work and are too busy or tired to get involved in areas of service that might actually benefit other people.
A Rich Young man in the gospels wasn’t prepared to give up his stuff to be with Jesus. He wanted all the stuff and God as well. At least that disappointed Rich Young Ruler in the gospels found the time to go and talk to Jesus about what he ought to do. So many of us are so busy at Starbucks tracking Facebook on our smart-phones that we don’t even do that!
Seriously?
I agree “hipster wannabe” – thats a challenge about ‘talking to Jesus’ – when was the last time we did that……
thanks for the challenge……
If the church globally or even the church locally could grasp this and give it the action it deserves, then we would live in a very different world.
I agree – but the update to this blog (the flipside of serious) goes further, not just to identify the sins of others, but also our sins. “when we talk about the church, we always seem to conveniently remove ourselves from it. We forget that we are talking about ourselves.” We might not all be latte-drinking, starbucks-going,hipster-cd-listening wannabees, but our sin is the pride in thinking that we are not like those people, so we’re guilty too.
But the final paragraph of the follow up post is…
“In short, we need each other. We need unity. With all that’s said and done, if we can agree that we love Jesus, want the same thing, even though we may disagree on how to arrive at that point, we at least are starting somewhere…
Let’s be serious about that…”
Good post though, and always presenting a succinct thought that gets the God thoughts going!
Thanks!
Hi Michael,
I totally agree with all that has been said. As someone who has been struggling with moving his very young family from safe small town suburbia to what feels to me like inner city Belfast (in reality it’s probably not, but it’s geographically close) I take my position as the church very seriously. I recognise myself as the hypocrite in The Gospel is Serious. I should never be struggling so much with this. My most common prayer is “God…you’re kidding me, right?” Will You Go is basically a direct challenge to me (yes I realise the author doesn’t know me). Thanks for blogging.