WELL WORTH the 7 minutes.

I too want my life to fit in that book…you?

I ran across this last week…and I can’t seem to get loose of the truth in it!

“I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial… I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation… I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please.”

~D.A. Carson

How much do you want?

What is your image of Jesus? A friendly bearded guy carrying a lamb on his back? A happy story teller that wandered the countryside? A trouble maker?

My favorite heretic…

JESUS the CHRIST

Jesus lived as a Jew and a Rabbi for most of his life representing and practicing the accepted beliefs of his time and his religion. Up until he began His ministry…the new covenant.

From that point forward Jesus did not get along very well with the religious leaders, who ultimately had Him put to death.

Luke 13:10 (the message)

10 He was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath.11 There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn’t even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years.12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over. “Woman, you’re free!”13 He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.14 The meeting-place president, furious because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the congregation, “Six days have been defined as work days. Come on one of the six if you want to be healed, but not on the seventh, the Sabbath.”15 But Jesus shot back, “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it.16 So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?”

Matt 23:23 (the message)

23 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required.24 Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?25 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony.

Jesus was clearly a heretic in his day and time…

What I know about the American middle class church…we too would consider Jesus a complete heretic!

Who is your favorite heretic?

I got hung up on this story in John 12 where Jesus stops off on His way to Jerusalem, in a town called Bethany. You see, there in Bethany, live some of Jesus’ closest friends;Lazarus, Martha and Mary. Most everyone in the story thinks this is kind of a routine trip until Mary breaks out this very expensive (one years wages) perfume and starts poring it all over Jesus feet.

I think a lot of us have heard or remember the story. But what strikes me is that of all the people around Jesus…apostles, disciples and such, the only one that really gets what is going on is Mary. She somehow knew that Jesus was going to Jerusalem and was going to be killed there. Nobody else figured that out?

After pondering on that story for a couple of weeks now…here are two things that are becoming clear to me:

*Mary was close enough to Jesus, so much so, that she felt the pain and anguish that He was feeling. Her spirit picked up on what was going on in His.

*When she realized that He was going to die for her…there was NOTHING that was expensive enough to love him back in the measure that he was loving her.

This is an emotional week for the people that really believe that they are Christian…