Which Jesus ...

It was 1983 and God was about to take me on a trip into the realm of total insanity, from my viewpoint.  Sister Becca had been broken, Satan had utterly destroyed her.  None of us could understand how but the damage was obvious to all.  I hopped on a plane and flew to a place near where her mission station was.  I met with her sister and brother-in-law and planned the kidnapping to take place that night ...

This week was to be where God SHOWED me the REALITY of angels, demons and Satan.  None of which I wanted to know, I was there to rescue a dear sister from my early days as a Christian.  The reality of the powers of evil and the existence of real angels were the furthest things from my mind or desire!  And, that is a story for another time.

Somewhere in this week, I met a young lady in Fresno and over coffee (tea for me!) we had a long discussion about her time on the mission field in Mexico.  As she talked her language became more and more confusing to me.  She kept dwelling on the thought that there was more than one Jesus.  It made no sense to me, but I let her spin her yarn ... and I thought on this concept mightily.  It troubled me that there could be fake Jesus' running around - no I am not talking about people proclaiming themselves to be the Messiah - those will always exit.  I am talking about our ability in our hearts and minds to serve the wrong Jesus and God, thinking completely otherwise about it!

How do you serve God and yet not be serving God at all?  It just made no sense.

Oh, make no mistake, God was going to remove that confusion from my mind rather rapidly - and scare that woollies off of me in the course of events that week!  It there was a fog over my vision, it was about to be permanently removed!

Jesus, but not Jesus.  Hmmm, so I do something for God, but it is not for God at all.  God does something and everyone is in praise mode, but it is not God at all whom did whatever.  God, but not God - a false God - a God whom we define but not the divine One.

Across the week I was to see amongst far flung brethren I was interacting with that superstition and pragmatism had replaced God in reality.  Yeah, they were doing for God, they were serving God, they were praising God but it was not God at all it was the false god of their imagination.  They were defining whom god is and how god works and putting him in their little boxes and then worshiping this self-serving god in the box they had created.  And that was how Becca was destroyed, Satan created a hole for her to fall through ... and she did.

This understanding terrified me!

Was I guilty of this?  Had I stuffed God in a box and said, "This what you can do, this is how you can act, this how I am going to worship you."?  I am sure, since my Christianity at this point was the product of what I now know to be a pagan Christian church, I had to make some changes instantly to my personal understanding of God.  You can not put God in a box or place limitations on Him without creating a false god.  And my desire has always been to be wholly committed to Him and Him alone - the one and only true God.

So, when I watch a Christian movie, read a Christian book, listen to Christian teaching - I ALWAYS ask the question, "whom is getting the glory here?"  Is it God or is it man?  If man, then we are talking about the false god, the false Jesus, you are being misled.  There is no excuse, no exceptions.  Sorry.

As the old expression goes, "The road to Hell is paved with the best of intentions".  Indeed, Christianity fails when we do not put God first in all of our pursuits.  When our interests or agenda become the goal of whatever the activity, you just left God in the dust and the result will show.

You do not know what to do with your life so you are going to become a missionary, naturally.  Cool, grandma even coughed up the dough for school for you to serve in India, praise the Lord, He answered.  Cool, but why?  I have had this conversation so many times it is uncountable.  Only once did the answer point to an actual call by God (and yes she did eventually lose her life but made a tremendous impact on the small group she witnessed to).  Most were called by grandma's money, the desire to travel, to not work, in one case to not have to do housework because servants were cheaply hired and worked into the monthly budget!  Sorry, but in all of those cases, save for the martyred one in Indonesia, it was the fake god of their own making they were serving and the results showed it.

It exists even in real Christian undertakings.  You want to build a church.  Why?  Give me an answer that is not because you want to, you feel led to, you have the truth no one else does, etc.  Huge egos (I, Me, Mine) build churches, servants of God deal within the realm of what exists today.  Perhaps a church is needed - cool.  But, God, the real one calls you to not split apart, not to do your own thing, to stand in place and be the plain pain in the @#^ of the church representing His interests - until they throw you out, then you get to build what God wants - when He is ready.  Conversely, divesting your church body into smaller groups is also a Biblical example - not consolidation and larger structures!

Even in something as simple as a mission trip for youth, I was to see the false god take over and in a dedicated Christian church, God-ly men, committed youth - utterly destroyed because the wrong leader was chosen whom did things HIS own way - and the results showed it.  Then the finger pointing begins, and rumors and whispers and lawsuits and families are leaving the church and no one understands why ...  But, but, but, we did this for God, how could this have happened ... ?!?!?!?!?!

I run into christians all of the time whom do not attend church.  They are worshiping the false god and justifying it with excuses.
I run into christians all of the time whom are church hopping.  They can not "feel" right in any one so they just move on and justify it with excuses.
I run into christians all of the time whom do not read their Bible!  It is boring after-all ... (think on that one!)
I run into christians all of the time whom hold to some very dogmatic rules, problem is the Bible does not support their hard headed/hearted ideals.  They even use the Bible to support their bigotries, unsuccessfully for those whom do know their Bible!
I run into Christians all of the time, whose hearts I can discern are sold out to God but whose base desires negate their witness.  (no throwing stones, I have my failures too)
I run into Christians all of the time whom are driven by pride and ego, and they will not see it.  I am the one with the problem, not them!
I run into Christians all of the time, defeated by life, not understanding why, not seeing that they have not given their all to the real God.  God must be a lie after-all, right?

So yeah, there are lots of "Christians" today whom are making a great mess because they are led by a false god called "self".  Equally there are a great many Christians whose witness has been negated through sin.

What is a believer to do?!?!?!?

A) You know if you are saved or not (confession, baptism, desire to read Bible, sense of condemnation on wrong doing, desire for fellowship, etc)
B) You can judge right from wrong, why are you doing what you are doing?
C) No one is sinless, not your pastor, not you, not me, not anyone!
D) The true God forgives, demands that all you do be His and for Him alone (let that sink in).
E) Serve God, not yourself, not your 401-K, not demands of anyone other than God.

In the end, I learned God, the real God, wants you to be a servant, to get out of your comfort zone and serve Him by serving others in their need.  Unlike Him, He does not demand you wash other's feet - but He might, if that is a problem area for you ...

I learned to avoid books about the Bible and to only study the Bible, with some strong cross references.  I avoid christian-ese books, which are all the rage because some mighty bad theology is to be found there.  I avoid books by Christians, whose only credit is that they are Christian.  Sorry I will avoid your experiential faith for a Biblical fact based faith.  Their tales may be true - most are not.

In the end you are responsible for what goes in your body/mind/heart, everything has an impact on your faith - to misdirect, to weaken, yes even to strengthen - the choices are all yours.  But if you choose poorly it might not be the fuzzy-wuzzy Jesus you expect to face in the end but a Sovereign Warrior King with little sense of humor.