A friend sent me this video and while I am always skeptical of anything that appeals to the extremely radical emotional orientation of western culture lately, I decided to watch it. Now, I did not have the privilege of going to the mall or large department store when I was a child to wait in line and sit on "Santa's" lap. Don't worry, I am not going to bash Santa. Sorry, I am not a Santa basher. Rather, my aim is to exalt Christ always, and since we are approaching that time of year when the Church along with almost every hypocrite on the planet decides to stop what their doing, hold hands, sing kum ba yah, and talk about baby Jesus, I thought it would be good to use this video to say a thing or two, that is, about Jesus, the real Jesus. No, not the Jesus the world has in mind. Nope, not the postmodern Jesus! Nope, not the politically correct Jesus! Nope, not the academically respectable Jesus! Nope, not the emergent Jesus! Nope, not the secular Jesus! Wow....how many of them are there? America has become like a dingy apartment infested with roaches. Every Christmas, someone gets up in the middle of the night and turns on the light, and like cockroaches, there are a million Jesus' and they are all over the place. You never see them until you turn the lights on, in the middle of the night that it. So, every year, we turn on the Christmas light, and bam! There are all kinds of Jesus' running all over the place. And everyone, including the most profane and treacherous among us, loves Jesus.
Now the song is very touching and I would encourage you to watch it. It is nearly impossible not to tear up. There are lines all over the place for Santa Claus, but never any for Jesus. Of course, this is to be expected. Is this not how our Lord was ushered into human flesh some two-thousand years ago? And if there was a line for "Jesus," do you suppose it would be the real Jesus that people were waiting to talk to? If it were, I would imagine He would have a thing or two to say to us, don't you? What gift would Jesus offer you today, if you were to stand in His line? What would your heart attitude be? Would you approach Him, bow down, admit that you are not worthy to be there? Would you say to Him: Lord, I ask not for anything for myself, but only for those who are hurting and without? Would you say: Jesus, you know better than me what I need to serve God to the very best of my ability so that He is glorified in my life - give THAT to me! Give me THAT thing or THOSE things that will cause me to produce as much fruit as I possibly can for the kingdom of heaven.
What gift would Jesus give you? I can tell you: He would not hand you a brand new car, home, gigantic portfolio, huge savings account, name brand suits, or other expensive material items for you to consume them upon your lust. We are filled with lust in the west and we are so terribly blind to it. But lust is not just lust for material things. It is lust for how we want things to be in our life. We lust for a certain type of church, a perfect one. We lust for certain types of friends, perfect ones. We lust for certain types of children, the kind that make US look good, like good people, like good parents, like we know what we are doing. We lust for divorce from relationships that are not giving us exactly what we think they should. We wait in Jesus' line to ask him to change our husband or wife because surely, the reason the relationship is as unsatisfying as it is must be because of them. It could NEVER be me!
Jesus is going to give you the gift of repentance! He will gift you repentance from adultery if you are an adulterer. He will gift you repentance from homosexuality if you are a homosexual. He will gift you repentance from lying if you are a liar. He will gift you repentance from slander and malicious gossip if that is what you are. He will gift you eternal life if indeed you are still dead in your tresspasses and sins. Jesus is not going to give you some emotional experience that will make you feel good about your rebellion against God. Yet that is precisely what so many people in western culture want from Jesus. They want approval and acceptance of their chosen lifestyle even though that lifestyle is detested by God: be it homosexuality, illicit sex, illicit divorce, malicious gossip, you name it.They reason, "I know I am rebelling against God, but God understands that in my heart, I feel badly about it and He loves me." So He is going to embrace me and accept me for who and what I am. No, He is not! He has one word for this sort of hypocrite: REPENT!
If you go stand in the real line for the real Jesus, He is going to give you a real gift that will make a real difference in your life for the rest of your life.
Now the song is very touching and I would encourage you to watch it. It is nearly impossible not to tear up. There are lines all over the place for Santa Claus, but never any for Jesus. Of course, this is to be expected. Is this not how our Lord was ushered into human flesh some two-thousand years ago? And if there was a line for "Jesus," do you suppose it would be the real Jesus that people were waiting to talk to? If it were, I would imagine He would have a thing or two to say to us, don't you? What gift would Jesus offer you today, if you were to stand in His line? What would your heart attitude be? Would you approach Him, bow down, admit that you are not worthy to be there? Would you say to Him: Lord, I ask not for anything for myself, but only for those who are hurting and without? Would you say: Jesus, you know better than me what I need to serve God to the very best of my ability so that He is glorified in my life - give THAT to me! Give me THAT thing or THOSE things that will cause me to produce as much fruit as I possibly can for the kingdom of heaven.
What gift would Jesus give you? I can tell you: He would not hand you a brand new car, home, gigantic portfolio, huge savings account, name brand suits, or other expensive material items for you to consume them upon your lust. We are filled with lust in the west and we are so terribly blind to it. But lust is not just lust for material things. It is lust for how we want things to be in our life. We lust for a certain type of church, a perfect one. We lust for certain types of friends, perfect ones. We lust for certain types of children, the kind that make US look good, like good people, like good parents, like we know what we are doing. We lust for divorce from relationships that are not giving us exactly what we think they should. We wait in Jesus' line to ask him to change our husband or wife because surely, the reason the relationship is as unsatisfying as it is must be because of them. It could NEVER be me!
Jesus is going to give you the gift of repentance! He will gift you repentance from adultery if you are an adulterer. He will gift you repentance from homosexuality if you are a homosexual. He will gift you repentance from lying if you are a liar. He will gift you repentance from slander and malicious gossip if that is what you are. He will gift you eternal life if indeed you are still dead in your tresspasses and sins. Jesus is not going to give you some emotional experience that will make you feel good about your rebellion against God. Yet that is precisely what so many people in western culture want from Jesus. They want approval and acceptance of their chosen lifestyle even though that lifestyle is detested by God: be it homosexuality, illicit sex, illicit divorce, malicious gossip, you name it.They reason, "I know I am rebelling against God, but God understands that in my heart, I feel badly about it and He loves me." So He is going to embrace me and accept me for who and what I am. No, He is not! He has one word for this sort of hypocrite: REPENT!
If you go stand in the real line for the real Jesus, He is going to give you a real gift that will make a real difference in your life for the rest of your life.
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