I'm Bringing Jesus Back
(with apologies to Justin Timberlake)
by Keith Giles
Let us stop making Jesus in our own image. Let us embrace the Jesus who washed feet, and turned the other cheek, and forgave his torturers. Let us lay aside the false "Kick Ass Jesus" who could beat us bloody in a full-contact Ultimate Fighting Tournament (See Mark Driscoll quotes).
Let us put away the cash-minded, wealth-obsessed Jesus who wants us to be rich and embrace the Jesus who urged his followers to sell everything in order to get the Kingdom.
Let us burn our "Wild At Heart" books with the gun-slinging, bare-knuckled adventurer Jesus and go back to the Red Letter Jesus of the Gospels who was "Mild At Heart" and loved people until it killed him.
Let us lay aside the Republican Jesus who seeks to give us political power instead of leading us to love our actual neighbors, no matter who they vote for.
We need to stop making the version of Jesus we are more comfortable with and accept the Jesus who makes us uncomfortable and asks us to love and forgive and share like no one has ever seen before.
Those who mock Jesus for turning the other cheek have never realized how much strength and courage it takes to actually fight your own flesh and allow Jesus to crucify your ego for the sake of others.
I'm bringing Jesus back. Who wants to join me?
-kg
"May the tame God of relevance be replaced by the God whose very presence shatters our egos into dust, burns our sin into ashes, and strips us naked to reveal the real person within. The Church needs to become a gloriously dangerous place where nothing is safe in God's presence except us. Nothing-including our plans, our agendas, our priorities, our politics, our money, our security, our comfort, our possessions, our needs."
- Mike Yaconelli
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