Do you have YOUR air freshener?
The other day I was in
an undisclosed popular Christian bookstore and I came across a Jesus Christ air
freshener and I thought to myself "what have we become?"
I
don't think Christ cares what your car smells like and he certainly isn’t your homeboy, nor would he own a Jesus bobble head. At times I think about what it would
have been like to walk with Jesus and be at the last supper. But J Vernon McGee said it pretty plainly
in one of his radio teachings when he laid out what it was really like to walk
with Christ. The last supper was the most dangerous place in Jerusalem at the
time, the 12 disciples were being hunted and Jesus was wanted for dead. Daily
these 12 “not so ordinary men” risked life and limb to walk with someone who
was thought to be a heretic and speak blasphemy. Every day was a battle to
survive and they travelled the streets with no homes and no food. All but one
of the disciples was murdered and so was the Apostle Paul. To be a follower of
Christ you would have been excommunicated from your family and most of the time
put to death in certain parts of the known world.
http://www.persecution.org/awareness/persecuted-countries/
Sometimes I doubt if I truly know what it means to have faith in God. Would I still believe like I do now if I was told by my government that if I did I am as good as dead? If I was told my family would be murdered and I would be decapitated? I know that’s a little extreme but come on, Jesus and his disciples did it! I've heard stories from missionaries about Christians who have to meet in underground basements to speak of their faith and weep so hard they fill the floor with tears. There are those in Africa who give up their entire family and "tribe" all the life they know to follow Christ and the hope he brings us. When my faith come into plain view is when I look in the mirror and I think of all the people out there that barely have the means to eat a meager meal and face famine and unimaginable dark situations; yet they still praise God for everything they have. When I look myself in the mirror after a hard day and I start to get angry, who am I to have such little faith!!!
"so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11
There
are still Christians this day and age all around the world that are facing this
very same persecution day in and day out. They are paying the ultimate price
for their faith. It makes me question my own faith. Here in America we get so
consumed by little things like what to wear to church or where we are going to
go eat afterwards. We get caught up in the gossip and drama, and what songs are
being played or if the preacher is saying what WE want to hear. Is the building
nice enough? Do we have enough flat screens? Did we put on enough makeup? Do my
shoes match my shirt? Do people really know what I am like when I’m not at
church? We forget the true meaning of worshiping a Holy and loving God, and
how much freedom we have to do so (even though it shrinks by the day!!!!).
Yet
2000 years after the death of Christ two of the world's
most populist countries (3.6 billion people+) and several more in
that region persecute, kill, maim, and imprison Christians daily!!!
http://www.persecution.org/awareness/persecuted-countries/
Sometimes I doubt if I truly know what it means to have faith in God. Would I still believe like I do now if I was told by my government that if I did I am as good as dead? If I was told my family would be murdered and I would be decapitated? I know that’s a little extreme but come on, Jesus and his disciples did it! I've heard stories from missionaries about Christians who have to meet in underground basements to speak of their faith and weep so hard they fill the floor with tears. There are those in Africa who give up their entire family and "tribe" all the life they know to follow Christ and the hope he brings us. When my faith come into plain view is when I look in the mirror and I think of all the people out there that barely have the means to eat a meager meal and face famine and unimaginable dark situations; yet they still praise God for everything they have. When I look myself in the mirror after a hard day and I start to get angry, who am I to have such little faith!!!
So I
ask you now, do you have YOUR Jesus Christ air freshener? I hope so because
apparently in America that's all we need to be Christians......
Mark 12:41-44
New
International Version (NIV)
The Widow’s Offering
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were
put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.
Many rich people threw in large amounts.42 But a poor
widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you,
this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their
wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
"so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11
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