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Politicking for God?




As I was driving home today, I saw several people shouting and raving in front of the McDonald’s sign about everything from: “God is my Savior,” to “…the wrath of God.” As I turned the corner, I was reminded of a Nooma video I saw a while back called Bullhorn. Rob Bell says at one point in the video, “…You just don’t find Jesus waving Heaven in front of people like some carrot on a stick.” Now, plenty of people have attacked Rob for his films and have labeled him as a Universalist, yet until you actually see this up-close and personal, you just don’t feel the lack of humility until the guy with the bullhorn is shouting at you in your vehicle or as you walk past, and might I add, in the middle of “the Bible Belt”. A thought came to my mind that their proclamations sounded similar to the Marine “prayer”. If you have ever seen the movie, Full Metal Jacket, you will remember these words. “This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.” If we take just a moment, this group has almost made their own parody of this prayer. “This is MY Jesus. There are many like Him, but this one is MINE. You must come to US to receive Him.”

Phillippians 2: 6-7 talks about what Jesus truly had to become to be the Lamb of God: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Yes, I know I have quoted John Eldredge many times in my writing. I’m not sorry for it, though. His writing rivets me. In his book Beautiful Outlaw, he describes for the reader a stimulating perspective of how strong Jesus’ humility really was. “Murals and statues of Hussein the Magnificent were plastered all over the country [Iraq] - a handsome and dashing military hero, bold, a man for the people, forty years younger than he actually was… Many dictators have done the same. Hitler did it; Chairman Mao too… Yet, the only king who ever had a right to be worshipped shows up riverside at somebody else’s revival [baptism in the Jordan] and waits his turn.”

So, I guess the only question now, is which approach to you choose? Do you engage in emitting sound-bites that stir up dissention or do you comprise a humble, sacrificial, behind-the-scenes heart of a servant?




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