Being a Christian is a statement of my intent – not His.

I saw another one this morning.  Prosperity Preaching as invisible as only “narrative furniture” can be.  Christian prosperity for Christian followers.  The message this time was doubting God will work a miracle in your life.  The miracle?  The miracle of a job, of health, of a dream fulfilled, of a baby. The miracle was a miracle of desired “stuff” of this world. And the “likes” were ringing as loud as a cash register in a fire-sale.

It was a message of hope – that you have rights hope (as a Christian) – you can rightly expect hope for a return on your faith –

“Nothing wrong with miracles” I hear you say. “We need more miracles in this day and age. More miracles that glorify God. That bring others to Christ. Christ healed the sick. Christ Himself was a miracle birth. Christ never condemned wealth. Christ loves those who love themselves. What’s wrong with wanting my own miracle?”

Wanting “what” might be the issue.  You are a “Christian” is alive and well in a Christian near you – in many Christians near you.

Then up popped Paul this morning.

“We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Corinthians 2:6-8

I saw a post of an article written by another: “I Have a Dream”  The theme was this – “Yet none of us can say we have fully lived up to Dr. King’s vision of a land where each person would be judged by the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin.”

And maybe that is the problem. We see “color” as the issue and not “character”. We fix the “issue” with ever more laws and find we have fixed nothing at all.  Not really.  We might have “fixed” public obedience to the law – political correctness in the public arena of debate and opinion. But I keep seeing “narrative furniture” that maintains the fiction.  Narrative furniture so rife it is invisible.

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Jesus stood there and said this: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17

And then left us with a conundrum.

What is the Law? Who are the Prophets?  Those Pharisees and Church Leaders … ? Did they have truth?  Did they have wisdom? The truth and wisdom to know that nailing this Messiah was truth and wisdom … ?

Being a Christian religious is a statement of my intent – not His.

We all love the snake because we have won.  We have been saved.  We are forgiven.  Our sin is no more.  So we can love the story of the snake.  It doesn’t apply to us.  We can laugh or boo or hiss back at that hissing whisper … that enticing logic … that inviting “what about you?” … We all love “that story” of the snake in “that garden” because Jesus came along and hung on “that cross” so we don’t have “that issue” to deal with any more.  We are saved.  We are Christians.  We have won.  We have conquered death.  We have our own narrative furniture.  We have THE truth and THE wisdom just like Paul said …

Grace freely given. He died for you. Join us. We are Christians and we have won!  And that means that we have both THE wisdom and THE truth. We believe – and so should you – what other sensible choice is there?

Being a Christian religious believer is a statement of my intent – not His.

As we sing lustily (for each other?) …

“I want to give to Him complete control of … ALL OF ME!

Is a statement of my intent – not His 

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Not more than 48 hours ago He invited me to stop writing and start reading.  And here I am.  Ignoring Him – again.

Or am I?