Effeminate Jesus & Emasculated Men...

 

Netflix "The First Temptation of Jesus" a Gay Comedy

The picture so many congregations have today is of a limp-wristed Jesus. He's always nice. He always speak so softly and kindly.  He just wants to be our friend.  What a bunch of hooey! 

These congregations are filled with pew warming members interested in worshiping their checkbook god. (They ask and he is supposed to deliver, and he will, IF he is God. Apparently "no" is not a part of that god's vocabulary).

They are known for their third grade Sunday School faith that proudly declares "God loves everyone", in spite of biblical evidence to the contrary (Malachi 1:2-3; Romans 9:13...). 

These congregations are generally governed by emasculated men. They often fear how the community will receive them.

They are encumbered by the fear that people will feel "unwelcome".

Their leaders often want to use reason, logic, and a sappy emotionally laden pseudo-love, rather than agape love, to attract the masses of hardened hearts, which will likely never come anyway. 

These pretenders don't want to worship the broad shouldered chiseled muscle and meek but strong and zealous Jesus who taught:

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10:34 and

“For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—’” Matthew 10:35 and

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26 and

"Follow me and let the dead bury the dead." Matthew 8:21-22 and

“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Luke 16:18 and

Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Luke 12:5

There is a harsh side to Jesus, the same Jesus who watched the perversion of His Father's house - a den of thieves - and plaited together a whip. 

The same Jesus who says to one of His own "get behind me satan".  

The same Jesus who reveals himself to John and says: "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

The same Jesus who rhetorically asked “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." Matthew 12:48-50

The same Jesus who WILL judge all!

We can neither be friends with the world nor friends with our neighbors and love Jesus as we ought.  We can be friends with those who love the Lord and those who obey Him, but we will always be at odds with those who renounce the authority of God Almighty by following the ways of the world.  We will always be confronted with hatred, accusations, and shunning IF we walk in his ways.

And in the meantime, the true believers are bailing in record numbers, finding "church" to be a matter of relationships with fellow believers and not in a building founded on a compromised faith much less a part of an apostate denomination/assembly. 

REMEMBER:

For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Luke 23:31

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
James 4:4

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. Matthew 6:24

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will live with them
    and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.”

Therefore,

“Come out from them
    and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
    and I will receive you.”

And,

“I will be a Father to you,
    and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.

 

So too, there is a gracious side for those who are willing and able to wrestle with the complexity of God who is wholly other.  But just as Jacob walked with a limp after the encounter with the angel, so too will the one who wrestles deeply and long with God.

His grace is AMAZING. His love is ENDURING. His compassion is IMMEASURABLE. But there are implications to this relationship as there are with all relationships. 

• The Lord God Almighty loves us enough to accept us as we are and too much to leave us there.  
• His plans for us are for a future and a hope, plans to prosper and not to harm.  But we must subject ourselves to Him and to His plan and not our own.  
• Receiving that salvation is easy. 
• Enthroning Him as Lord is far more challenging.  
• He asks all, of us; all from us.  
• He wants to be our economic advisor, our professional consultant, our social secretary, our educator, our lifelong Master.  

And this is what so many find so difficult.  It's not for sissies.  Women are welcome. Men are welcome. Children are welcome.  The broken, the addicted, the adulterer, liar, thief, whore, ALL are welcome into the fold.  But it means giving up any and every other claim on our lives... 

'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

 C.S. Lewis in "The Chronicles of Narnia"