"Consumer Christianity"

Do you ever get those little booklets from your church and it gives you a devotional a day? I got one from Rivervew called "Our Daily Bread" and it often steers me back on course throughout my work day. Today's reading was pretty good. Thought I would share.

"Christianity in modern America...tends to be easy, upbeat, convenient, and compatible. It does not require self-sacrifice, discipline, humility, an otherwordly outlook, a zeal for souls, a fear as well as love of God. There is little guilt and no punishment, and the payoff in heaven is virtually certain. What we now have might best be labeled 'Consumer Christianity." The cost is low and customer satisfaction seems guaranteed." --historian Thomas C. Reeves

"If we were only customers of Almighty God, we could be selective in our faith and reject anything we didn't like. But that's not the idea we get from Jesus. He pointed us to a cross, not to a spiritual check-out counter. He said: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it." (Luke 9:23-24)

"Christ died on a cross for our sins, not for satisfaction. And he calls us to trust in Him, then follow Him with a life of self-denial. In a world where the customer is always right, it takes radical obedience to God to keep from buying into 'Consumer Christianity.'" --David McCasland

This referred to one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Such a complex ideal for a human. Such a simple way to live. But it is true in what I see. Like the people on Saved! who walk around in this disillusionment that Jesus is going to make everything better. I also talk to people who think there is no hell or they can go to heaven for basically being a good person. That used to be me. I didn't like the happy clappys who would scream out in tongues and make me feel weird. Well...I still don't like them. They still make me feel weird. I still feel weird sometimes talking about Jesus. I'm fine with name dropping God but you mention Jesus, and people look at you funny. You turn into this nutty, freaky, yucky person and people slowly back away so they don't catch what you have. Weird.

Anyhow, that's all I have to comment on for now. I have some things to take care of before I leave for the day. Fire up the snow blowers.