May

2

What Does Your Jesus Look Like?

Post Category: Authenticity, Blog Posts, Church 

Jesus pictures

There’s a subversion of Christianity in many churches today. This shift in spiritual culture has taken Jesus out of the church and replaced him with a Jesus that’s less demanding. More “consumer-friendly.”

In the words of Voltaire…

“God created us in His own image…and we returned the favor.”

You have only to do a Google image search for “Jesus” to see the Jesus that exists in many churches today. We have the effeminate, “girlie” Jesus, the “homeboy” Jesus. Even the scary, thorny-heart Jesus.

Republican JesusBut more disturbing than these popular images of Jesus is the Republican, consumeristic Jesus we find in so many churches.

This Jesus lets you remain comfortable in your suburban lifestyle without worrying about the needs of millions in the world around us.

This Jesus doesn’t challenge us to be outward-focused in our faith but instead focuses on “our needs.” Are we being fed? What are you doing to serve me?

Consumerism is destroying the church from within.  We have taken Jesus out of the church and replaced him with a Jesus we can live with.

In Revelation 3:20 we’re told that Jesus stands at the door and knocks. Traditional Christianity has painted this as an image of Jesus knocking on the heart of the unbeliever but if we read this passage in context we find that this is a letter written to the church. Which begs the question, how did Jesus get outside of the door to begin with?

Take a minute and think about your Jesus. Is he the Jesus we see described in the New Testament? Or have we spent a little too much time creating our version of a Jesus we can live with?

What does your Jesus look like?

Comments

9 Responses to “What Does Your Jesus Look Like?”

  1. Pete Wilson on May 2nd, 2008 11:31 am

    Very thought provoking. I love this post Brad. I struggle with this all the time. Someone once told me “for every misconception you have about Jesus, there is a corresponding consequence”. Very true!

  2. Corey on May 2nd, 2008 11:44 am

    Great post. This is something I struggle with. I tend to conform Jesus to my mindset at the time. The bible is our only guide, and I need to make sure I look to that and not my own feelings or emotions.

    Corey’s last blog post..Series Prediction

  3. bradruggles on May 2nd, 2008 2:24 pm

    Pete, That’s a great quote. So true.

    Corey, You’re exactly right. Our only solution is to line up our misconceptions with the truth of what the Bible says about Jesus.

    - Brad Ruggles

    bradruggles’s last blog post..How to Tell If You’re A Hardcore Designer

  4. inWorship on May 2nd, 2008 2:31 pm

    It’s easy to live as if we keep Him in our pocket. Just take him out to deal with our wants and desires and put Him back when we don’t want Him in our stuff. It’s my pride that does this everyday.

    Thanks for a great post and a great reminder, to not force Him out and keep Him the center.

  5. Brian on May 2nd, 2008 3:07 pm

    WOW! It’s not often we read stuff in context anymore…we need to get our acts together and put Jesus at the center of our life as christians, just like we are asking non-believers to do!

    Brian’s last blog post..Meeting Minutes

  6. Jad on May 2nd, 2008 11:00 pm

    This post is great. I think that for the longest time I had the consumerist Jesus as my model.

    I think the misconception comes in when people think that as christians we should be focused on “getting their lives together” rather than serving, witnessing, etc.

    The rub lies in the fact that people never truly have it “together” or “perfect” because we all fall short. Then at some point people become too entrenched in complacency to do anything.

    Sometimes people new to Christianity can be so refreshing because they are themselves out of the comfort zone and can be SO ON FIRE and can truly ignite and prompt people to leave the comfort zone.

  7. Jad on May 2nd, 2008 11:02 pm

    By the way…

    My Jesus looks like the bobble head doll Jesus in your photo…

    who by the way looks like Randy Owen from the country group ALABAMA.

  8. bradruggles on May 3rd, 2008 11:14 am

    Jad - you hit the nail on the head. Once we get our eyes off of others and begin worrying about ourselves it’s easy to become completely self-absorbed and lose sight of our mission.

    Brad Ruggles

    bradruggles’s last blog post..Playing With Your Food

  9. Seth Ayers on May 4th, 2008 8:01 pm

    I’m liked it and i defintaly liked the picture of Jesus from Dogma

    Seth Ayerss last blog post..So

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