the basic message #E231

1/2/04

I find myself in a peculiar state of life.  As I grow older, I seem to have a growing distaste and distrust of organized religion.  I read a news clip on AOL today that included the following quote from Pat Robertson:

"I think George Bush is going to win in a walk," Robertson said on his "700 Club" program on the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network, which he founded. "I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It's shaping up that way."

It seems like Pat Robertson gets a little nuttier with each passing year, and he really delivered a prizewinner in his statement above.  Robertson, like so many other "Christian" leaders, doesn't know whether he wants to be in the religion business or politics.  And then there is Ken Copeland and his clone, Creflo Dollar.  Sometimes I play a little game as I'm channel surfing on cable.  If I stumble upon either one of these charlatans, I'll look at the clock and see just how long they can talk before they talk about the prosperity God "owes" his people.  God doesn't owe us a thing, and furthermore, if anyone owes anyone anything, we owe God.  How Copeland and Dollar have so perverted the Gospel to be a celestial welfare system, I have no idea. 

Think for just a moment how a non-believer must feel when he turns on the TV and sees these clowns that not only proclaim themselves as men of God, they have thousands of followers that confirm their proclamation.  I think the real men and women who preach the true love of Jesus Christ are the unknowns.  They labor at little churches in places like Patterson, Louisiana and Lumberton, Mississippi.  No one even knows them outside of their little communities because their message has nothing to offer.  Nothing tangible that is.  Theirs is a message of the love of Jesus Christ that knows no boundaries.  You won't hear a political message from their pulpit.  You won't have to worry about them beating you up for tithes and offerings.  They will be happy to continue driving their 20 year-old car and will be satisfied with the very modest parsonage.  You'll never know how difficult it is for them to explain to their wife and children how they can't afford the nice things that the other families in the area enjoy, but they'll never show it publicly. 

The Jesus they proclaim is very different than the "new and improved" Jesus that is sold from the vast majority of the pulpits every Sunday in America.  Their Jesus not only loves the little babies that are victims of abortion, their Jesus loves the inmates on death row.  Their Jesus still says to avoid war at all costs, although few people want to hear that message today.  These pastors still possess the quiet courage to preach the word of God undiluted and unfiltered.  They politely step up in the pulpit each week and say the same thing they've said hundreds of times before, and they continue to hold out the hope that someone might have ears to hear, this time.  They know that preaching the true Jesus will never endear them to most folks, but they also know that when their journey ends, "Well done, good and faithful servant" will greet them, unlike the lukewarm preachers that plague our world. 

While I long to be in the congregation of the true man of God, I can take solace in knowing that as long as my Bible is within arm's reach, I am in the finest congregation known to man.  Amen?