Which Jesus Do You Serve?

In American culture, the name of Jesus Christ is regarded in quite a few ways.  For some, myself included, the name of Jesus Christ is the most blessed, wonderful name in all existence.  For all too many Americans the name of Jesus Christ is merely a curse-word, a by-word, even the name of the figment of some diabolical imagination.  Nevertheless, Jesus Christ has been right in the middle of American culture from its inception as the unavoidable, immovable mountain in the center of the square of the marketplace of ideas.  At one time, the name of Jesus Christ in the United States was respected above all values, names, or ideologies.  Now, the name of Jesus Christ is loosely and flippantly tossed around and one might even expect skeptics and enemies of Jesus Christ to be engaged in such behavior but there are now even professing Christians who bring his name into disrepute and dishonor.  This brings us to the character, the person bearing the name.

We naturally associate not only the faces of family, friends, and associates with their respective names, but also the character of each.  In our minds, a person's behavior is inseparable from their name and the same is true of Jesus Christ.  When one uses Christ's name dishonorably, that person automatically reflects their own perception of Christ, a disposition that sees him as just a historical figure, or a fictitious construct like the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus.  Who takes the Easter Bunny seriously-?  Children who either know no better, or children who willingly believe the fiction.  Sadly, today, far too many Christians have no idea who and what Jesus Christ truly is.  The story of the "babe wrapped in swaddling cloths," born to a mild virgin has been told and retold so many times, Nativity scenes have been on display each December annually like clockwork have become a part of pop culture. 

For many, that's all that's known about Jesus Christ.  Consider for a moment the paintings, sculptures of Jesus Christ, still found in the United States, especially in Roman Catholic institutions and ponder the humble, gentle visages of those images.  Christ is shown as a supernaturally stoic, calm man who rarely smiles and just as seldom shows emotion, particularly the emotion of anger.  This image has become associated with that name in modern times unfortunately, and such a shame, for the Bible says that his name is a name above all names and that all shall confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  His name is one at the mere mention of which Satan and his demonic host shudder and tremble.

Modern Americans have become very accustomed to this Jesus.  Christians have too.  It is my objective to present another Jesus, one who is starkly different from the Jesus of American mainstream culture.  The Jesus I present may frighten many.

First, we have to briefly establish why Jesus is such a prominent part of history.  The Bible says that Jesus simply came to destroy the work of the devil and to seek and to save that which was lost.  He came to buy back, to redeem a lost, corrupt humanity from an incurable, one-hundred percent fatal malady- sin.  This is why he came.  Period.  The Jesus of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was such an outstanding, Biblically accurate depiction of the Passion Week and comes as close as possible to what he went through out of love for us and obedience to his Father.  We see a submissive Jesus, one who restricts the use of his power, even against his bitter enemies.  Throughout the movie we see him condescending to the level of man, even washing the feet of his own disciples.  Yet again, Jesus came to deal with Satan's power over a lost mankind and sin's iron grip.  Sin's vise-like hold prevented God from living within man.  Jesus came to make it possible.

But sin rages on.  Satan continues to ravage the earth, seemingly without restraint (although those born again know better).  Christ succeeded, didn't he?  Of course, and there are, still today, people being saved from the eternal penalty of sin, hell.  God will not force man to obey his will.  Man, at his heart is by nature an enemy of God and does not want to be ruled by God.  God joyously receives all that embrace his Son in saving, repentant faith, but the day will come when the cancer of sin, born in Satan's heart and devouring the lives of mankind will finally be destroyed.  This presents the "other" Jesus.

The Jesus that will return to earth will not be the one who was spat upon and beaten, mocked and ridiculed.  This Jesus will be a mighty warrior, coming for battle, coming to settle all accounts, to give to all that which is deserved.  Now of course, both illustrations of Jesus Christ presented in this essay are one and the same, however separated only by purpose.  In his first coming, Christ came as a humble Redeemer.  At his second coming he will come as a King to take that which is rightfully his- worship and absolute, unresisted rule over the world.  The Jesus who will return to balance the scales will, in awesome, frightening fashion brandish his power on all who have resisted him, fought him, disobeyed him.  The Jesus who will return is a strong, regal figure who tolerates no rebellion or disobedience.  We would do well to remember that this time until his return is one of grace, of mercy, or urgency.  He is beseeching all to enter into the ark of salvation before it's too late because if you reject the Jesus who came in humility and meekness and incomprehensible restraint, you will have to face the Jesus who is returning as one who "treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of El Shaddai."

The time is now, Christian and non-Christian alike, to come to grips with the reality of Jesus Christ, that he is one who is coming to set everything aright and will forever eliminate that which does not fit within his plan for eternity.  By nature, man seeks to create his own objects of worship, therefore, man has comfortably fashioned a Jesus that he can fit into his own "box" but that, my friend is idolatry.  Jesus Christ will not permit himself to be made or remade by anyone.

The Men Are What's Wrong With America

“And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, as his father Manasseh had done" (II Kings 21:20).</p>
<p>If one looks at present-day American culture, one will undeniably see a civilization in its geo-political twilight, one which is, as far as morality is concerned, already six feet under the cold earth, long since eulogized, the weeping crowd having despondently departed, with future visitations uncertain.&#160; America's tombstone shall be a mighty, massive monument to her once world-famous decadence, her offal-smelling political theatre, her feints of global superiority from lazily resting upon laurels.&#160; Take comfort America-lovers, Patriots, you hearty scions of Minutemen and Buffalo Soldiers, for this is written with a heavy heart, with fear, with trembling of one who loves the United States of America strongly.&#160; Yes, I love my country and I love her enough to not turn a blind eye to her depravity.</p>
<p>Th United States has been in a continuous slide downward into the valley of impotence, and that cannot be disputed.&#160; Some might say that this is just a &#8220;dry spell,&#8221; just a &#8220;bump in the road&#8221; or even that the collective losing of our scruples should rather be interpreted as our ascent onto the mountain peak of intellectual freedom, the loosing of old-world shackles of outmoded, sexist, oppressive traditional code.&#160; Obviously opinions will vary about our beloved country's true moral condition.&nbsp; Facts, however, cannot be argued against.&nbsp; Just this week, I read in the Chicago Tribune of a 14-year-old boy's being beaten into a coma by a vicious street gang in Logan Square.&nbsp; Gang violence in our cities is sky-rocketing.&nbsp; Teen pregnancy has become an epidemic, partially because young ladies have not been effectively taught how to properly measure potential suitors against in-home, upstanding, hard-working men.&nbsp; The father is supposed to be the bar.&nbsp; The husband and father is to be ever-present exemplar of discipline, honor, and self-control.&nbsp; Over the past few decades, the absence of fathers and husbands in the home has invariably led to today's broken and battered society.</p>
<p>The attraction of quick money, combined with duress are two huge contributors to young men joining gangs, but I had parents, particularly a strong father who I feared infinitely more than any gangster or gangbanger, and my old neighborhood was replete with them.&nbsp; My father being there was a tremendous check against the pull of a life that I was not destined nor designed to live, and it is has been my father who has been my model after which I have patterned my work ethic and self-discipline.</p>
<p>The Bible verse at the opening of this post concerns the reign of King Amon, son of King Manasseh.  King Manasseh was the son and heir of a righteous king, Hezekiah who obeyed the commandments of the Lord and fought a valiant war against a storm of idolatry that chronically threatened to sweep through the nation and ensure the devastating impact of the hammer of God's judgment on the land.  If Hezekiah was so righteous, why was his son Manasseh and his grandson Amon so wicked?  The Bible says in II Chronicles 33:9 that Manasseh had caused the people of Judah to do more evil than the pagan nations that had been driven out of the land before them.  All of the reforms Hezekiah had instituted that were in perfect line with Jewish law he reversed.  How?  Why was Hezekiah the king so effective, but Hezekiah the father so ineffective?  This is one of the main ailments that plagues the United States of America- fathers who are are like absentee landlords.

The rapidity of our society's breakdown, I believe, is due to the failure of men to hold back the corruption that inherently lurks under the surface of all societies.  Fathers in particular are charged with the solemn duty to raise their sons and daughters to valiantly hold the line of morality and to advance high standards, thereby preserving and improving society.  Hezekiah, for whatever reason, did not make sure that his sons would walk in the way of God's Law.  Ultimately, their society unraveled, shown in the wickedness and depravity of the people, merely following the example set by their leadership.

Men have allowed their sons and daughters to be raised by the unscrupulous entertainers and musicians of the day, and they themselves are becoming enslaved by the constant stream of sexually explicit and pornograhic material flowing through every media outlet, and the “sins of the fathers” are passed on to the children.  Men, who have exhausted incalculable energies in careers and various pursuits, garnered numerous acolades aren't making the same investments into the lives of their children, nieces and nephews, the children of their neighborhoods. As a result, we are losing everything.  Without spiritual strength, every battle against each volley of societal and familial decay will be lost.  Without men who stand tall and strong, determined not to give in, the children will continue to be killed, abused, raised by television and movies.  All the righteous work of King Hezekiah had, by the time of his grandson Amon, been forgotten and undone.  Amon, as a result of the unfettered life of immorality and moral relativism, had been killed by his own servants.  Our children are also being cut down in youth.  Amon was twenty-two when he became king and was assassinated at age twenty-four.  Sound familiar?  How many news headlines could any one of us pull up recounting the tragic death of a young man?  If the men of the United States do not get in their rightful positions as servant-leaders of their homes and communities, empowered by God Himself, there will no longer be a United States of America on earth.