Follow Jesus and get what?
I’ve been pondering some of the popular new preachers who teach that we can have an abundant life through belief in Christ. While we do certainly have an abundance of joy and peace through our belief, I’m concerned that their message is “become a Christian, get rich and get healed” instead of “become a Christian and be like Christ.” Jesus got nailed to a tree for bringing the good news and only one of the disciples — John — died of old age, and him in exile on a prisoner island.
I’ve seen God work miraculously in the lives of many. I’ve seen healings (and have been the subject of a couple of them) and have seen thoroughly wretched lives turned around. God works in shocking ways sometimes. However, I’m inclined to believe that the outer lives of most Christians more closely resemble the travails of the apostle Paul rather than the good times promised by some of the television preachers:
Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one — I am talking like a madman — with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. (2 Corinthians 11:23–27 listen in Real Audio)
Paul had everything that the outside world would envy before he met Christ on the Road to Damascus: he was considered brilliant by his peers, he had a sterling heritage, he was successful in all that he did, and he had great self-esteem. Yet he considered all of that nothing compared to what Jesus gave him. I would rather have what Jesus gave Paul than all the riches of the world.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.mcculloughsite.net/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/38
