the thinker in me

culmination of thoughts at 4am in the morning...haha

Jesus, you are a man of extremes.

You were so irrelevant. you spoke in parables and you talked about eating your flesh and drinking your blood.
yet, you were so relevant. you spoke in shepherd and farming analogies to make sense to those in the crowds following you.

You were impersonal when You preached to the crowds and fed thousands upon thousands.
yet You are the most personable person we will ever come to know--even in the midst of the crowd, Your eyes were upon the bleeding woman. you knew her intimately and you called her daughter. You hold the keys to unlock every heart.

You never cared about numbers. You preached a message that offended others.
yet you had thousands following you.

You didn’t preach to please men. You preached an insulting, difficult, discomforting, convicting message. You infuriated pharisees, and depressed the rich young ruler. You didn’t preach an easy message. You talked about the narrow road, the call to follow You requires the selling of all possessions, and a call to death to self.
yet Your message pleased many men. it was message for the sick, and the broken; it was a message for those like the bleeding woman and the samaritan woman, You preached a message of life, hope, peace, healing, redemption, and restoration. You speak words that we long to hear, you speak hope to the hopeless, a message of abundant life, and you bring joy to those who have nothing to be joyful about.

Jesus didn’t walk around with the gospel message on His shirt. Jesus wasn’t a broken record, on auto-pilot, preaching about the depravity of man, our sinfulness and our need to repent to every person He encountered. rather, He met people right where they were at, and every encounter was one that pointed to the heart of the Father. every encounter Jesus had with another brought that person closer to the heart of God.

as a follower of Jesus for over 13 years, I am realizing more and more that the bible holds a message that is black and white. my roommate was right. i’m realizing that the message of Jesus is a message of no compromise, no grey area. you are either hot or cold, not lukewarm. you are either following Jesus or you are not. you are either gratifying the flesh or gratifying the desire of the Spirit within you. you are either saying yes or no to Jesus. you either love the world or you reject it. you either love sin or hate sin. black and white.

however, the understanding of the black and white gospel is something that i’m just beginning to understand over the past few years. I wonder if I would have accepted or even come close to understanding the depths of the extreme, radical, revolutionary gospel five, ten, thirteen years ago. despite being born into a christian family, I wonder if I would have felt like such a gospel would be something I could commit to. however, it is only because I have journeyed with the LORD for 13+ years, I can say with confidence that our gospel is a black and white one.

perhaps the gospel message at the beginning of every relationship with Jesus is a grey one? all bible theory, 4 spiritual laws, TULIP aside, perhaps at the beginning of every relationship with Jesus is a gospel message that is simple, and...grey. perhaps it could be as simple as knowing that Jesus loves me and that we want to begin a journey of entering into that. or something that stirs a hunger and desire to know more about the man Christ Jesus. perhaps a grey gospel is the only one which any heart is open and receptive and open to. one that meets people right where they are at. i wonder if the black and white gospel makes sense to me now only because i have spent the past 13 years growing, maturing in my "grey" understanding of the gospel.

i just don't know.

~~~

we can classify Christianity into 3 different camps:
1) the conservative, reformed camp (Piper, John McArthur, Paul Washer)
2) the evangelical, moderate camp (Saddleback, Intervarsity)
3) the charismatic, liberal camp (IHOP, Bethel).

for the purpose for the point i’m making today, the two extreme camps (conservative and charismatic) are actually a lot more similar than we like to admit. (I will explain later)

so that leaves us with two camps: the extreme camps and the moderate camps. each camp has one major purpose. here are my observations:

1) the extreme camps preaches a gospel focusing on the fullness of truth, so that Christ may be glorified. the extreme camps tend not to please man in their preaching and interpretation of the gospel, neither do they care about their reputation. the extreme camps have no fear of being irrelevant to this world, neither are they fearful of being misunderstood or rejected. (“we seek the approval of God and do not serve to please men, do we not?" gal 1:10) once again, i will put both conservatives and charismatics in this camp. the only difference is on one hand you have the charismatics who are not afraid to manifest and blabber openly in tongues and the other hand you have the conservatives who have no fear being hated and rejected by this world, preaching a black and white gospel of the depravity of man and the extent of man's sinfulness.
the extreme camp has a tendency to criticize and judge and often preaches against "lukewarm" christians. ("i know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!” revelation 3:15). oftentimes, their preaching is aimed at conviction and criticism of the church for being too worldly (“do not love the world or anything in the world.” 1 john 2:15) the extreme camps are often guilty of self-righteousness, the spirit of performance, and religion. this camp often labels themselves as "radicals" for Jesus, unafraid of being irrelevant, Spirit filled Jesus Freaks or Bible-Wielding preachers.
many of those in the extreme camp don’t believe in the need to preach in a way to engage the crowd. they don’t believe in a gospel that needs to be “watered down” or particularly relevant in order to be followed. they believe in the full power of the work and conviction of the Holy Spirit, so they preach in a direct manner.

2) the evangelical, more moderate camps preaches a gospel that is relevant (“to the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews.” 1 corinth 9:20). their gospel is one that uses analogies, nuances, and “interpretive lenses”. such preaching may include contemporary analogies, funny stories, and jokes to engage the crowd. they use pizza, good music, and free stuff to lure in the masses. they tend to preach a crowd-friendly gospel, often times with the danger of deviating towards a “prosperity gospel”, or a gospel that people want to hear to make them feel better about themselves. compared to the extreme camp, the evangelical gospel is crowd-friendly and seeker-friendly. they know how to relate to people by preaching a gospel that meets people right where they are at. however, this type of gospel can leave “mature”, life-long christians feeling "unfed", bored, and stagnant.
the gospel of the evangelical church can be criticized as a gospel that is shallow, "watered down", or just not deep enough.

the question is, what type of gospel did Jesus preach? what type of gospel would Jesus preach today?

though there will always be exceptions to the way God works in hearts, my observation is that the gospel most people accept at the beginning of their relationship with Jesus is the moderate gospel. I like to call it the entry point. here you find the vacation bible school children who innocently raise their hands choosing to accept Jesus into their hearts, as well as the youth group retreats where teary-eyed, emotional teens on a “spiritual high” commit/rededicate their lives, and finally you have the hundreds who stand up at Intervarsity large groups. more often than not, such people stand not entirely sure why they stood. oftentimes, because they were preached a grey, friendly, moderate gospel, those who respond have no clear idea of the gospel. they know little to nothing about their sinfulness, their need for repentance, let alone what Jesus even did on that cross. however, despite the lack of knowledge and truth in their understanding, their response is usually very genuine and simple--they felt convicted by the Holy Spirit to say yes, to take one step closer to God, whatever that means.

at this point, for these souls, the future remains unclear. at this point, 2 fates remain:

1) they can choose to vegetate--remain in this state, continue to live the same life, and do not pray or read the bible. these are the ones criticized for experiencing just an “emotional high” as they “fall away” or go back to their worldly lifestyles. here we find our “nominal” or “lukewarm” christians, ones who label themselves as christians, but are not walking the talk. at this point, insert many of those born into christian families--those who have gone to church their entire life but remain unchanged. here are some of your most dangerous christians--those who think they are doing well, have their ticket to heaven, but those who are doing just enough church to get out of hell but just enough sin to still be cool. these are your dangerous christians who claim to be christians but do everything opposite of who Jesus is, and display every work of the flesh (sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, division, envy, drunkenness, orgies” gal 5:19). these are the christians that break God’s heart, for they can claim to be followers of Christ yet do anything and everything that is not of Him, forever tainting the face of Jesus and all the good that He represents.

2) they can begin a life-long love relationship with Jesus, seeking after the heart of God. these are the ones who die to self, pick up their cross, and follow Christ in wholehearted abandonment, pursuing a lifestyle of holiness and righteousness. these are the ones who will give themselves no rest as they seek God’s face, living a lifestyle of repentance (“search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” psalm 139:23). these are the ones who will be willing to die for Christ than live a lukewarm life. these are the ones giving themselves to be people of the first and second commandment--to love God with all their heart soul strength and mind, and to love others with the same love (luke 10:27). these are the ones giving their lives to find eternal life in the knowledge of God (john 17:3). these are the ones who dedicate their lives to prayer and the word of God, ones committed to wholehearted devotion to Christ. through spending time daily with the LORD in the secret place, these are the ones filled with the Holy Spirit, the One who convicts sin and tangibly manifests such fruits as (“love, joy peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.” gal 5:22)

knowing these two groups, the question as ministers of the gospel remains: how do we preach the gospel? and after preaching the gospel, how do we prevent a generation of (fate 1) carnal Christians and how do we raise up a generation of (fate 2) radical, fearlessly abandoned lovers of Jesus?

do you have compassion for those who are lost? just how much do you love the lost?
are you going to preach the true, blunt, black and white extreme gospel regardless of how others going to be receptive to it?
or are you going to preach a simple, “watered down” version of the gospel, something as simple as a small an act of love, a simple “Jesus loves you and is pleased with you”, anything that they will remember, anything to bring them one step closer to God and to point them to God?

I don’t know. haha.
shoot, just read the bible and do what Jesus did.
oh, and never stop praying.