A few years ago, I had an assistant who brought a pot of coffee to a meeting. Unable to decide if she should bring decaf or regular, she brought a pot of half decaf, half regular. As I remember right, no one drank any of it. Why? Because decaf and regular coffee drinkers are looking for an entirely different experience.
Me? I drink regular. All the time. I abhor decaf. Decaf coffee, as Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band used to sing, is "useless warm brown water." Decaf merely appeals for our desire for a real cup of coffee without causing us any sort of internal stirring.
There is, within the present culture, a very real effort to decaffinate Jesus...to give people the ambiance of an encounter with God without actually having to encounter Him... to appeal for their desire for God, to assuage their inner cry for a walk with the Holy, without succumbing to the affect it would certainly have on their heart. Jesus in a brown thrift store mug, more as a hand warmer than an actual drink. A prop to carry around, but never to partake of.
Please, do not decaffienate the Jesus experience.
Luke 24:32
And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"
Regular Jesus will do something to your heart. You can’t be around him – you can’t know him – without it touching you to the core. You cannot drink from His cup and walk away unaffected.
There is a segment of the church who would portray a Jesus who is a buddy...your homeboy who is your best friend but never your lover, and who will never cause your heart to burn within you because to endure that holy burning of the heart means adjust your life.
Throw that Jesus back and get the real one.
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10 comments:
I just want to point out that the above mentioned assistant...was not this assistant.
I HATE DECAF! HATE IT WITH A PASSION!
I want the real Jesus. Not some hippie! I heard that in a song.
Right on! - firstly coffee must be regular, period. - it comes with the package - like tyres on a car.
Jesus also comes with a period. He IS. There is no hacked version of Him. No amendments. No Diet-Saviour. Just Him.
Throw out the Jesus that blesses you without totally re-engineering you. The one who refreshes you, but does not say to you "Come deeper". The one who may tell you "come to church" without telling you "Abide in Me". The one that flirts with your interest in spiritual things without taking you to "As the Deer pants after the streams of water......"
Danie is right. It was not her. Uh, was it Angela? I forget....
leave it to you to work a cup of coffee into a sermonette.......good job
Great, great post... my heart was singing as I finished reading.
I have a friend that says, "Christianity without the Holy Ghost is just a good philosophy."
Kind of the same thing.
so true... no decaf...
But, Is it okay that I prefer vanilla lattes? I mean I would never get decaf... sometimes I even get the extra shot...
This is amazing! I really feel that you have put a serious problem with the church into a very good "parable" for todays culture. I really enjoyed looking thru your blog. It is amazingly deep and true. Thank you.
Well written. I like the metaphor about the coffee and Jesus. It's quite creative. I like your approach on the "all or nothing" approach between "decaf" or "caf".
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