Archive for the 'Jesus Picture of The Week' Category
What Would Jesus Eat (hint: not peeps, but maybe beer)
A search for Jesus on my iTunes library gives the following results:
Jesus Forever Lover
Picture of Jesus
Me and Jesus Don’t Talk Anymore
Jesus on the Radio
Jesus Gonna Build me a Home
Personal Jesus
Christmas with Jesus
Jesus are you Real
Jesus Christ was an Only Child
Jesus Hit Like the Atom Bomb
Jesus, I’m Thankful
Jesus is a Mighty Good Leader
Jesus, Etc.
Two of these are probably “christian” songs.
The world has a lot of different thoughts on Jesus (not the mexican guy or the curse word). This is really obvious when you check out some entries in Jesus Picture of the Week. Art, music, film, etc; attempt to portray this God/man in a fathomable way. But what comes out of us, is what is in us. We filter everything through personal experience. Many people’s (persons? Charles?) opinions on Jesus don’t come from the man himself or even what he said and did when he was alive. They come from those that follow him, those they try to emulate his life.
Unfortunately, we have done some of the worst things under the pretense of “following God”.
Below is one of the songs from my “Jesus” playlist
Here’s some people trying to be like Jesus i love to hear about
This is the follow-up to the Dove Evolution video.
Mike Erre gave one of the best “teachings” last sunday I have ever heard that touched on this subject but with a much greater message. It takes a bit to get started but it’s something I think we all need to hear. It brought up some things to think about it (this is not a summary, listen to it).
1. We are imperfect. Everyone. Gays, straights, murderers and peacemakers.
2. We are loved despite our imperfection.
I think it’s important to notice that we aren’t loved because we are close to perfection or because we are trying for perfection. We are simply just loved. It’s also important to ask then if we are loved for no reason, how are we better than anyone else? Everyone has achieved the same level of perfection (none) that we have. The fact that we think the love we receive is because something we did is so ultimately selfish and sad. Sadder then is that we feel inadequate because we have not achieved the level of perfection we desire.
So what do we do now? How does this change how we treat others, how we critique ourselves?
Please listen to it here. Regardless of your religious preference.
I was pondering war and Jesus tonight. I asked myself if Jesus would support the war in Iraq or any war for that matter. I don’t know. I don’t think so. Love your enemies definitely doesn’t sound like his hat in the ring. Blessed are the peacemakers, do to others as you would have them do to you…here’s a good one:
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Add in his love for the downtrodden and disdain for his local bureaucracy and it seems like Jesus would most definitely be against war.
How can we marry this image of God with the one we get in the old testament? A God who seemingly supported war and violence against his enemies and those of his people.
So we are left with a good question:
Does God changes his mind?
It’s not unprecedented, but it makes it hard to believe in an infallible God.
Let’s take a look at our current war for a second without getting too political. Simplifying it, republicans support the war (or at least did initially) and democrats don’t (or didn’t). Now, I won’t say ALL Christians are republicans but that is the traditional party affiliation (for some good and bad reasons), so I understand why Christians politically supported the war because they were supporting the consensus of one our their social groups, but what if they really thought about it…
I don’t think we can be social or religious Jesus followers but not political ones. Heart, Soul, Mind, Strength…he pretty much covered everything.
What do you guys think?
Who knew Jesus was hot and blonde?
In other country-western news, the fake southern accent girl who works at Chick-Fil-A in Tustin has given up her fake southern accent.
First Andy Barker, then Bratz The Movie and now this?
Something bad is going down and I’m not going to give up until I find out what it is.
Or until I find a good mexican food place next to the coffee shop I’m working from.
This week’s Jesus picture comes from christiansagainstcartoons.com, with the qoute:
EVEN JESUS RAISES THE ROOF!!! Seriously… WHO’S COOLER THAN CHRIST???
Besides the fact I’m offended beyond measure by the quote, the existence of the website itself disturbs me. There is an old orthodox hymn that says, “Let us set aside the cares of life That we may receive the King of all”. I like this statement because it’s not saying “set aside the sin of the world” or be a hermit, it’s saying, “lets not get caught up in everything around us so we can focus on recieving something from God.” The use of the phrase, “king of all” is very important here. I believe this hymn is from the sixth century. This was a time when emperors and kings still existed. Calling God the “king of all” was very meaningful and important. It’s like saying God is more important than Lost or the name of Britney Spears’ new baby.
I will repeat something I’ve said before (which I probably heard from someone else). We need to be known by what we are for, more than what we are against. If you have the time, read through the website. Try not to say, this person is a nutjob (even though it seems like it when they accuse pbs of trying to make their children gay). Instead, try to ask yourself what your known for being against or being for. Do the people around you even know? I don’t mean who you voted for or what you told them you’ve never done. I mean how you treat them and where you spend your money.
The harsh reality is that most of us live our lives simply to keep ourselves happy and comfortable. The cares of this world aren’t a problem for us because we don’t have time for those. We are still working on the cares of ourself.
