NOTE (1/12/18): We’re all learning and growing.  Some of the stuff I’ve written in these old posts may no longer be exactly what I believe or think, or at least may not be articulated the way I’d do it nowadays.  I preserve them in an attempt it to be transparent about my journey, and in the hopes that readers may still glean some insight from the core ideas found here.  Thanks for journeying with me!

Hey guys, I have now been in San Jose for over a week and am having a rocking time. We just moved into an apartment – and yes, it has a beach vball court and lots of palm trees at a great price. God is good, and no respecter of persons – expect goodness from Him too when you step out in faith!

So I am about ready to actually update on what is all going on here – just have one more article – it’s sort of long but I’m pretty sure it will challenge you in a good way if you’ve been going to church most of your life.

Okay, so – Paul wrote that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Good stuff.  And the Holy Spirit lives inside of you if you have accepted Jesus. Right?

So picture this: Jesus walks into Jerusalem.  By the way, He’s the perfect representation of the Father’s will (Hebrews 1:3) and our model (seeing aswe’re called Christ-ians).  He heads to the temple, which is crowded with people.  We watch, wondering who gentle Jesus will bless today.

Suddenly the scene changes – Jesus tosses a table over, dumping money on the ground.  Then he starts throwing benches and things around, calling people robbers and telling them to get lost. Animals are running wild and people ran from him cuz Jesus was cracking a whip!

How do you think people responded to this?  “Oh Jesus, what a nice guy.”  How about – “This guy is PSYCHO!”  Not the Jesus we usually picture.

Okay, so did Jesus have an off day?  Or maybe that was a one-time thing – a little blip that we can overlook?  Generally, we’ve pictured him as a mellow dude who was just a nice guy to everyone.

I did a quick scan Matthew and Mark it didn’t take long to find a few more questionable endeavors of Jesus:

-The Pharisees asked Jesus a simple question, and Jesus responds, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites…you let go of the commands of God and are only paying attention to your own traditions.” (Mark 7:8) He then proceeds to accuse them of dishonoring their parents and saying they do many things like that.  His disciples came to him later and said that the Pharisees were offended by what he had said.  Did Jesus go ask for their forgiveness? “Leave them; they are blind guides.  If a blind man leads a blind man, they will both fall into a pit.” Ouch??

-The Sadducees ask Jesus a question, and Jesus responds, “Are you not in error cuz you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God?” He explains why, ending with “You are quite wrong.” So much for seeing it from the other’s point of view.  Jesus had no problems telling the church leaders of the day that they were badly mistaken.

-Right in front of the Pharisees, Jesus told a crowd to not do what the Pharisees do. (Matthew 23:3)  He then rebuked them seven times for all sorts of things they were doing wrong.  He ends with “You snakes!  You brood of vipers!  How will you escape being condemned to hell?” He also called King Herod a fox once.  It seems even calling people names wasn’t out of Jesus’ vocabulary.

-Even with his own disciples Jesus wasn’t always a teddy bear.  He called them “dull” for not understanding his parables (Matthew 15:16), and rebuked them more than once for their lack of faith (Mark

16:14, Matthew 8:26).  He even said “Get behind me, satan!“ to Peter, one of his closest friends.

Okay, so you get the picture – Jesus wasn’t always warm and fuzzy.  But it wasn’t just him – I mean, look at Paul – “You foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?”  (Galatians 3:1)  Weird, cuz didn’t Jesus say something like “Anyone who says to his brother “you fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell.“?  I’m pretty sure Paul is enjoying his heavenly reward right now.  But most of his letters contain a decent amount of blunt rebukes, if you look into it.  Check out Galatians 1:9 or 5:12 for particularly disturbing messages.

So, still feel like you want to walk as Jesus did?  Haha.  Why exactly am I saying this?  Am I saying the Lord commandeth ye shalt be a loose cannon?

Okay, we know that God is love, and that anyone who does not love remains in death (1 John 3:14).  So, probably no loose cannon.  What I am saying is I want us to understand the bigger idea of love. Many people think that “walking in love” means everything someone says has to be stuff that makes you feel good.  But here’s the reality – walking in love means doing to others what you would have them do to you. For example, if there is wrong teaching or lifestyle that will have to be held accountable for in heaven, the loving thing to do would be to say something about it to them!  “What if they don’t listen?”  Our tendency is to shut up and leave them alone.  But is that what you would do to someone who who doesn’t realize they’re walking in front of a freight train?

The reason I’m saying this is because I’m realizing some truths that really resonate with me, stuff that actually makes sense.  And I am seeing some amazing things happen.  And I feel so much free-er!  With the stuff I’ve been learning and the people I’ve been surrounded with, I am realizing that we actually do have a message that we can take and change the world with.  The problem is the vast majority of the world hasn’t heard the true Gospel of Christ because we haven’t been Christ to them – and people are dying because of it.  The stakes are high. I’m going to be sharing links and websites of friends that at first you might perhaps be tempted to think are too intense and narrow-minded, but I plead with you, if you really have set your life on the truth of Jesus, take a serious look.  It’s not just because of their personalities or outside influences or something.  It’s because the message actually makes sense and we’ve seen the fruit of it!  It’s for this reason that that “we cannot help but speak what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20)

You guys know me.  I’m not usually an intense person.  I don’t particularly like conflict. I understand that some people are going to disagree with me, so why else would I say this unless I really loved you?  I just don’t want you to get turned off just cuz the message is strong, and I figure this will happen if you hear what I want to say without understanding why I’m saying it.

Okay, so yes – every message must be balanced.  Man’s anger doesn’t bring about the righteous life that God desires (James 1:20).  If it is possible, as far as it depends on us, we must always live at peace with each other and everybody else (Romans 12:18).  And even Jesus payed taxes to the Pharisees because he didn’t want to offend them.  (Matthew 17:27)  I’m just saying that if it’s between being at peace and telling the truth, I’m going to tell the truth.  People’s lives are at stake, and we are going to be held accountable for this.  The truth we hold in us is the desire of the nations – and people are hungry for it.

I would like to mention since I am partial to the Mennonites that Menno Simons was kicked out of church back in the day simply for putting the truth of what the Bible says back in authority in his teachings.  Most people really hated him back then for it, but look at our family trees now!  In fact, pretty much every change that’s come to the church has conflict.  The key is to go back to God and the Bible and find what the truth is for yourself.  As Sherlock Holmes says, “When you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.“

Alright, think that’s got it.  Oh, by the way, I fixed the “A Slight Diversion” page!  Yay!  Sorry this was a long article, but it was a heavy topic that I didn’t want you to misunderstand. One more thing, cuz I want to build you up and encourage you – I’m including a link on the picture to the left of a teaching I heard not long ago by this dude Andrew Wommack from Texas.  You will enjoy his twang and his teaching, because he sets a great stage for what’s to come and backs it all up if you’re struggling with some stuff I’ve talked about so far.  Check it out!

Alright, so the crux of it is: let’s love one another as Jesus loved us.  Jesus didn’t water down truth, nor was he near as concerned with offending church people as we are, yet he was the perfect representation of God’s love.  And through love for each other, the world will know we are his disciples (John 13:34)!  Live it real.