“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).
As believers, we have to understand that any appeal in the name of Christ that rises no higher than an invitation to tranquility is humanism, with a few words of Jesus thrown in to make it appear kosher; it is not the Christianity of Christ. It is an outrage that man dares to alter, modulate or otherwise change the words of Christ, without any shame whatever, while seeking to draw people into the religious net.
Christ calls man to carry a cross; religion calls him to have fun in His name. Christ calls man to forsake the world; religion assures them that if they come to Christ the world is their oyster. Christ calls man to suffer; religion invites them to enjoy all the comforts that the world has to offer. Christ calls man to self-denial and death; religion calls them to religious froth and frolic in which, perhaps, some might even become stars in the religious zodiac. Christ calls man to holiness; religion calls them to a cheap and tawdry “happiness” that would have been rejected out of hand, and should be rejected, by the least of His saints.
It is apparent that, to many, Christianity has become another and “higher” form of entertainment. Christ has done all the suffering; He has shed all the tears; He has carried all the crosses; we have but to enjoy the fruits of His heartbreak.
This wacky view derives from the overemphasis placed on the “work of Christ” at the expense of the person of Christ; the “work of the Lord” has become more important than the “Lord of the Work”.
We need to recover our sense of the holiness, faithfulness and obedience of Christ, rather than the utility of the cross, and realise that we are called to the same quality of life that He exhibited.
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