I was watching a movie the other day. While I was watching it, I picked up on a conversation that struck me.
......
Ricky Bobby [praying]: Dear tiny infant Jesus...
Carley Bobby: Hey, um... you know sweetie, Jesus did grow up. You don't always have to call him baby. It's a bit odd and off puttin' to pray to a baby.
Ricky Bobby: Well look, I like the Christmas Jesus best, and I'm sayin grace. When you say grace, you can say it to grown up Jesus, or teenage Jesus, or bearded Jesus, or whoever you want.
Cal Noughton, Jr.: I like to think of Jesus like with giant eagles wings, and singin' lead vocals for Lynyrd Skynyrd with like an angel band and I'm in the front row and I'm hammered drunk!
....
What struck me about this was the notion that we can pick what kind of Jesus we like best and decide that that's the Jesus we want to live with and get to know. One problem with that idea is it's not Jesus we're getting to know or wanting. The desire is for whatever we've made Him to be in our minds. If we could make Him be OK with our sins and ideas of "fun," then we could participate in whatever we wanted without consequences or guilt.
It's foolish to think we can mold Jesus to be whoever we want Him to be. The Bible is clear about who He is. It is also clear that we are to mold to who He wants us to be. It has never been and will never be the other way around. So why do we think we can change Him to fit our desires? Why do we think we can change Jesus Christ when we've been told that He doesn't change?
[Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8 (NIV).]
We're at this place in society where whatever we want individually is accepted by others. No one wants to be offensive. We think that because we want to live a certain way it's fine if we do. We've come to a place where truth is being brushed off as 'a truth' instead of 'the truth.' This is the place where we imagine Christ to be someone who wants us to live the way we want to live. We become assured that our actions must be acceptable because our individual ideas of how He is fit with what we do.
But believing that is believing a lie.
In all actuality, by following a made-up version of Jesus, we're following a different god altogether. We can't claim to be following Jesus if we're clearly doing something that He'd disapprove of. What we're really following is sin. We're walking down a dangerous road thinking that we're fine while the enemy laughs at our ignorance. Jesus alone is God. There is no other god that can save us; no one else has power over eternity. The Bible is clear that we are to serve Jesus Christ alone.
[Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:23-24 (NIV).]
This jealousy speaks of His desire for us. God desires us, the filthiest of sinners. He loves us more than we can fathom. We have to drop the idols that we pretend are fit to exist in our lives. We have to turn around and rediscover who Jesus really is. We have Someone whose arms are open wide, ready to receive us. We need Him. When will we turn from our masked idols and run into His arms?
