Written by Pastor Mark Driskill
October 19, 2011

Read Ephesians 4:1-3

One day a visitor from another planet came to earth to try and understand what earthlings are like. Since he happened to land in a highly Christian area of the United States he decided to observe the culture and try to figure out what this religion was all about. He walked around observing whatever he saw that looked Christian in order to get a clear picture of this strange religion.

After watching several hours of television he began to think this religion was dedicated to the accumulation of wealth in order to appease a strange deity called “Prosperity”. As he observed this he also noticed that wealth and money were very important to these Christians since they seemed to spend great amounts of time and energy accumulating it. He noticed they even had a ceremony in their temples in which large plates filled with currency were placed at the front of the sanctuary. So he made a note: “Christians worship a deity named Prosperity.”

Then he meandered through the streets and saw strange pointed buildings with clever sayings aimed at getting people to come inside. He observed masses of people going in and out of these buildings once or twice a week then flocking to restaurants chatting about being fed. He noticed nearly every event held by these Christians involved large quantities of food and entertainment. He overheard conversations about leaders who either were or were not feeding them. They often changed places of worship because of this desire to be constantly fed and comfortable. Then he noticed how obsessed so many of these folks seemed to be with comfort and pleasure. So he made another note: “Christians worship a second deity named Pleasure.”

Then he observed vehicles driving around with strange fish designs and strong political messages on the rear bumpers. They seemed to be constantly debating over how the country should be run and who should be leading it. It seemed that those who wanted to lead were always promoting themselves to some degree in the name of Christianity in one way or another. They all seem to want to be in charge. So he made another note: Christians worship a third deity named Power. Then one day he happened upon a Bible. As he scanned its contents he read of sacrifices, battles, floods and earthquakes. He saw great conflicts over prosperity, power and pleasure. He saw kings rise and fall, prophets live and die, and whole civilizations torn apart over the values of Prosperity, Pleasure and Power. Perhaps these were the deities of that trinity they were often talking about, he thought to himself.

Then he came to a story about a man named Jesus, who seemed to be against the Christian values. He had little regard for any of the Christian deities: Prosperity, Power, or Pleasure. He appeared to be obsessed with the poor, powerless and the outcast. The alien thought to himself, “This Jesus must have been a very poor Christian, maybe that’s why they killed him.” Then he quietly flew away from earth scratching his head at such a strange religion. “I’m glad I’m not one of those.” He thought. “Sounds awfully dangerous to me.”

Sometimes I think the lost feel like that alien. They are confused by the mixed signals our present Christian culture sends out. This is why Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4:1-2 to “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness with patience, bearing with one another in love.”  We must daily ask our Lord to live out his life of love and peace, and forgiveness through us so the world gets the message of who Jesus really is. He is not an angry Democrat or Republican. He is not a short order cook for our wants and pleasures. He is not interested in making everyone a millionaire and he isn’t afraid to touch people who aren’t like him. He is redeeming love embodied. He is a deliverer and savior for the helpless. He is Lord of all. He has called us to show his love in all that we do and say that the world may know him as he is. As we live in love and forgiveness and self sacrifice we are able to clear up the confusion and change the world one life at a time.

Prayer: Lord help us to allow you to live your life through us today. Amen.

Pastor Mark Driskill
Web Minister of Begotten By the Word web ministry
See our website at http://ourchurch.com/member/b/bbtw
and
www.facebook.com (to group “begotten by the word”)
Begotten By the Word is a ministry of Helping Hands Christian resources-Evangelism Outreach
www.hhcr05.org
(Feel free to copy in any way that will bring glory to God and further his kingdom.)