Missions
I saw it again today on a church reader board.
In big, bold letters the oft repeated slogan of the redeemed.
It is not just on reader boards though; this saying, along with many others, is now available for purchase at your local Christian bookstore.
Buy it, peel the back off and plaster it on the back of the car. Without a single thought of:
1. Is it scriptural?
2. What am I really saying by putting it there?
We’ve all seen them and most of us have bought into the pithy saying; “Wise men still seek Him.” As the saying now goes and without question, hardly a single thought to search the scriptures and see if this is true.
Is it scriptural? Allow me to answer that by framing another question. I think the answer to the second one will give some much needed clarity and enable us to easily answer the first one.
Were we wise BEFORE we knew Him?
Doesn’t the Word tell us that “no one comes to the Father but by the Son and no one comes to the Son except the Father draws him?” Of course it does.
Aren’t we also told that “if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God…”
The difficulty is that the unsaved are told by us that if they are wise they will seek Him, yet you and me admit that it was not until He drew us to Himself that wisdom was then available to us by asking, not before.
The theological cart is before the scriptural horse.
There is a subtle implication here as well, a snake in the grass of our beliefs, if and when we say these words we are implying that we ourselves are wise.
“Of course I’m wise, I seek Him.” As if our wisdom is somehow apart from knowing Him. A proud independence, if you ask me.
“Real Men Love Jesus”
We’ve all seen it; some of us have even made it a creed to live by. Nothing wrong with creeds to live by, but is this one of them? I don’t think so. (Of course I have to keep in mind that my definition of ‘creed’ may differ from yours.)
I’ll ask the same two questions, along with the same approach to answering them, okay?
Again, real men love Jesus; Was I “real” before I knew Him?
The scriptures say that “in Him we live and move and have our being.” With this in mind, are we not saying that it is possible to be “real” without Him?
This motto is loaded with questions that need to be answered.
What does the bible say “real” (reality) is?
At what time does a boy become a man? Is it only physical age that answers this?
Define “love” and do it with bible in hand. Is love personified? Can we love Him without knowing Him?
Who do you say that I am? He asked, and still is asking.
Real men love Jesus.
Four words which are deeper than we realize.
Beliefs & principles that we spend a lifetime pondering, praying about, meditating on and even travail just trying to make biblical sense of it all.
While we as seeking believers have become accustomed to our bumper sticker approach to evangelism, we assume the unsaved and (more than we realize) observant Lost are somehow supposed to understand what it is we are saying.
He alone knows what “real” really is.
I was not a man before He found me, except in days, months and years.
I certainly did not know what love was until I read His definition of it; some time later the Spirit making application of that within me.
Like Peter, I did not know who Jesus was until the Father revealed Him to me.
Can we really say that real men love Jesus? Of course we can; but you and I both know that that is not the spirit in which this bumper sticker is meant. It too reeks of pride.
There has been a lifetime of a series of events that had to take place before I could rightfully say such a thing, yet we foist it on the lost and we do it in condescension with an attitude of superiority.
Saying; I love Him, you don’t. I know Him while you don’t have any idea. Therefore, I am real, while you are not.
I was never real until I knew Him. I did not know Him until He revealed Himself to me. I hadn’t a clue what love was until I saw Love in person. Then I began to become a man.
"What would Jesus do?" is not a gospel proclamation either. Those who do not yet know Him need to know what He already did and for who.
“My boss is Jewish Carpenter” is another one, but I’ll leave that for you to consider.
To me there are a multitude of sayings that render our testimony of Him null and void. I’ve only brought up these three because they are seen everywhere and unwittingly adhered to by the church.
I, personally, don’t have any bumper stickers on my truck. Why?
Rush hour traffic can oftentimes be those times I let the “old man” drive and I have been known to drive in a less than godly fashion.
Why insist on taking Him down with me?
Rather, why give yet another reason for the god of this world to draw the attention of the unsaved to my bumper sticker when I’m driving like the devil myself?
The church I used to attend in Southern Oregon had thousands of folks who would come to any of the four services. If you were going to be late and not get the seat you preferred had a way of affecting the gas pedals of most cars.
The people that lived along the road to church coined a phrase to describe us. In their fear and frustration that some one could get hurt because of the way we drove, they came to refer to us as “Flying Fish”.
There are those times and convictions we are to uphold and with no regard to what any one says, thinks or does.
I don't happen to believe that "evangelism at 80 m.p.h." is one of them.
If your bumper sticker is not there so that the lost can perhaps reconsider, then why is it there at all?
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Very good article! I can see that your wise behond your years.Something to think about; Most states have outlawed the use of cell phones while driving, because we get distracted and this may lead to accidents.What about trying to read bumper stickers at 100 feet and at 70 miles an hour. Hum....God bless, Randy