Imagine advertising, circa 1000 years bc.
You are not a man unless you use Ismellyerpits unique cobra venom underarm spray. Keeps everything away, mosquitos, lions, slavemasters ... but women love it, because it's so manly.
Or
For the great achiever, the latest in chariots - comes complete with an ego rubbing board and shiny dashboard so you can see how you look before everyone else does.
Yet for far less we allow ourselves to be convinced by adverts suggesting we may be less than what God made us to be.
Yuck .... since when are we what we appear to be? Is it all about image and appearances? Are our lives defined by the company we keep or the car we drive? It is if you are an advertiser, desperately trying to get consumers separated from their hard earned livings. But otherwise it means very little.
God loves us and accepted us in spite of what He knows about us ... you that is.
This reminds me of an April Fool's yarn where people were advised by phone to leave town because their secrets were about to be revealed ... and a sizeable number duly left town.
The fact is, God does know us only too well and there are no secrets ... but He loves us anyway and He alone can free us from the mindless pursuit of approval that is rooted in the vanity of our souls.
We have a strange contradiction here, for the God of righteousness, who judges the hearts of all and established the law, is far more willing to accept us than the unlawless world is. Acceptance in this world is highly conditional and, to be honest, it does not make good business sense for you to start feeling too okay about yourself. Stock prices in medical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, military and general retail industries, would plummet.if people suddenly started feeling too comfortable with themselves.
As Shrek said, "Now fairy tale creatures, don't get too comfortable". Business is built on presuppositions about human vulnerability, vanity, inadequacy and covetousness. When Adam and Eve fell, their first instinct was to clothe themselves and to this day humans battle to find an adequate covering for their otherwise naked souls.
Yet Jesus hung nakedly on a cross whilst men cast lots for His outer garments. Religion is still dealing with the outer garments, the symbolism of Christ, yet the naked Saviour's real gesture to humankind lay in His willingness to exchange our nakedness for His own divine garments of approval, acceptance and righteousness. We can be clothed and accepted in Him, for He paid the price for our sin and rose from the dead to give us a new beginning in life, free of our wretched pasts. In reality He has paid for your rags already, so they technically are not yours unless you remain so attached to them that you would choose death over life and sickness over health and nakedness over wholeness.
No wonder Jesus is so unpopular - He is bad for business and the institution. They crucified Him 2000 years ago for the same reason ... His was a very inconvenient truth. Maybe Nobel Laureate Al Gore would concede to this point, that the naked truth of a suspended Saviour offers a more rational solution to a world that is fast burning up on its greed, vanity and materialism. Had we accepted the terms of the cross and the notion of a good life being good enough in itself without our material trappings, we might never have found ourselves plunging into global crises, wars may have been fewer and human misery would have been limited.
Jesus is like a roadsign at the crossroads of the busy freeways of life. His cruel death is a passing fancy to a preoccupied world, a social sideshow. Yet as a roadsign, He still points us back to our lost estate and the hope of peace, joy, wholeness, healing and eternal acceptance: unfortunately, His inconvenient message runs counter to the tide of life. We will ultimately tear ourselves apart, in spite of the obvious inconvenience of self-destruction. Yet those who turn back to Him, will find a peace that this world can never give and freedom from the chains that others call Liberty.
You are not a man unless you use Ismellyerpits unique cobra venom underarm spray. Keeps everything away, mosquitos, lions, slavemasters ... but women love it, because it's so manly.
Or
For the great achiever, the latest in chariots - comes complete with an ego rubbing board and shiny dashboard so you can see how you look before everyone else does.
Yet for far less we allow ourselves to be convinced by adverts suggesting we may be less than what God made us to be.
Yuck .... since when are we what we appear to be? Is it all about image and appearances? Are our lives defined by the company we keep or the car we drive? It is if you are an advertiser, desperately trying to get consumers separated from their hard earned livings. But otherwise it means very little.
God loves us and accepted us in spite of what He knows about us ... you that is.
This reminds me of an April Fool's yarn where people were advised by phone to leave town because their secrets were about to be revealed ... and a sizeable number duly left town.
The fact is, God does know us only too well and there are no secrets ... but He loves us anyway and He alone can free us from the mindless pursuit of approval that is rooted in the vanity of our souls.
We have a strange contradiction here, for the God of righteousness, who judges the hearts of all and established the law, is far more willing to accept us than the unlawless world is. Acceptance in this world is highly conditional and, to be honest, it does not make good business sense for you to start feeling too okay about yourself. Stock prices in medical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, military and general retail industries, would plummet.if people suddenly started feeling too comfortable with themselves.
As Shrek said, "Now fairy tale creatures, don't get too comfortable". Business is built on presuppositions about human vulnerability, vanity, inadequacy and covetousness. When Adam and Eve fell, their first instinct was to clothe themselves and to this day humans battle to find an adequate covering for their otherwise naked souls.
Yet Jesus hung nakedly on a cross whilst men cast lots for His outer garments. Religion is still dealing with the outer garments, the symbolism of Christ, yet the naked Saviour's real gesture to humankind lay in His willingness to exchange our nakedness for His own divine garments of approval, acceptance and righteousness. We can be clothed and accepted in Him, for He paid the price for our sin and rose from the dead to give us a new beginning in life, free of our wretched pasts. In reality He has paid for your rags already, so they technically are not yours unless you remain so attached to them that you would choose death over life and sickness over health and nakedness over wholeness.
No wonder Jesus is so unpopular - He is bad for business and the institution. They crucified Him 2000 years ago for the same reason ... His was a very inconvenient truth. Maybe Nobel Laureate Al Gore would concede to this point, that the naked truth of a suspended Saviour offers a more rational solution to a world that is fast burning up on its greed, vanity and materialism. Had we accepted the terms of the cross and the notion of a good life being good enough in itself without our material trappings, we might never have found ourselves plunging into global crises, wars may have been fewer and human misery would have been limited.
Jesus is like a roadsign at the crossroads of the busy freeways of life. His cruel death is a passing fancy to a preoccupied world, a social sideshow. Yet as a roadsign, He still points us back to our lost estate and the hope of peace, joy, wholeness, healing and eternal acceptance: unfortunately, His inconvenient message runs counter to the tide of life. We will ultimately tear ourselves apart, in spite of the obvious inconvenience of self-destruction. Yet those who turn back to Him, will find a peace that this world can never give and freedom from the chains that others call Liberty.
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