A PLASTIC Wal-Mart 'JESUS'

A PLASTIC Wal-Mart 'JESUS'
-by Darren Smith.

We, the Body of Christ, should be a revolutionary force on this
earth, not a sub-culture bound by the walls of our buildings and
our lifestyles. If you look around you in the culture today, we are
losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the people. Our
families are in decay, our cities are in decay, our nation has
become a nation of godless people living for themselves in
rebellion to God. We really don't want to address the problems,
instead most of us that claim to be Christians bury our head in
the sand and refuse to look. Instead, we go to church rather than
becoming the Church that God ordained. We even build doctrines
around our lack of concern for what's happening around us and
become even more self-centered and ineffective. Then we wonder
why even our own families are falling apart. Is it surprising that
the divorce rate in the church is the same as the secular world?
Not really, because you can't find any difference with the modern
church and the world; we copy all the things that they do. In
reality we have become them.

I am about to bring up a couple of points that will anger a whole lot
of people, but I really don't care if it causes them to think. The
first point is the whole "We can change this land in the political
arena." This is not true and should be examined. Consider this,
does the River of Life flow out of Washington DC or out of the
body of Christ? Does the healing flow come from the halls of the
most corrupt Congress ever, or from the Holy Spirit? If not, why
do we spend so much effort and time trying to get man-made
institutions to take over this work? We should be in the process
of a complete world takeover by the Kingdom of God, by carrying
out the mandate of Christ our King: go into all nations making
disciples. Would this not bring about the change needed on this
earth or have we, in our foolishness, come up with a better plan
than the Great Commission? I think not!! Instead, we have created
a man-made religion that has no power at all, and a secular gospel
that has no power and, in fact, is no gospel at all. Our idea of the
Great Commission is to create a Christian castle filled with people
all looking for something for themselves - not to sacrifice their life
for Christ.

This system of religion is simply a business designed to grow and
support itself. Their idea of being radical is to send out emails
telling everyone they know to get stirred up about such holy
things as taking the little plastic baby Jesus out of the court-
house square. I get hundreds of these emails where people
think they are fighting the good fight by getting into such things.
God help us if that is radical faith. I really don't care if they
take the little plastic Jesus out of the city hall or courthouse
square and I don't believe Jesus does either. Part of the problem
is that the little plastic Jesus is the only Jesus that most of
our country recognizes. They don't know the King of Kings, nor
do they take Him seriously. If they did, they would get radical
about living His message instead of rushing to the mall on
black Friday to prepare for what the culture calls His birthday.
Wow, is that how Christ would want us to remember Him, by
filling up our shopping carts and credit cards with more junk
we don't need, instead of bringing people into His Kingdom?
Would He rather us spoil ourselves even more or would He have
us put our money and time to good use by feeding the hungry
and clothing the naked, taking care of widows and orphans? Or
what about sending out preachers and ministers of the Gospel
to take over this world - do you think Christ would choose this or
the commercial American Christmas? Guys, I'm telling you that
Christ will return to this earth to judge it and He will not return
as the little plastic Jesus that you can buy at Wal-Mart made
in China - no, He will come back as a roaring Lion with fury and
there will be no excuse for those who are truly His disciples.

At judgment day Christ will not ask for your voter registration
card to make sure you are a republican or a democrat, He won't
even ask you if you were mad about them taking down little plastic
Jesus or saying "Happy holidays." Friends, He won't ask you if
you protested the taking down of the Ten commandments off of the
courthouse wall or how many Christian t-shirts you wore, or even
if you bought all the latest praise CD's. No friend, He will ask
questions like these: What did you do for the least of these?
Did you care for the widow and orphan, feed the hungry, give
without expecting anything in return? Did you love God with all
your heart, love your neighbor as yourself without expecting
his friendship? Did you repent and live a life that shows it, did
you forgive so you could be forgiven? Yes, these are the questions
that will be asked and no amount of religious activity will make up
for these things, the sheep and the goats will be separated.

Many of you may say right now I never hear this at my church..
If this is you, I say get out of there as fast as you can and pray
for a true body where you will be challenged to get this right.

To say this as simply as possible.... we must become radical
and I would say even militant. Read Matt 11:12. Yes we must
forcefully take hold of the Kingdom and advance it with all
we are. We must truly bombard this land with the truth. We
must charge the gates of Hell and tear them down. Matt 16:18.
We have the power from on high - why don't we use it? We would
rather stay in our comfortable buildings and homes and hope
maybe the Lord will forgive our lack of passion for Him. Why is
this true? Because we are just like Demus that deserted Paul -
2 Tim 4:10. We love this present world.

You say its not that bad; well, I beg to differ. This world is heading
to Hell on a runaway train and for the most part the modern church
is adding fuel to the engine. The ones out here trying to throw on
the brakes are called "too radical, extremist, critical" and even
divisive. Brothers, I would rather be called all these things than
"complacent" or a casual Christian. We are doing all we can to get
this message out and are looking for like minded people from all
over this world to join the fight. If this is your heart please let us
know. The Revolution has begun and man will not be able to stop it.
The question is whether are not you will join.

Are you willing to lay down your life and take up your cross and
follow Christ? Will the Christ that shed His blood for you on the
Cross and beat death and hell for you be your Christ or will the
little plastic Wal-Mart Jesus be the one you choose?

-Darren Smith,
www.streetscapeministries.com
www.revivalstreet.com
www.unitethefight.com