Jesus Still Stands

I met Jesus at a really young age. I was seven years old when I became a Christians, and - for the most part - I lived a surrendered life, a life that sought hard after Jesus. I grew up Southern Baptist, smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt of America.

Needless to say, my view of Jesus was whitewashed. It was Americanized. And I didn’t even know it!

To be clear, I grew up in an overall theologically sound church, and I was encouraged to take ownership of my faith at a very young age. I never saw God as this pocket God who was there for my convenience, but in my teenage years, I likely treated Him that way. Because of that, my relationship with the Lord suffered. I did really dumb things and made some really poor choices that led me to question my salvation.

That’s when it started.

Some may call it “deconstruction,” a popular term in the celebrity circles of ex-Christians, but I roll my eyes at that. I wasn’t tearing anything down, not eliminating my faith, not walking away from Jesus. I was simply looking for the truth of who Jesus is. If you must use the term “deconstruction,” we can say I was busy deconstructing all the lies we’ve been taught, all the Americanized junk that has crept in so that only Jesus remained.

In all honesty, it could have ended with walking away from the faith altogether because our churches, in most cases, are not safe places to explore questions, to wrestle with the tough questions. That, friends, should be cause for alarm.

We have to do better, Church.

Let’s stop being afraid of the questions, of dealing with the uncomfortable. Let’s be big enough kids, rooted enough in the Word of God, to know that the truth of His Word stands. After all, God is a big boy. He can handle the questions. He is to be relied on, to be trusted, to be a safe place. People have to know the God of the Bible, not the god of America.

If we look at the Bible, we see that people wrestled with God all the time. They asked the hard questions. They looked for answers, pressed in, doubted, cried, and screamed. They wouldn’t let Him go until He gave them an answer. Not once did God ever shy away from that. He met them there, in the midst of the hard questions, answered them/encouraged them/kept them protected if they couldn’t handle it, honored their faithfulness, and showed them who He really is.

But I digress -

I didn’t deconstruct. I reconstructed until only Jesus stood. I got rid of all the junk that didn’t belong, and even though it was junk, it still hurt to let go. And honestly? I’m still learning to be comfortable to question things that aren’t Americanized, whitewashed, Bible Belt Christianity.

I knew I had to do this. I was questioning whether or not I was even a Christian because it seemed we - as a whole - kept getting it all wrong when we needed so badly to get it right: to look like Jesus. It had been so long since I felt God.]

Now, I know a relationship with God isn’t about feeling. It’s about the truth of His Word, and when He says you are His, you are. You are secure. Feelings can distort the truth when they aren’t informed by truth. We must rest in truth, but sometimes it’s good to feel a friend.

The Word of God says that when we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. That’s a promise. So, it was time for me to press in with all the “stuff” going on in the world. From the cable news networks, social media, medical professionals, and pretty much everyone else, there were so many mixed messages. It was hard to navigate the truth, to see past fear, to avoid anxiety, to rest.

The truth is: I’m not qualified to address any of the issues like coronavirus or racial tensions we were facing during this time. I’m not an immunologist or epidemiologist. I don’t know what it’s like to be in a high-risk category. For the most part, I’ve had a healthy, happy, privileged life being raised middle-class in white America. While I’m not ashamed of any of that, it does make my experiences different than that of most of the world.

Because of that, my version of God was safe, comfortable, and conservative. Because of that, I likely short-changed the gospel.

You see, God is a personal God, and that makes it really easy for us to make Him in our image rather than the other way around. Our understanding of Him because of our experiences often present us with a narrow and limited view of God, who He is, and what He is about. But when we start to get out of our safe little bubbles, we begin to see who God is.

When we surround ourselves with people who hav encountered Jesus much differently than we did, we see Him in His full glory. We begin to understand that He saves those who never really messed it up too much, and He saves those who were lower than rock bottom. However, we must be cautious to not glorify either side because our Redeemer saves both/and. Not only that, no matter how “good” we were, we were still destined for hell apart from Him.

When I recognize these things, I am more able to see the point of view of the marginalized, the people of color, those who aren’t afforded the same opportunities I am, and I find myself wondering, “Am I loving my neighbor well? Do they feel safe around me?” I want so badly to be on the side of righteousness, on the side of God, and as many leaders of the faith came out talking about such topics, I had to wrestle with these questions.

I was uncomfortable. These people for whom I have great respect were saying things that challenged me, that caused my defenses to go up, that made me dig deep and question things I thought I knew.

Our God is the God of the Universe. He is for everyone. The whole world is in His hands; the heavens obey His commands and cannot help but worship! He is loving and just, merciful and gracious. If this the God we serve, why do we not look like it?

When the traits of God are lived out, we practice loving our neighbors well by giving up things we think we are entitled to because it’s not just about it. We stand up for the orphans, widows, oppressed, and voiceless. We seek justice. We fight where we are with the gifts and the passions we have because God very intentionally placed us there to be part of His story for His glory. We are to tangibly be His hands and feet when it’s hard for the world to see Him.

I am done with a limited view of God, an Americanized view of Jesus because Jesus didn’t come to save America, He came to save the WORLD. I’m done neglecting the whole counsel of the Word, even when it may be uncomfortable.

If God’s name is being on things that seem to not line up with who you know Him to be, check it out, friend. Dig into the Word. Seek answers from the Lord. Because let me tell you something: the enemy is not going to give us what is wrong, but what is almost right. Charles Spurgeon put it this way: “The difference between the truth and a lie is not right and wrong. It’s right and almost right.” Because of this, we must vigilant against the schemes the Devil tries to employ. We must not take scripture out of context. We must not let it be twisted. Filter everything through the Word of God because otherwise it will be easy to mistake the lies of the enemy for the truth of God. And let me caution you: the truth is not relative; it is absolute.

Because when all the junk is stripped away, Jesus still stands.