Deliver us from Me-vil...

At first this made me smile.

Then it amused me.

But the more I thought about it, the more it disturbed me. (And it wasn't only because of the deeply flawed theological underpinnings of the meme.)

In many ways this meme is a brilliant and insightful commentary that strikes to the very heart of the problem with much of current Western Christianity.

But before we throw "current Western Christianity" under the bus, just a gentle reminder that WE are current Western Christianity.

Ouch. Sorry about that. This ain't much of a Monday Funday is it?

But as that great 21st century philosopher/theologian, Michael Jackson, once sang: "I'm looking at the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to change his ways."

So I'll go first.

I confess.

I have the uncanny ability to make even my relationship with God about what I get.

How about you?

As Americans, we are consumers to the core of our beings. Too often, God is simply a means to a selfish end for so many of us. We don't love Jesus. We love what we get because of Jesus. We're not in love with the Master, we're in love with what is on the Master's table.

But there is a better way.

Are you interested?

If so, I dare YOU to do something absolutely crazy, revolutionary, and against the grain of culture.

I dare to join me in aspiring to be a disciple of Jesus
...who lives a disciplemaking way of life like Jesus
...and seek to infect everyone you know with a Jesus' disciplemaking way of life 
...and then help them to help others make MORE disciples like Jesus.

This is our only hope for turning the tide.

Best of all, it's exactly how Jesus changed the world.

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Bonus Song...

True Confessions
by Mark Heard

(If video doesn't appear, go here.)

Oh the sun runs its course from the east to the west
With the best of our motives illumined
Then it sinks with a sigh in the dusk of the heart
And our virtue lies worthless as rumor

You can be what you like if you like what you are
We reflect but the sum of our creeds
But we don't seem to seize on the tenets we hold
And they slip through the sieve of our deeds

When we see our mistakes we ache with regret
And the pain makes a lasting impression
But we are stoics at heart when the time is at hand
To beat our breasts and make a true confession