passion play

Disclaimer: This doesn’t apply to everyone. If you agree, it doesn’t apply to you. If you disagree or are offended, take notes.

Upon discovering that I’m a Christian, I often find it that people will try to offend me, by saying one thing or another. Then I look around, and see why. Offended Christians are hilarious. The recent movie, The Golden Compass, has a lot of believers in an uproar. I know a couple of years ago, The Da Vinci Code really bothered people. I also know that the Gospel of Judas ’scandal’ last year got under someone’s skin. I keep waiting for aliens to land and people to get all bothered about that too. Or ghosts to be proven.  Or ‘old-earth’ to be proven. Or species evolution.  (By the way, the Gospel allows for all of the above.)  So why do I find it funny that people get offended at things as the above? Because that makes them instant hypocrites.

News Flash:  If you affirm the Gospel, you believe the most offensive message ever to be heard on earth.

Don’t believe me? Check Romans 9:33 out. It quotes Isaiah, who is delivering the message of God:

Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.

The rock of offense is a Him. It’s Jesus. Jesus, who He is and what He did, is the most offensive message on Earth. The cross is not light. It’s extremely heavy. If you haven’t looked at what you believe, here you go:

If you affirm the Gospel, you believe that the all-powerful, infinite, all-creative God came to earth as a pathetic infant in the middle of nowhere (Fountain,NC)…without any sexual intercourse involved.  You believe that the magnificent, beautiful God-baby lived for 30 years without a single blip on the radar….as a carpenter. You believe that this Carpenter went underwater, came up, and had a bird land on His shoulder, which signified Him being an instant minister. You affirm that God, at this moment, spoke aloud that this carpenter God-Baby was actually His son. More than that, this former Carpenter had the power to heal people and the wisdom to teach like no one before Him. You believe that the Bob-Vila-God-Man came to earth for one purpose: to die and raise Himself from the dead. He was nailed to a cross…for the sins of the world. This woodworking virgin-born God came to save, redeem, and restore the world: past, present, and future; human and natural.  Without believing in the Cross and the Woodworker, one will be tortured forever. And if that’s not weird enough…the Woodworker rose from the dead after three days of being dead. And then He ascended into Heaven…Star-Trek style.

Now that’s offensive. And I believe every word and nuance of it. If you’re a Christian, remember what you believe. If you’re not a Christ-follower,go ahead…try to offend me. And good luck. But then, let me tell you a story…