By Creg
I just finished reading “Not a Fan”
by Kyle Idleman. It was convicting & challenging, stepping on my
toes quite often.
He starts in John 6 where Jesus offers
himself, but the question is, would that be enough?
Vs 35 Jesus
declares, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me
will never go
hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Suddenly Jesus is the only thing on the
menu.
Vs 66 From
this time on many of his disciples turned back and no
longer
followed him.
Jesus doesn’t soften his message to
make it more appealing. He doesn't seem surprised by the fact that his
popularity has plummeted.
Kyle then relates how he has cheapened
the gospel in some of his past preaching. He writes:
Think of it this
way. Imagine that my oldest daughter turns 25. She isn’t married
but she really wants to be. I decide I’m going to help make that
happen. So, imagine I take out an ad in the newspaper, put up a
billboard sign, & make up T-shirts begging someone to choose her.
I even offer some attractive gifts as incentives. Doesn’t that
cheapen who she is? Wouldn’t that make it seem that whoever came to
her would be doing her a favor? I would never do that.
Should we do that with Jesus?
Kyle defines a fan as someone who wants
to be close enough to Jesus to get all the benefits, but not so close
that it requires anything from them. He also says that fans try to
follow Jesus on their own power & will eventually be frustrated
by failures & overwhelmed by life’s circumstances. And because
of that they will have a hard time coming up with stories about how
the Spirit has worked in their life.
Kyle is describing the first 20 years
of my Christian walk.
What about you?
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