MYTH #5-Jesus is narrow and exclusive!

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Whenever I share the message of Jesus plus nothing, most frequently I get an initial response-a quote from the mouth of Jesus: "I am the way, the truth and the life." This usually comes from a person who is friendly to me and is appealing to me from what is considered to be a foundational statement from Jesus, Himself. And by the way, I couldn't agree more.
The damage that comes from seeing Jesus as narrow and exclusive fuels the sense of "we are the only ones who are right and going to heaven" and the rest of the world is wrong and going to hell. In addition to this, viewing Jesus as narrow and exclusive in this prideful way and believing that our way of thinking and believing is the only way, truth and life as well, does something that Jesus abhors. Embracing this myth shuts the door of the Kingdom on everyone else who is not one of us and we have become the judge on the matter.

Granted this statement of Jesus seems to be quite narrow and exclusive, but it's only narrow and exclusive if Jesus lives within the limitations of a Christian box. Since I separate Jesus from Christianity, deny that Jesus is the founder of the Christian Church and reject the mission of Jesus as being to convert the world to Christianity, people believe I must be removing Jesus from being the way, the truth and the life.

This couldn't be further from the truth! It's not that Jesus is so narrow and exclusive; Jesus is more preeminent than we have ever dreamed and He is all-inclusive. He'll work with anyone!

In Jesus' first seminar in Matthew 5-7 He made a radical statement with respect His relationship with the Jewish Law and traditions. He said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

Literally, Jesus didn't come to abolish the Laws and traditions of the Jewish culture; He came to fill it full-to bring fullness to it. It's like the Jewish culture with its Law and traditions was like a glass-a form with some sort of structure to it. Then, Jesus came to fill up that form or glass to its fullest-to fill it full. Jesus came to bring ultimate meaning and fullness to the Jewish religious system. In other words, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life for the Jewish dreams and yearnings.

In the same way, I am coming to believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life for all cultural and religious systems and traditions. Jesus is the meaning and fullness everyone is looking for. Jesus fills up the various forms or glasses of every culture.

This may seem a little far-fetched for you to embrace at first, but give it some thought. We are finding the footprints of Jesus in every culture. Many years ago Don Richardson wrote a groundbreaking book Eternity In Their Hearts. His research demonstrated that the fingerprints of the Creator-God was found to be in many cultures. God is already there, because God placed "eternity in their hearts".

In the movie, "Fingerprints of God in Japan", the Creator-God of the Japanese people is clearly revealed. In the past the Japanese people were told that they had to reject their Japanese roots and culture in order to be converted to Western Christianity. However, it is now clear that the Creator-God of the Japanese people was known to be in the form of a tri-unity or Godhead. Their Creator-God had a Japanese name, not the Jewish name of Jehovah. When the Japanese watch this film, they weep with great joy. They don't have to reject their culture; God created them and is already present there.

This same understanding has happened among the Hawaiians, Polynesians, Buddhists, Hindus and Chinese. What's interesting is that in many of these cultures there are similar stories in their history-the flood, sacrifices for sins and many have a garden scene. In several of these cultures their ancient scriptures speak of a sacrifice for their sins that must be made by God, Himself. Where did these come from? These are the fingerprints of God in the many cultures of the world.

Jesus is the ultimate fullness of the many cultures of the world. Hey, that's not narrow and exclusive; that's universal and all-inclusive. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life for anyone who has ears to hear and eyes to see. Our mission is not to plant mission stations in these cultures and teach them our favorite Western Christian hymns. Our tendency has been to introduce Jesus to a culture, stay there among them and orchestrate our Western Christian way of doing things. This methodology serves to bring the Jesus movement to a screeching halt in that culture.

Instead, our mission is to introduce Jesus to the cultures of the world and encourage them to respond with their unique, cultural customs. Most recently this was done in Hawaii and the church of Jesus is really growing there. Wherever this is done, the Jesus movement flourishes. Jesus is all-inclusive and wants to work with everyone.

MYTH #4-Jesus wants the entire world to be converted to Christianity

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I grew up believing not only that Jesus wanted the entire world to be converted to Christianity; I also believed my responsibility before God was to make everyone in my reach a Christian. That's just the way it was.
It was worse than that with much of the Baptist community around me. They not only believed Jesus wanted the world to be Christian, but Baptist. I remember sitting in a church service in my college town where a Baptist missionary made the statement: "There is no Gospel witness in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio." This shocked me, because I knew my uncle was a pastor there and I also knew several others. When I approached the speaker, he said: "There is no Baptist witness there." I quickly protested that my uncle and several other pastors I knew there were Baptist. He then clarified it for me: "They are not General Association Baptists." Do you get it? If people weren't becoming Baptists, then they were not hearing the Gospel message! This is just taking this thinking to its logical extreme and it is nuts!

Think about this myth for a second! Can you really believe that this Middle Eastern message of the Good News of Jesus and the Kingdom is owned by Western Christians and that all others around the world must become Christian in order to have eternal life? How haughty we are?

The greatest damage here in this myth is that Christians take on the attitude that they are the only ones who are right and therefore the only ones who will receive salvation from God. The secondary damage from this myth is that missionary organizations actually stir up more persecution than might have been. When missionaries insist on the natives "converting" to Christianity and to denounce their culture, they have the wrong goal. Of course, members of non-Christian cultures are threatened by this approach and react badly. What's worse is that they miss out on Jesus! Jesus is not the issue in those encounters; cultural conversion is!

I'm convinced that much of the persecution on the mission field is unnecessary. We are finding that when you make Jesus the issue and not religious conversion, there is an amazingly positive reception to Jesus. It's the same reception Jesus had among the non-Jewish encounters He had. Jesus is for the entire world. Jesus never urged anyone to become a part of a Christian culture or to join a Synagogue or Church. His only concern seems to be the person's heart of faith and the subsequent act of whether or not the person becomes a follower of Jesus.

Jesus made it a habit of reaching out to people from all kinds of religious and cultural backgrounds. NOTE just a few illustrations of how the approach of Jesus and his disciples was all-inclusive:

FIRST-In John 4, Jesus encountered the woman at the well. She was a Samaritan with very different beliefs regarding the center of worship. He left her with her cultural beliefs intact, except that He trumped the center of worship by saying that someday the center of worship will not be in a given location, but in your heart. Jesus was not promoting a new religion or defending the status quo; He was offering a personal relationship with God in the heart. This personal relationship would transform both her religion and the Hebrew religion. When Jesus conversed with the Samaritan woman, He didn't make certain to warn her of her false beliefs and be sure to change the mountain where she worshipped. There was no renunciation of her false doctrines. It was all about her relationship with Him.

SECOND-In Mark 7, the Syrophoenician woman was a gentile from a godless culture. Her faith was evident in her persistent conversation with Jesus about her daughter. Jesus honored her faith, however He didn't pull her into a new religious system or study class, nor did He have her renounce her cultural upbringing. The presence of Jesus will change a person from the inside out to be like Jesus. God's presence will convict their hearts in His time of what needs to be changed in their personal and cultural ways; NOT US!

THIRD-In Mark 6-7, NOTE Jesus' trip to Gennesaret. Do you notice how many times the Gospel writers refer to going to the other side of the Sea of Galilee? Whenever they were on the Jewish side, they crossed over to the other side. Why? Jesus performed the same works among the gentile world. He never urged them to change their religious culture, but let them remain right where they grew up. However, they were drawn to Him.

FOURTH-In Matthew 8, NOTE the Roman Centurion. No doubt the Roman Centurion grew up with the Roman gods, yet Jesus does not speak to this at all. His concern was his faith. When Jesus declared the Roman official's faith as outstanding, even greater than He had seen among the house of Israel, Jesus didn't tell this man to make sure to repent and go renounce the many Roman deities or his faith would be for naught. Further in the scene in the healing of the Roman Centurion's servant, Jesus says: "I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." Non-Jews or in our vernacular, non-Christians are going to be at the Kingdom feast. How can this be? It can only be through a personal relationship with Jesus.

FIFTH-In John 10, Jesus mentions "other sheep" that are His. Who are these other sheep? Could it be that they are from the various cultures of the world? Could they be those spoken of in Romans 2:14-15 and 1 John 4:7?

SIXTH-In Acts 15, the first followers of Jesus were all Jews. When the first gentiles (everyone else) came to Jesus, some religious Jews insisted that all followers of Jesus must become cultural Jews. The apostles clearly decided against this. All people could be followers of Jesus without changing their culture!

SEVENTH-In Acts 10, Peter's experience with the non-Jews is interesting and shocking to Peter. After Peter was supernaturally led to the house of Cornelius by a radical vision from God, he told them: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right." Did you get that? God accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.

EIGHTH-In Acts 17, Paul spoke in Athens: "From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us." God made the nations-all nations; they were made by God in such a way so that all men might seek and find God.

NINTH-Also in Acts 17, when Paul spoke before the gentile audience in Athens, he didn't quote Scripture, didn't use Jesus' name at first, stroked them for their many idols of worship and proceeded to explain to them who this UNKNOWN GOD is that they commemorated. He didn't call for the renunciation of these "gods" and he used their "heathen" poems to explain what God is like (Acts 17:28), yet many believed in Jesus that day. What's that all about? I don't know many with this kind of approach.

TENTH-In Revelation 5:9, the reference is to every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Jesus came to reach all of these, not by exporting any given tribe, tongue, people or nation, but from within each of these faith in Jesus naturally emerges. Since the Creator-God is the source of all people, He has already marked all of these people groups. The word translated as "nations" is actually "ethnos" in the Greek. This is where we get the word "ethnic" from; in other words, there will be every cultural group who are followers of Jesus.

Anyone, anywhere can be a follower of Jesus-cultural Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Animists, Agnostics, Muslims, and even Christians can all be followers of Jesus. Christians have said for years that a cultural Jew doesn't have to renounce being Jewish in order to follow Jesus. Following Jesus makes a person's Jewishness more full and meaningful. I believe this translates into the many cultures of the world. Following Jesus brings out the fullness of any and all cultures. A cultural Buddhist can be a follower of Jesus. A cultural Muslim can be a follower of Jesus. It's just like a cultural Catholic can be a follower of Jesus without renouncing his cultural background or a cultural Baptist or a cultural Methodist. Anyone can be a follower of Jesus and still remain within his or her cultural background.

Jesus doesn't want the entire world to be Christian; Jesus wants the entire world to follow Him. This is why Jesus gives us His primary command to carry on His ministry to the world. He says, "Make disciples of all nations!" Make followers of Jesus in all nations; don't try to make them Christians! Introduce them to Jesus.

MYTH #3-Jesus is the founder of the Christian Church

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This myth may be one of the most difficult to accept as a myth, but hear me out on it. Open up your hearts and minds and let's examine why I call this a myth. Remember, we're trying to understand the teachings and principles of Jesus, not the teachings and principles of our religious instruction and backgrounds. If I were to hold on to my background understandings, I would still believe Jesus was a Baptist!
Many people in the USA and lots more in the cultures of the world believe the myth that Jesus founded Christianity and the Christian Church. It's as if this was His intent and His purpose. This identification is a man-made connection between Jesus and Christianity and the organized Christian Church. When the Christian Church became an organization, Christianity became Christendom. The organized Church provides lots of services for the consumer, but it wasn't what Jesus intended. In Jesus' time there already was an organized Church in existence-the Synagogue. He didn't speak against it, but only against its leadership.

The damage of believing the myth that Jesus founded Christianity or the organized Christian Church is three-fold: FIRST-The religion of Christianity tends to become a substitute for the personal relationship with Jesus. Jesus commonly is left out of the Christian, religious, expression of faith. When I spoke at the major Dalai Lama event, those who were set up to represent Christianity didn't even mention Jesus one time.

One of my hobbies is to read over Christian newsletters and prayer letters to see if Jesus made the editorial cut. It is amazing how many times Jesus is left out of their expression of what their ministry really is. Just recently a major article was published in a secular magazine about a visible and prominent Christian leader and his plan to change the world. Sadly, Jesus never made it into any part of the plan nor did Jesus even receive honorable mention.

SECOND-The organized Christian Church tends to become a substitute for a personal relationship with Jesus and with His people. This produces spectators and not participators. It's just too easy to check off Church attendance as one of the things you feel you must do. But as powerful as the Church experience might be through authentic worship and exceptional messages, the once-a-week "event" just isn't what Jesus intended. They already had this experience in the Synagogue. There's nothing wrong with it; it's just not what Jesus came to found.

THIRD-When you believe Jesus is the founder of Christianity or the organized Christian Church, you expect Jesus to be the author and architect of what is done in the name of Christianity and by the local organized Christian Church. Therefore, Jesus gets the blame for it all! He gets tied to the Crusades. He gets tied to pastoral moral failure. He gets tied to the raising of money and endless fundraisers.

Now to debunk this myth: Jesus was a founder, all right, but not of the organized Christian Church or the religion of Christianity. Check out these observations: 1. Jesus must be separated from Christianity and the organized Christian Church. Remember the bumper sticker and later the movie: "Lord, please save us from your followers." To link Jesus with the organized Church or the religious system of Christianity caricaturizes Jesus beyond recognition. And then the world criticizes Jesus and His movement on earth based upon the Church and the religious system. This is as absurd as judging Beethoven by how well the local Junior High School band plays his music.

2. I have come to believe Jesus is the unique Son of God. For me to believe this myth limits Jesus in most every way. He is to be preeminent above all things, peoples and religious systems. To keep Jesus in the position of being the founder of Christianity keeps Jesus in His holy box and unavailable to the rest of the world.

3. Jesus never intended to found or launch a highly organized Church with membership requirements and man-made labels. He founded and launched a movement-a dynamic, relational fellowship of followers of Jesus who love God and love their neighbors as themselves.

4. Jesus nor any of His disciples bashed the Synagogue of the day, which equates to the Church today. There was no thought or teaching on planting new Synagogues (Churches) to compete with the primary Synagogue in the city. This sets up the next observation:

5. The dynamic, relational movement Jesus launched was not about building an organization or a monument; He set in motion a movement that was loosely held together. This movement was not to take the place of the Synagogue nor is it to take the place of the organized Church today. However this movement is totally out of control-our control-and in the control of Jesus, the Head of His body.

It was to be a movement that orbited around the Synagogue (Church), the community and around the marketplace, demonstrating the love of Jesus to all. This movement doesn't have the privilege of gathering spectators together, because its all about participation in a fellowship, learning to love God and love one another. This movement is called the church (little c)-the gathering of the followers of Jesus into a fellowship. Jesus uses the term only three times, because His primary teaching was the Good News of the Kingdom. Big C Church was not taught nor was it in His mind or in the practice of the early disciples as they spread the message of Jesus and the Kingdom.

The book of Acts is sometimes called the Acts of the Apostles, but I think it's best to refer to it as the Acts of Jesus. The revolutionary movement of Jesus is still on today! The purpose of the movement is to do one of the most difficult things ever-to introduce Jesus to the world by demonstrating Jesus-walking, talking, thinking and loving like Jesus. You see, Jesus doesn't want you to demonstrate for Him, but to demonstrate Him and His love.

Jesus launched a revolutionary movement. Are you participating in this movement-the orbiting (little c) church movement Jesus founded-or are you still only playing spectator in a big C Church? You can do both and gain much out of your experience, but just don't miss out on the Jesus movement in your community right where you live! Jesus is already moving in the world around you. He's looking for you to join Him there!

ONE MORE THING: The Jesus movement that orbits around the organized Church and the community is not made up of Christians. The make-up of the Jesus movement is a vast variety of people from all kinds of cultural backgrounds. What holds this movement together is that each person, no matter his or her religious background, is a follower of Jesus.

MYTH #2-BEING A BELIEVER IS ALL IT TAKES

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Before getting into this myth I want to make it clear that I am well aware that many of you reading/listening to this series may not be Christians or from a Christian cultural background. The reason I feel I must examine several of these Christian terms is that I want to separate them from Jesus. So many of these terms are like barnacles on a ship and must be removed. Or, they are add-ons to Jesus that dilute who He is and what He intended.
Most of my life I have bought into the importance of being a believer or more specifically, a believer in Jesus. For years I have emphasized the term "believer" over "Christian", thinking this was the best identity to use that separates a person from the religious form of Christianity. If you perform a quick overview of the five Gospels (Matthew-Mark-Luke-John-Acts), you will discover that with few exceptions John is the only one who uses the term "believe" extensively.
The damage that is done by relying on being a believer is subtle, but lethal.

FIRST-I have come to understand that this heavy emphasis upon being a "believer" is not sufficient to describe what Jesus wants from His disciples. Jesus demands more than this, as I'll demonstrate in a couple of minutes.

SECOND-Being a believer becomes a threshold experience-the very doorway into salvation-that Christians rely upon. After sharing a time of counseling a desperate man in the psych ward of a local hospital, I told this particular study group that it was so exciting to see this man's attitude of fear change into a sincere seeking for God. One of our group members quickly said, "So he became a believer?" In other words, "Did you close the spiritual deal and now this non-believer is a believer?" We seem to want this magical moment that a person becomes a believer and then all will be OK.

THIRD-Remembering the day you became a believer-your threshold experience of salvation-becomes a sure sign that your faith is genuine and not being able to nail down that date means that maybe you never actually have come into a salvation experience at all. This, too, can be a damaging experience. Recently, a pastor told one of his elders that if you can't identify that specific time of salvation faith in your life, then you are probably not a genuine believer. That night the elder interrogated his wife and she could not give him a specific day, but she felt she had come into a personal faith gradually. When the elder shared this experience with a group I was leading, he was really saddened by his discovery and it showed in his countenance.

Then I asked him, "When was Peter's specific day?" The elder sat there for quite some time and said, "I don't know." I said, "Troubling, isn't it?" "What about the other disciples? What was their specific day?" The elder saw what I was showing him and said, "So, my pastor was wrong."

The damage is done when we put such pressure on people to "make a decision" to be a believer in Jesus right now. This is why we ask people to come forward at altar calls and why we praise those who witness to the point that they have actually led someone to pray the sinner's prayer. It's all part of our instant approach to life. This wasn't the norm in the life and ministry of Jesus and it isn't the norm today!

FOURTH-To make "being a believer" so paramount, it is too easy to miss out on what happened with the early disciples and rely on man-made sound bites and clichés. Think about it! The early disciples were not "believers" in the sense that most think of it today. They were followers of Jesus and His teachings, but were a work in progress with respect to becoming believers. By the way, that process took them over three years!

To debunk this myth I want to offer some things to think about: FIRST-Demons are said to be believers. In James 2:19 it says: You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder.

SECOND-The false teachers Jesus mentions are believers. In Matthew 7 Jesus refers to people who act like believers, but that's not good enough. Look at what Jesus says: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Here was a group of people who spoke in the name of Jesus, cast out demons in the name of Jesus and performed many miracles in His name, yet Jesus didn't know them. He had no personal relationship with them.

THIRD-Many of you who are reading or listening to this daily see yourselves as believers, too. So, what's the difference? There must be more to it than just being a believer!

Jesus clarifies this. Jesus makes it clear that the only ones who will enter the Kingdom of heaven are those who do the will of the Father. And what does Jesus mean by this? In the next paragraph He illustrates what this means:
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

Those who do the will of the Father are those who hear the words of Jesus and practice them! That's more than just being a "believer". Don't get caught up in the Christian clichés and sound bites of religiosity. Pray for ears to hear and eyes to see, then listen to what Jesus says and do it. Don't miss this! You must believe, but you must believe enough to follow Jesus and His teachings! Whether you are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, Christian or agnostic, follow Jesus and enjoy the results!

Myth #1-JESUS IS OWNED BY CHRISTIANITY

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The first myth is JESUS IS OWNED BY CHRISTIANITY. Now don't get nervous about this myth. I am not bashing being a Christian or the religious system of Christianity. I want to help you consider a very basic understanding that causes lots of misunderstanding both in this country and in nations around the world. Let's examine it.

The definition of this myth is two-fold. First, this popular myth believes that Jesus was a Christian-that Jesus would be comfortable with being called a Christian and identifying exclusively with Christianity. Second, there seems to be a sub-myth on this one-that Christ was Jesus' last name. Let's quickly deal with this sub-myth. Jesus Christ is better understood as Jesus, the Christ. Jesus is His name and the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, is His title.

The damage from this myth is many-fold. FIRST-Christians believe they have a corner on the market with respect to Jesus. The by-product of believing Jesus is owned by Christianity is religious, Pharisaical pride. This pride leads "Christians" to identify its culture as the right culture-the right way of life. This excludes all other cultures God created, other than the Christian culture, from following the path of God.

SECOND-If you desire to become a follower of Jesus, embracing this myth tends to distract you away from Jesus and the Kingdom. Instead of following Jesus, your focus can so easily become being a Christian or defending Christianity.

THIRD-Non-Christians believe Jesus is exclusively related to Christians and therefore they have no relationship with Him, even though Jesus is so attractive, irresistible and relevant to them.

FOURTH-Non-Christians identify Christianity with the disastrous and horrendous actions of its past-e.g. the Crusades against the Muslims and the persecution and killings of the Jews-all in the name of Christianity.

FIFTH-Non-Christians identify Christianity with the West and as they develop hate for the West, they develop hate for Christianity (and vice versa). When Christians attempt to convert people who are not Christians, they stir up such anger and hate-especially is this true in the non-Christian cultures of the world. Christians want Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims and whoever else is before them to become Christians-to be converted away from their cultures into Western Christianity. As my son-in-law said, "This is doing missionary work the hard way!" Instead of converting people away from their cultures and into Christianity, why not introduce them to Jesus and let Him do His work in their hearts. Now that's true conversion!

In debunking this myth I want to share four observations: FIRST-Jesus never used the term "Christian". The term is found three times in the New Testament. The first is in Acts 11:26: and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. This seems to be a derisive comment by those in Antioch at this point. The second occurrence is in Acts 26:28: Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?" The third time the term "Christian" is used is by Peter in I Peter 4:16: However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.

When I use the argument that Jesus never used the term "Christian", I am saying that He had something so different in mind than to offer a label to be worn or an organization to join-all to be foisted upon the cultures of the world. If Jesus were trying to change people's cultural identification, He would have actually done so. When Jesus encountered a person from another culture with other gods and traditions, He was not concerned with "converting" them away from those backgrounds. He was primarily concerned with a person's relationship and trust in Him. Take the Roman official-the one Jesus said possessed more faith than any other person in all of Israel; Jesus didn't warn him to beware of the many Roman gods nor did He urge him to join the synagogue or any other organization.

SECOND-Jesus had a better term. Most Christians love to use the ID, "believer" or "born again". What's interesting is that with a couple of exceptions "believer", "believe" and "born again" are used only by John in his Gospel. John and all of the other Gospel writers-Matthew, Mark and Luke-use the same and most prominent terminology as they quote Jesus. All five Gospels are in agreement about the terms "follower" or "follow". This is Jesus' designation of those who are in relationship with Him-followers.

Without a doubt the best use of the term "Christian" is to be a "follower of the Christ". Used in this way following Jesus retains the power of a movement. However, most take Christianity as a religion, religious system of beliefs and an organization to be joined, which kills the movement by definition and practice.

THIRD-There is nothing wrong with being a Christian or even a Western Christian, if that's your cultural background. But there is something far better and that is to be a follower of Jesus. The largest spiritual movements in the world are happening among Animists in Africa, Buddhists and Hindus in Asia, Muslims and Jews in the Middle East, atheists and agnostics in China and even Christians in the USA. This movement numbers in the millions those who do not identify themselves with Christianity or Western Christianity, but sincerely and enthusiastically call themselves followers of Jesus. They love and worship Jesus!

How can this be? Because Jesus is more preeminent than we have let Him be. He is so much greater than any Christian can ever lift up and He must be lifted up. As He is lifted up Jesus will draw all men and women to Him, because He is the most attractive, the most irresistible and the most relevant ever. If the Creator-God were to ever take on flesh and become man, God would look like Jesus.

When Paul was in Athens (Acts 17:22-31), he stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship-and this is what I am going to proclaim to you."
 
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations (cultures), that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
 
"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone-an image made by human design and skill. That divine being is Jesus and He must not be limited to the Christian box and culture. God set up all cultures in order for them to reach out for God and find Him."

No, Jesus is not owned by Christianity. He is the unique one, born of the Spirit of God! This Kingdom Manifesto of Jesus-the Good News-is for everyone. It is not exclusively for the Jews or the Christians. Jesus is all-inclusive. He is the ultimate answer for everyone everywhere. Jesus. Simply Jesus.