So from time to time I totally rip off other pastors, who are usually friends of mine...so i call it 'borrowing,' ideas or analogies and use them @ PURE or in a WOL Sunday morning message, and in my defense i will give credit where credit is due, like a good bibliography would in college or grad school...and this is one of those moment...so thanks Ronny and Tony:-)
Have you ever considered what your Christianity is really like? Is it real, authentic...obviously imperfect, but have you ever thought about whether or not its the real deal? Diet Coke, was designed and intended to taste and be 'like' Coke, which it clearly is not. Nonetheless it was created to be Coke without the calories of Coke without actually being Coke...right? So here is where the analogy gets even crazier. In order for Diet Coke to be calorie free it has to have Aspartame, an artificial sweetener, discovered while making an ulcer medication, that is 200x sweeter...not sure how you measure sweetness...than real sugar.
However the artificial never comes without consequence right? Aspartame limits your appetite and flings a slurry of other negative side effects to your body, and can actually mess with your immune system.
Now with the technicalities of Diet Coke out of the way...are you and I living true authentic Christian lives that still have all the substance and weight of the Original thing, or are we actually living hollow appetite depriving, fakeingly sweet lives the look like Christianity but contain none of the substance? Something in my heart tells me that the Church has actully created Diet Coke Christians...offering people something like the real deal without it being anything like the real thing.
While i am aware that this analogy could carry on for pages it is critical to me that we stop and ask that question, is this Christian life i am living too safe? Is it deprived of the risks involved with authenticity and literally 'picking up our cross?'
Hmm just a thought, but this is really the heart and soul behind...
profile//pcsee ya tonight.
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