Missing the point

So last week during the closing prayer at our church softball game, one of our members ended the prayer in a very interesting way.  His last line was, and I quote, "See ya on Sunday God!"  Now I should confess that I think opening and closing prayers at church softball games are a joke to begin with, mainly because the one praying usually spouts off some pop theology and something about keeping us free from injury, etc; but this line really made my skin crawl.  And it did so for two reasons.  First, half of our teams players do not come to our church regularly and they play because they are friends of or work for our coach.  So playing with the few of us that do go to the church should be something of a good influence on them, hopefully that is.  I was not surprised to hear one of these guys say to our coach, "Aren't you guys supposed to have like daily interaction with God or something?"  To which I piped in with, "yes, that is the general point."  Which brings me to my second reason, the frustration that some people just don't get it.  We can preach and teach till Jesus comes back, and we probably will, but for some reason people just don't seem to get the point of what we are trying to say.  I guess this is just one way where we can identify with Jesus in those following you do fully grasp your message.  Jesus, grant us the grace we need to serve like you did.

Jesus Manifesto

I recently finished reading "Jesus Manifesto" as I got a copy from the BookSneeze bloggers program.  I did enjoy reading this book and felt that the authors did a good job of stating their case.  The writing style is very accessible for any reader and their message is definitely for the church and those who call themselves Christian.  My only minor irritation with the book is that I pretty much knew where they were going after the first few pages, but this book only has one subject in Jesus Christ.

All of that being said, I think this is a timely message for the church to get back to Jesus.  As someone who preaches from time to time and is involved in sermon discussions for our church, I was convicted about how many of our sermons point back to Christ.  I feel that we do a good job of that, but still something to think about.  I also really enjoyed the chapter that they wrote on justice and mercy and how they find their fulfillment in Christ.  I won't go into any detail as to ruin it for you, but I resonated with much of what they said in that particular chapter.

I do believe that Jesus Manifesto is worth a read and I hope and pray that it's message will cause all of us who claim Christ as Lord to really think about if we live as if Christ is Lord in our lives.