Jarrod Jones

Do you ever get bored with Jesus? Do you slip into the place where church is boring, reading Scripture is boring, praying is boring… Jesus is boring?

Here’s a better question: Is Jesus bored with you?

Sometimes I feel that radical Christianity has become mostly about getting Christian tattoos, not cursing, handing out bottled water while saying “Jesus loves you” at red lights, and “bold” t-shirts like, “God doesn’t believe in atheists.” I don’t particularly have a problem with these (okay, maybe the t-shirt), but Jesus never emphasized special Christian markings, outings, and clothing. As a matter of fact, in John 13, Jesus said “By this the world will know that you are my disciples in that you love one another.” They’ll know we’re disciples by our love, not by our tattoos and t-shirts.

Jesus called for a way of life… Deny self, carry cross, follow HIm. Obey. Share the gospel. Love each other. Love the unloved, unlovable, and unlovely through word and deed.

I’m in this with you. Is Jesus bored with me? I’ve been asking this question to myself while leaning into 2010. Is Jesus bored with me because I’m not living radically for Him, trusting Him, depending on Him, obeying Him, serving Him by serving others, even if it costs me?

Is Jesus bored with us?

I’ve been keeping a running list of goals and commitments I seek to hold as a Lead Pastor. I reviewed the list while on the plane ride from NY to OK. I haven’t looked at it or added to it in a while. I was encouraged, and convicted. I’m at 60 goals/commitments and counting. So, I thought I’d share a few in this post and in the next. I see it as a form of accountability to myself. But for what it’s worth to you… Hope maybe you can apply this to your own life, or ministry, where it fits.

By God’s grace:
1. Pray deeply and constantly.
2. Preach Christ and His Word. This is central.
3. My behavior better match my preaching and teaching. (Integrity).
4. Never sacrifice solitude with Christ in His Word and prayer for ministry and sermon preparation.
5. Church growth in faith, community, and mission. Souls saved, lives changed, Christ impassioned, God glorifying, and world impacting. This is the big win.
6. Love people.
7. Seek creativity always—constant creativity and creatively constant (Ed Young).
8. Just be me.
9. Be a leader people want to follow and not have to follow.
10. Read minimum of 30 minutes a day. Sharpen the axe.
11. Take Sabbath once per week.
12. Family before Church & ministry. Fight for it. 50 years from now my family will be the ones changing my Depends, and standing at my bedside, not anyone else.

 I lived so many years in religious chains. I lived mainly a “sin-avoidance” gospel. In other words, my Christian walk was mainly about not sinning (no cussing, no lying, no drinking, and so forth), doing Christian duties to keep me from sinning (Church, Bible, Prayer, Bible Studies), and finding Christian techniques to help me avoid sinning (wear Christian T-shirts, listen to Michael W. Smith, and wear a Cross necklace).

I also viewed God as a Daddy who was hard to please.  I always had to prove to myself, and to God, that I really loved Him. My thinking was like this:  ”I’m going to change my life.  I’m going to quit cussing. I’m going to quit looking at porn. I’m going to read my Bible more, pray more, put the Fish on my car, and get a Christian tattoo).  I failed to truly believe and rest in the reality that in Christ I am completely accepted and loved. The Apostle John said, “This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sin” (1 John 4:10).  He also wrote, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). God loved when I didn’t love Him. He sent His son even while I flipped Him off.  He first loved me and then i loved Him. But still I had it all wrong. I was living as if He loved me because i first loved Him. I didn’t get it. I was chained to religion.

I realized that religion is performance.  Religion is living for God’s acceptance and love. Relationship is living from his acceptance and love. Religion is trying to get God to respond in love. Relationship is living in response to God’s love.  And with that I learned that I don’t obey God to get accepted. Rather I obey because I’m already accepted by God. I don’t serve Christ to get loved, I serve Christ because I’m loved. See it?

Spoke at a conference a couple of years ago. In the front row, to my right, was a girl who looked like she hated being there and hated me (or the message, or both).  After the second day, and the third and last session, a lady approached me with tears in her eyes. She said, “I brought a group of girls here this weekend. They are from a foster home. They are hardened, bitter, and angry. Well, one of those girls gave her life to Jesus. She was sitting in the seats in front of you yesterday.”  It was that same girl.  The lady continued, “Her heart broke for Christ because of something you said. She heard you say, ‘God loves you.’  It was the first time she ever heard a male say that God loved her.’”

“God loves you.” I’m sure you’ve heard those words before from many people. Those three jaw-dropping words are so cliche’ now.  They make for cute coffee mugs and colorful calendars. But have you truly paused, opened your Bible to 1 John 4:10 & 1 John 4:19, Romans 8:14-16, and savored that  
G-O-D    L-O-V-E-S   Y O U!

Staggering.

Are you living a “sin-avoidance” gospel? Is your walk with Christ more about modifying your behavior to look more Christian? Or do you believe with all of your DNA that you are ferociously loved by God, and because of that love you want to live for His glory? His first love for you changes everything. Who wants to be religious with a ruthlessly loving God who wants relationship?  This God, our God, who would give His Son so that we might have that relationship.  Stop living for His love. Start living from His love.  Don’t obey so that you might feel accepted and loved by God. Obey because you are accepted and loved by God. 

Chains be gone! Be free.

Are you guilty? Telling someone you’ll pray for them but not doing it? Me too.  If I do remember, I feel that I must pray for them every single time I pray. If I forget, I feel guilty. How long are we to pray for someone if we told them we’d pray for them? A day, a week, a month, till kingdom come?

I read a passage in Philemon this morning that got me thinking.  Paul wrote to Philemon, “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers…” (Philemon 1:4).  Notice he wrote, “when I remember you in my prayers.”  This must mean Paul doesn’t always remember Philemon in prayer. Paul doesn’t say, ”I remember to pray for you always, and I thank God for you in my prayers.”  It’s a relieving thought that even the Apostle Paul doesn’t always remember certain people in prayer. It’s good thought for me especially when someone asks me to pray for them and I often drop the ball. 

Now, when i tell someone I’ll pray for them, here’s what I do:

*  I pray for them right then and there–either publicly or immediately after our conversation ends.

* If on the phone, I pray for them while on the phone or as soon as I hang up the phone.

* If it’s an e-mail, I pray for them immediately upon reading the e-mail. Or I pray through the e-mail.

* If they have an ongoing issue that needs intercession, I write their name on a sticky note and put it where I’ll see it every day (I put my notes on my desk by my laptop).  As often as I see the note (which will be constantly throughout the day), I whisper a simple prayer for them and their issue. I do this until I reach a place of peace and rest about time devoted for their intercession.

* I share that when I think of them in the days to come I will pray for them (This is honest. And the person will appreciate the honesty. They’ll trust what say. I am encouraged often by that statment more than the Sunday School “I will be praying for you” (of course some people really mean that).

* As the days, weeks, months, years pass, “when I remember them” I will pray for them.  I’m often amazed at people from a decade ago that I haven’s seen or spoken to that God will impress on my heart. If I have their e-mail, I’ll shoot them a note saying “I thought of you today and prayed for you.”