“HE GETS US”

I’m used to commercials for beer and pickup trucks during football games. Another product has entered the advertising lineup: Jesus. The tagline is, “He gets us.” Jesus invited everyone to His table, we are told. Jesus was misunderstood. Jesus could handle disagreement. Jesus was a refugee. None of these claims is untrue on its face. The problem here is what these commercials leave out…

Misunderstood by his family, accused of demonic sorcery, betrayed by one of His closest followers, hung upon a Roman cross…. Yes, Jesus gets us all right. He gets that we are sinful, willful creatures bent on our own destruction. He gets that, left to our own devices, we will rebel against our created nature and, hence, against God. He gets us, and He loves us anyway. That is why He came to save us…

To reach people for Christ is a noble task, but who is this Christ? Most will agree that He was a wise teacher, a friend to sinners, a misunderstood prophet, a refugee. But He is also God-made-flesh, the embodiment of perfect humanity, the bearer of new life, and, yes, a judge. He gets us. After all, He became one of us, though not for free hugs and vague sentimentality, but to save us. Sin and death abound. The devil is loose in the land. What Western culture needs is not another bearer of its common values with a bit of religious window dressing, but a savior.

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”  (Ephesians 1:7 NIV)

-- Excerpted from an article entitled “He Gets Us” by David F. Watson, Lead Editor of Firebrand Online Magazine

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AN INEXPRESSIBLE AND GLORIOUS JOY

Everyone is looking for joy. Marketing companies know this. Every commercial [and internet ad] promises the same product: joy. Want some joy? Buy our hand cream. Want some joy? Sleep on this mattress. Want some joy? Eat at this restaurant, drive this car, wear this dress…

Joy. Everyone wants it. Everyone promises it. But can anyone deliver it? It might surprise you to know that joy is a big topic in the Bible. Simply put: God wants His children to be joy-filled. Just like a father wants his baby to laugh with glee, God longs for us to experience a deep-seated, deeply rooted joy.

The joy offered by God is different than the one promised at the car dealership or shopping mall. God is not interested in putting a temporary smile on your face. He wants to deposit a resilient hope in your heart. He has no interest in giving you a shallow happiness that melts in the heat of adversity. But he does offer you a joy: a deep-seated, heart-felt, honest-to-goodness, ballistic strong sense of joy that can weather the most difficult of storms.    

Peter referred to this joy in the opening words of his epistle: “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (I Peter 1:8-9) 

-- Max Lucado

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WATCHING OUR WORDS

Words, words, words. Our society is full of words: on billboards, on television screens, in newspapers and books. Words whispered, shouted, and sung. Words that move, dance, and change in size and color. Words that say, “Taste me, smell me, eat me, drink me, sleep with me,” but most of all, “buy me.” With so many words around us, we quickly say: “Well, they’re just words.” Thus, words have lost much of their power.


Still, the word has the power to create. When God speaks, God creates. When God says, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), light is. God speaks light. For God, speaking and creating are the same. It is this creative power of the word we need to reclaim. What we say is very important. When we say, “I love you,” and say it from the heart, we can give another person new life, new hope, new courage. When we say, “I hate you,” we can destroy another person. Let’s watch our words.


-- Henri Nouwen




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THE POWER OF ADVERTISING

The neglect of the spiritual cannot be laid directly at the door of advertising.  It may be better laid at the door of the church [that] has failed to preach the God of the Bible, heaven and hell, repentance, faith, and eternal life.  It can be argued that a society only gets the advertising it deserves.  Yet the power to commend certain patterns of spending behavior to millions with regularity is an open invitation to orchestrate the covetousness, envy, lust, and desire to dominate, which lie in the heart of sinful man.

-- Raymond Johnston in "The Power of the Media" in The Changing World

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