Build-A-Jesus*
*Thank you to Lottie Rigeaux who came up with this idea and gave it to me for a future blog some months back.
If you have ever been to a Build-A-Bear, I am convinced they have got to be one of the coolest toy businesses these days. I wish they would have had those when I was a kid. You go in and can pick what type of stuffed animal you want. Then you have it stuffed but only after you can kiss a little heart that they’ll put in for you and any sound effects. Then you pick its name and can fluff it. Then like a monument to individuality there is a wall of outfits you can pick for your new friend. It really is a child’s dream come true.
Many people treat Christianity like a Build-A-Bear. It’s like their in the store and they think they can choose a little Jesus doll and make him into what they think He should be for them. They like the whole salvation thing but they think the concept of sin is antiquated so they choose not to include that into their doll. Maybe they’ll take the grace outfit but only when it suits them, and well let’s loose fruit of the spirit outfit because really it today’s world they don’t think it’s important anymore, after all Jesus did live 2000 years ago.
Jesus and the Bible is not a smorgasbord that you can pick and choose what you think is important. You can’t just come up with your own religious form of Christianese. Revelation 22:18-19 says, “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
Many people in the world are making Jesus into their own little dolls. Matthew 24:4-5 says, “And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” Then their trying to pass off their doll as the true Christ when really it’s just what they have picked and chosen from the word. It’s so sad that so many get deceived because they really don’t know what the word says so they hear something that has a whole lot of opinion mixed with a little word and they buy it hook line and sinker. You must know what the Bible says. You must guard yourself from being deceived.
John 10:9-11 says, “ I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”
Believers, we must take God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit for who He is and not who we think we want Him to be for us. We must accept that He knows more than we do. When he might say in the word something isn’t okay, that isn’t to hurt us. It is for our protection. There have been many a time in my walk with the Lord that when I didn’t understand something I have continued to ask the Lord to explain it to me, and eventually He brought understanding to me. We cannot continue to only serve and believe in the parts of the word that we think we need. It’s time we start believing and know Jesus for who He is and stop trying to make him into a little doll we can carry around for our own purposes. We must accept all of Him.
There will be a day that we will all have to stand before the Lord and give an account for our lives on this earth. Call it checking out at the cashier in the store if you will. I don’t want God to examine the Jesus I brought to Him to hand it back and say, “I’m sorry but that’s not me.” The Bible says that many will call him Lord, Lord on the day of judgment and unfortunately to many his response will be, Matthew 7:23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
If you have ever been to a Build-A-Bear, I am convinced they have got to be one of the coolest toy businesses these days. I wish they would have had those when I was a kid. You go in and can pick what type of stuffed animal you want. Then you have it stuffed but only after you can kiss a little heart that they’ll put in for you and any sound effects. Then you pick its name and can fluff it. Then like a monument to individuality there is a wall of outfits you can pick for your new friend. It really is a child’s dream come true.
Many people treat Christianity like a Build-A-Bear. It’s like their in the store and they think they can choose a little Jesus doll and make him into what they think He should be for them. They like the whole salvation thing but they think the concept of sin is antiquated so they choose not to include that into their doll. Maybe they’ll take the grace outfit but only when it suits them, and well let’s loose fruit of the spirit outfit because really it today’s world they don’t think it’s important anymore, after all Jesus did live 2000 years ago.
Jesus and the Bible is not a smorgasbord that you can pick and choose what you think is important. You can’t just come up with your own religious form of Christianese. Revelation 22:18-19 says, “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
Many people in the world are making Jesus into their own little dolls. Matthew 24:4-5 says, “And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” Then their trying to pass off their doll as the true Christ when really it’s just what they have picked and chosen from the word. It’s so sad that so many get deceived because they really don’t know what the word says so they hear something that has a whole lot of opinion mixed with a little word and they buy it hook line and sinker. You must know what the Bible says. You must guard yourself from being deceived.
John 10:9-11 says, “ I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”
Believers, we must take God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit for who He is and not who we think we want Him to be for us. We must accept that He knows more than we do. When he might say in the word something isn’t okay, that isn’t to hurt us. It is for our protection. There have been many a time in my walk with the Lord that when I didn’t understand something I have continued to ask the Lord to explain it to me, and eventually He brought understanding to me. We cannot continue to only serve and believe in the parts of the word that we think we need. It’s time we start believing and know Jesus for who He is and stop trying to make him into a little doll we can carry around for our own purposes. We must accept all of Him.
There will be a day that we will all have to stand before the Lord and give an account for our lives on this earth. Call it checking out at the cashier in the store if you will. I don’t want God to examine the Jesus I brought to Him to hand it back and say, “I’m sorry but that’s not me.” The Bible says that many will call him Lord, Lord on the day of judgment and unfortunately to many his response will be, Matthew 7:23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
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