Watered Down Gospel

Often times, I look around the world we live in today and it makes me sad. People hating each other openly, tearing others down, complacency and a watered down Gospel being presented at every turn, and a rising trend of cultural Christianity without the sacrifice of actually having a relationship with Christ.

How have so many of us bought into the lies we swore we'd never buy into?

You can't pick and choose what parts of the Gospel you live your life in accordance to. I tried for a really long time and all I ever felt were feelings of complete unfulfillment and dissatisfaction.

It seems really easy to write off Jesus' life here on earth and focus on the lie that He doesn't actually understand anything we're going to. It's a different society, we have to adapt, right? Wrong.

Jesus faced many trials and temptations just as we do. He was a human. A real human, with real feelings. He once breast fed from His mother, there was a time He didn't know how to walk or talk, He wept at the thought of dying. Not just dying, but suffering. Yet, He still sacrificed His life for those of us who continue to live a life against His cause. In 1 Peter 3:18, it says "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit."

It's hard to be different. For fear of judgement. For fear of standing out. For fear of being weird.

So, what am I saying here?

Stop feeding into the lies society and the world have spoon fed us. Realize that there is an urgency to spread the Gospel and that we can't sit around and wait for other people to do it. As Christians, our job is to spread the good news throughout the whole world. Our job is also to be kind to others. Yes, to be kind. I think there is a fine line that people have blurred. We all sin. We often live in our sin knowingly. Does that mean that we are undeserving of Christ's love? Absolutely not. So, why should we label someone else as undeserving? Not to say that we should continue down a path of negligence. 1 Peter 3:15 says it best: "but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect."

Don't fall into the trap of the watered down Gospel. Be bold.

How sad would it be to never hear of Christ's love in all its potency? I don't want a watered down Gospel. I want a strong, in my face, knocks me to my knees Gospel. That is what Christ suffered for. The Father in that Gospel is one that I want to know. He's the one that desires me, a messy, hypocritical, secret sinning being, to know Him.

How amazing is that?

I understand why people are constantly choosing the world over Christ.

The watered down version of Christ fails in comparison to the potent Savior He truly is.

Why wouldn't want to share of His true greatness? The fact that we have been redeemed. We were once dead, but we are now alive through Christ. He loves us in spite of our messy baggage.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:4-5

Do you know the watered down Christ who had long hair, wore sandals, and was really nice to a bunch of people, or do you know the Christ who bore your sin so you could have a relationship with God, the one who never abandons you, the one who knows you better than you know yourself, and the one who has already beaten the enemy?

How I Received Free Shirts from Colleges Across the Country

Have you ever had one of those ideas where it seems ridiculous, but at the time, you wonder why you’ve never thought about before? I have.

It all started at the end of November when I had ankle surgery. Much to my dismay, this pretty much sentenced me to a life of couch sitting for at least 2 months. As boredom ensued, I spent most of my time in the unexplored depths of the internet which really just means I was reading random people’s blogs and searching for ways to get free stuff.

The first search I made was for a list of companies that gave away free stickers because I thought it might add a little excitement to my day to add new stickers to my water bottle. Which, might I add, was exciting. I received quite a few stickers from a very diverse group of companies. Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort, Osprey, Chaco, In-N-Out Burger and Fish Hippie to name a few.

After I’d sent out all of my emails requesting stickers, which only took a total of five minutes, I found myself in the same state of boredom.

Then, I had an idea.
(This is where the reason for this whole post becomes really apparent).

My idea was this: what if I emailed a bunch of colleges and asked them for stickers? Or, better yet, because these are big schools we are talking about with loads of money, why not ask for a t-shirt?

Brilliant! Why had I never thought of this before? Every time I had visited a college when I was in high school, I got loaded up with free gear from these schools.

I decided to do a little research because I was sure I wasn’t the only person who had thought of this and I was correct! I ended up reading this awesome blog about a guy who received over 300 t-shirts after he read a blog about a guy who got over 800 or so t-shirts.

With all the time in the world, I started on my emails.

I ended up sending out around 400 emails to various schools around the country and I even included a couple Canadian ones requesting free apparel and information packets. You know, to make me seem like less of a free loader.

Immediately, I started receiving emails back. Most of them were telling me that they wouldn’t be able to send me any apparel. Two days later, I received my first t-shirt. It was from William Peace University in Raleigh, NC.

After the first one, I was getting at least one shirt a day and lots of information packets. My mailman was kind enough to put them on my front porch, but I think it was mostly because I was getting so much mail that he couldn’t fit it in the box.

I ended up getting over 40 shirts, plus a lot of other "swag," as many of the college reps called Majority of the people in the admission offices were nice and very helpful!

My absolute favorite interaction was with St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Father David was such a sweetheart and even included a handwritten note. I think he was as excited that someone was asking for a t-shirt as I was to receive one.

Initially, I was only doing it to get free shirts because who doesn’t love to rock a t-shirt from an obscure school that no one has ever heard of? But, the more I thought about it, I knew I didn’t really need all of these shirts. So, I kept my favorites and donated the others to a homeless shelter.

All in all, this was a fun experiment. Not only did I get some free stuff and make my time of boredom a bit more fun, but I learned a lot about some really cool schools that I’d never heard of prior to all of this.

If any of you decide to give this a try, I’d love to hear about your experience. Also, feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about any of the process.