A Gospel Snapshot! Are You A Burger King Christian? Do You Attend Burger King Churchianity?
I was recently in China. Wanting American food for a change, I went into a Burger King. Wow! It was just like home. It even looked the same, and had the same menu items. The place was packed, and as I waited, I saw a sign up I had never seen before: “All Burger King locations commit to four things: (1) Quality, (2) service, (3) value, and (4) cleanliness.”
God said in my spirit, “This is just like most Christians involved in Churchianity.”
This is just ‘being average.’ Average is where the best of the worst meets the worst of the best.
(1) We want to be a quality person, and do things by the book,
(2) We want to provide some service in the church and be useful,
(3) We want to be of value and give money,
(4) We want to be clean in word and thought and deed.
We want to look good. We want to impress God and other people. We want to ‘shine,’ and show ourselves to be good Christians.
We Should Want To Do Good, But…
Now don’t get me wrong. These things are not bad in themselves. We Christians should live better than anyone else in the world because of the God we have living in us and empowering us. We call him the Holy Spirit. No, it’s not bad to want to do good, and to be good. But this isn’t divine revelation.
We often change life from living in GOD to doing GOOD. Doing good becomes more important to us than God. Wasn’t this original sin in the Garden of Eden? Didn’t Adam and Eve give up The Tree of Life (God) for The Tree of the Knowledge of GOOD? – and bad? If we define life solely on the terms of being good, and not being bad, we have missed God. Yes, we can be a quality person, do service, give money and be clean in word and thought and deed. But does this truly connect us with God?
Giving Our Best vs. Receiving God’s Best
Christianity is not just about giving our best. That is just humanism. It’s self. It’s noble and GOOD, but it’s not New Testament Christianity. Living by law – doing good and refraining from doing bad – is right, but it is not the righteousness of Christ in gospel truth. There are even segments of the church that urge us ‘To Be Like God.’ How ridiculous is that? It’s impossible for human flesh to be divine.
Instead we should focus on receiving God’s best – the gospel of the finished work of his Son Jesus. It’s what Jesus came to bring us. It was his very first sermon: “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). He said this belief must be preached in all the world before the end will come (Matt 24:14).
You see, when we RECEIVE God’s best, then we RELEASE God’s best. “As you have been freely given, so freely give.” Paul says it is the GOSPEL that produces good fruit from us (Col 1:5-6). Our job is to receive, not produce. We are responders, not initiators. “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We reign in life by RECEIVING to things: (1) God’s grace and (2) God’s gift of righteousness (Rom 5:17).
This is what the ‘The Parable of the Sower’ is all about: (1) receiving good seed, (2) forming good roots, and (3) producing good fruit. This is the parable Jesus says we must understand or we will not understand very much else (Mark 4:13). He also says, “My way is easy” (Matt 11:28).
Don’t Be Just A Burger King Hamburger
If we live life like Burger King Christians, God sees us like hamburger. If we think it is about us, we’ve missed it. We are not living in spiritual reality. We’re living a religious fantasy.
Instead, we should be a NCIC (I pronounce it ‘Nick’) – a New Creation in Christ (II Cor 5:17). We’re a ‘GodMan’ – which has no sexual connotation. In Christ there is no male or female (Gal 3:28).
The Holy Spirit’s ministry is partly to help us RECEIVE all the free things that God wants to give us (I Cor 2:12). We should receive them, like manna, everyday. This is what makes the Christian life powerful. It’s not about us – it’s all about Him. The Christian life is not my responsibility, but rather my response to his ability. The Parable of the Sower – (the seed, the root, and the fruit) – will keep us growing and conforming to the image of Jesus (Rom 8:29).
If we think it’s about us, we’re just hamburger. Welcome to Burger King Churchianity.
The gospel is for living a power filled life. I’m Roger Himes, The Gospel Coach, I lead you into this through (1) these GOSPEL SNAPSHOTS, (2) GOSPEL TIPS that I email, and (3) my e-books called GOSPEL COACHING SESSIONS. The gospel is totally FREE! There is no charge! http://www.TheGospelCoach.com. I used to be a lawyer and a counselor. Earlier, I sang in nightclubs (even with John Denver, before he was a star). But being a gospel coach is much more fun and rewarding.
