2010 To-Do List

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." - Ghandi

Ok, so I saw this quote and I thought a rather condemning thought of some of our society's mega-church superstars. Joel Osteen, for example. If one were to make a list of the attributes of Christ and then compare them to Mr. Osteen's attributes, how would it match up?

Then, I immediately thought of myself. How would I measure up? Probably not much better than Mr. Osteen, perhaps. But, I thought, I'm not exactly sure where to go to "measure up". So, I did what any 21st century scholar does, I went to Google.

I've found innumerable websites that either deal with the attributes of Christ as God or websites that talk about the attributes of a Christian, but nothing that dealt with the attributes of Christ as a person.

I'm looking for a list of attributes of Christ from a biblical perspective that concretely names what Jesus actually physically DID to distinguish himself in this world. To see if my hypothesis about how, as a society, we think of Christ was accurate, I did a search and found countless lists of what Christians should NOT do.

My hypothesis is basically that we (21st century society) like to think about Christianity as a "you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do that" sort of religion. It gives us an odd comfort to know that those around us are committing heinous acts of heresy as we restrain from our list of "shouldn'ts" and live a "Christian" life.

Ok, here's my thought on this - those sorts of lists are POINTLESS!! It is kinda like deciding what I'll do today by listing everything that I shouldn't or wouldn't do. NOT helpful!

I actually want something that says in black and white - (for example) "Jesus has compassion on and fed the hungry - Matt 15:32-34". This way, if I see someone asking for food, I don't turn away without compassion for them, but I would be lead to feed them - even if that's just bringing them a meal from McD's.

I think as Christians we all have many opportunities to minister to people and show Christ's love to them in ways that we don't even consider because we're just trying to live the "good life" of "don't drink, don't smoke, don't gamble, don't cuss, etc..." As if avoiding these activities made one more Christ-like.

I want a to do list for 2010. I want it based on what Jesus actually DID! (Not what he did not do...which, would be pure speculation because just because it didn't mention that Jesus did something, that doesn't mean that he didn't do it. If its not in the bible, then Jesus could have done something, it just wasn't recorded.)

I actually want the concrete "Jesus did _________" and therefore, as Christians, followers of Christ, we should do the same.

Am I crazy? Does this seem reasonable? It seems DOABLE to me!

To sign up for Mark's email list, click here.