We are nearing the end of a truly American seasonal phenomenon, Easter egg hunts. Every spring, we put baskets in our kids' hands, line them up, shout "go", and take great joy in the mad scramble for hidden Easter eggs. We do this as communities, as organizatons, and as families. Our kids quickly learn that it is every egg hunter for themselves. Gather those eggs up before the next kid get them.
Perhaps this is a metaphor of how American churches, American Christians, do things. Grab up all of the blessings from God you can before someone else gets them. Get a bigger basket so it can hold more eggs. Get that higher paying job so you can put that bigger house in your basket. Use your salary to put cars, big screen TV's, and iPods in your basket. Our baskets are full of fancy, colorful, expensive Easter eggs.
We even give tithes and offerings to God, then use them to fill our baskets at church. Coffee shops, waterfalls, beautiful fixtures, big staffs, banquets, all pretty Easter eggs to put in our basket. All just for us.
But worst of all, we gather up the gospel, put it in our basket, and believe just as that little kid, that it is just for us. So we will go to church on Easter celebrating Christ's death and resurrection, and take great joy that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. We will look into our Easter basket, see what God gave us, and be as thankful as we can for the gift he gave just for us.
So we keep the greatest gift that was ever given in our basket, gathering it just for ourselves. Just like the millions of kids frantically grabbing all the Easter eggs they can at the thousands of Easter egg hunts across America.
God so love the world, He sent His own Son. Christ died for the sins of everyone. Yet most Amercian Christians live a life that really shows Christ just died for them. That is the gospel we have shown the rest of America and the world. We have shown them Christ just died for us.
Little wonder we are ignored and ridiculed. If Christ is such a treasure, if salvation is such a great thing, if Christ died for everyone, why don't American Christians act like it. Instead, we put Jesus in our basket and keep him for ourselves.
Kris
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I don't believe that most "Christians" even keep Him for themselves. Overall in America God is generally ignored and people go to church because it is good business to or because their mama will get upset if they don't show up. American's can't share what they don't have. Recent published surveys show that bible believing Christians are nearing minority status in America. (See recent Newsweek) It would be great if Americans opened their hearts and shared what is in their baskets...but first fill the basket with Christ, fully and completely, truly and wonderfully!
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