Christianity as a crutch

[Rayado]

Rayado, I think you are reading too much into the concept of a crutch. No one suggested that you only need Him if your life is a mess. A good point in spite of this minor difference.

This is the attitude I ran into most often in big cities. It's just how modern, busy people see Christianity, and there is a lot of overemphasis on life change in non-denominational (seeker-sensitive, but not always) megachurches.

It's not a bad analogy; it just needs a little clarifying.

[Jedidiah]

This is the attitude I ran into most often in big cities. It's just how modern, busy people see Christianity, and there is a lot of overemphasis on life change in non-denominational (seeker-sensitive, but not always) megachurches.

It's not a bad analogy; it just needs a little clarifying.

Unfortunately the analogy originates with those deriding Christianity.

[Sparko]

Yeah they are saying "You are weak so you need Christianity. I am strong and I don't."

But they are just as weak and need the Gospel and Jesus as much as we do.

[Cow Poke]

Yeah they are saying "You are weak so you need Christianity. I am strong and I don't."

But they are just as weak and need the Gospel and Jesus as much as we do.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

[Christianbookworm]

Didn't a wise man say that it isn't the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick that need a doctor?

[Sparko]

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

It's almost like them fellas who wrote the bible had idiots using the same insults and arguments against them.

[rogue06]

It's almost like them fellas who wrote the bible had idiots using the same insults and arguments against them.

As they say, the more things change...

[Jedidiah]

What is it again that is new under the sun?

[Cow Poke]

nada

[One Bad Pig]

I love Ecclesiastes. It's probably my favorite OT book.

[TheWall]

Ecclesiastes is the book that really made me curious about what God wanted from us and what our purpose is.
I used to wonder if it was nihlistic or anti nihlistic. I learned instead that it was realistic. Without God everything is arbitrary and terrifying.
With him it is a journey. It isnt always a happy or easy journey but it is one that I feel I would be incomplete without.

[RumTumTugger]

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

reminds me of a line from one of my healing songs.

I am strong when I am on your shoulder...
from You Raise me up.

[Bisto]

reminds me of a line from one of my healing songs.

I am strong when I am on your shoulder...
from You Raise me up.

"...to more than I can be."

Beautiful song.

[Bisto]

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

This whole theme brings to mind a drawing I saw, called Tiny Light:
tiny_light_by_lyswen-da06yyc.jpg
IMO the concept is the same. God is glorified in, and He works through, our weakness.

( FWIW, you can check the original here: http://fav.me/da06yyc )

[hansgeorg]

Didn't a wise man say that it isn't the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick that need a doctor?

If you'll call God become Man a "wise man" ...? (Not that He was foolish, except that thing of dying for us, but it sounds like the litothesis of the year).