I was unpacking (yes, I’m still unpacking) and found a note from a old friend. She had given me a few words of wisdom about Authentic Spirituality.  Since I blogged a few days back on authenticity, I figured I should share her wisdom on the subject:

 Authentic Spritiuality is displayed in the book of Acts. So what is it?

1. Love for Christ

2. Loyalty to fellow disciples

3. Contagious Faith

4. Unreserved commitment

5. Expectation of great things

6. Filled with the Holy Spirit

I blogged a while back on Hollywood pursuing the Christian dollar. And after hearing about it again this morning on the news, I’m just mad. What have we done as Christians to be viewed as a dollar demographic of people?

Is it even good that we’re viewed as a demographic. It makes us sound more like lambs for the slaughter than roaring lions. We are no longer viewed as dangerous individuals tirelessly pursuing Christ and giving our lives over to saving a lost world. No, we’ve become a buying class of people. Are we dangerous? No.

How does the world percieve us? Well, we’re PG and family wholesome. We buy nice clean things that make us feel nice and clean. We have let ourselves become stereotyped and neutered.

Where are our Christian testicles!?! They were lopped of long ago. I want to be a scary hairy smelly man crying out in the wilderness like John the Baptist. I don’t want be Ned Flanders.

Hollywood sees us as just another group to market and milk for cash. They don’t fear the message we have to offer. The smile, nod their heads and then give us what we want as we call it a victory for Christians!They set the trends (take the cash) and we dutifully follow.

The guys at the XXXchurch.com website use the phrase, “If Satan’s a pimp, don’t be his hoe.” Well are we hoe-ing ourselves out for a better life? To fit in? To be comfortable?

What has been lost? Too much.

How do we get it back? That’s something I’m trying to figure out, seeking it in prayer and practice.

So how about you? How does this make you feel?

Authenticity. It’s a word that’s been hitting me for the past few months. So what does it mean to be authentic (or mainly an authentic Christian)?

 Hebrews 4:13 says that “nothing in all creation can hide from Him. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes.”

So why are we incapable of being authentic? Fear of shame, embarrassment? Maybe.

I think it goes beyond that. Granted, Adam and Eve eating from the apple shattered true authenticity and lead to us all covering up. There’s a deeper message here. 1) Satan tempted Eve to eat the apple. Shame and distance (from God and man) resulted from it. So then I could say that 2) Satan uses our fear of intimacy to keep us from truly having fellowship with others. Isn’t that his paramount goal? Separate us from God and other believers? There’s safety in numbers and when we stray too far from the herd, we’re toast.  

So then, is true authenticity acutally true oneness (with God or others)?

Agree? Disagree?

What is your definition of authentic?