Summary: The Naked Church - Chapter 20 - A Real Jesus in an Unreal World --snip-- Not only can God make it here, but it’s the only place he does make it. He is not afraid to meet people in the real world, where every battle is not won, where people hurt and die, where all don’t repent and are saved. He’s not afraid of hospital rooms and screams of anger by people who misunderstand his love. He knows better than we that everything in this age will not end in temporal joy, and that rarely are the righteous rewarded in the world. He is not a God who can be real only in stained-glass hues on velvet pews. If that’s the only place we’re finding him, then we’re not finding the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What we’re finding may be an aesthetic feeling or a surge of compassion, but not the God of the universe filling our lives with the reality of his presence. God only stays in a church building if that’s where we leave him, and that’s where many people prefer to have him. He’s there when we need him, but he won’t meddle in my business, my family, or my recreational time. But this is written for those to whom God’s presence is good news—those who want to know him more fully, not less so. --snip-- The Naked Church - Chapter 20 - A Real Jesus in an Unreal World
