Hacked

Real matters. Take food, for instance. The healthiest foods are real, not some nutrition-stripped combination of digestible chemicals. At the pharmacy I want real medication, not almost real. Each of us knows the difference between a real friend and one that only claims to be real. H2O is water; H2O2 is almost water – it’s just one little oxygen molecule more – but if I drink hydrogen peroxide, I can die. Almost real religion is just as deadly. Many people have been seduced by a brand of Christianity that is almost real. Theologians call it moralistic therapeutic deism,[1] but it is more simply summarized as, Be good, Feel good, Live your life (God is watching).[2] Many people – including many Christians – have bought into an almost real Christianity in which “…they have either unconsciously absorbed or mistakenly rejected a version of Christianity that has been hacked – it’s not the real thing.”[3] The only real way, though, is God’s way.

[1] Christian Smith and Melinda Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 162-171.

[2] Haydn Shaw, Generational IQ: Christianity Isn’t Dying; Millennials Aren’t the Problem: And the Future is Bright, (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2015), 99.

[3] Shaw, Generational IQ, 107.

10.01.17 - God is Watching
Small Group Questions
 

10.08.17 - Be Nice
Small Group Questions
 

10.15.17 - Feeling Good
Small Group Questions
 

10.22.17 - Who's In Charge?
Small Group Questions
 

10.29.17 - Not Good Enough
Small Group Questions