Secondhand Jesus - eBook

God has offered us firsthand knowledge of His love, His grace, and His power. Yet so often, we too easily settle for someone else’s descriptions, the Cliff notes from another’s spiritual journey. We are content for others to do the heavy lifting and then give us the bottom line. And, like any secondhand information, after enough times through the grapevine, the truth about God deteriorates and crumbs of rumor are all that remain.

But when life derails, and things don’t go as we had planned, our thin view of God is challenged. In those critical moments, we can choose to walk away from God, or to let our questions lead us home. When we choose to wrestle with God, to engage Him individually, we—like Jacob and Job and David—will see rumors die and revelation come alive.

Crushing rumors of God that many Christians mistakenly hold, Secondhand Jesus isn’t a five-step formula, but rather a challenge to Christians to own their faith by questioning their preconceived ideas about God. “It’s time to hear the magnificent, Divine Invitation,” says Packiam. “It’s time to take God up on His offer and embrace the mystery and majesty of knowing Him for ourselves.”

When you come across a book whose very title seems to insinuate that what you believe about God may be misinformation, it’s easy to be suspicious. Who is this guy and where does he get off lecturing me on my relationship with God? I know. I would feel the same way. So, I thought it might be helpful to explain what the book really is about, how the message came about in me, and what I hope a reader will gain from it.

Secondhand Jesus: Trading Rumors of God for a Firsthand Faith is about the rumors that we become vulnerable to when we decline an active, firsthand knowledge of God. Using four stories of the Ark of Covenant from 1 and 2 Samuel, the book uncovers four of the more prevalent rumors of God. The Ark stories are fascinating because in each story, since the Ark represents God’s presence, God is “on the scene.” Yet something goes terribly wrong each time. As we press into the stories, we discover traces of misinformation about God that led to a faulty approach to Him. But there are also clues to the truth about Him, wrapped in the questions that are raised in the aftermath. Each story is a microcosm of our lives, how we easily settle for someone else’s descriptions, the CliffsNotes from another’s spiritual journey; how we are content to let “God experts” do the heavy lifting and then give us the bottom line; and how after enough times through the grapevine, the truth about God deteriorates until crumbs and rumors are all that remain. But when life derails, when things don’t go as we planned, our thin view of God is challenged. In those critical moments, we can choose to walk away from God…or to let our questions lead us home.

As much as this sounds like a stern warning, know that the finger-pointing is directed toward my own heart. You see, I never expected to find myself coasting in my own relationship with God. I was raised in a Christian home. My parents moved from Malaysia to America to go to Bible college when I was ten. And when we returned to Malaysia, they helped our home church establish a Bible college of their own. My love for God and for studying the Scriptures began at an early age. I developed the habit of meaningful devotional times in my high school years, headed back to the States to become a Theological/Historical studies major at a wonderful Christian university. I was in vocational ministry, leading worship and teaching at a solid local church.

And then Thursday happened. Thursday was the day the news about our pastor’s moral indiscretions began to make headlines all around the world. Thursday was the day everything changed. But it didn’t take long for the shock of scandal to shift to the discomfort of introspection. In the weeks and months that followed Thursday, I began to ask myself if my knowledge of God was stale and sentimental or active and alive. I came to uncomfortable realization that I had slowly bought the suburban rumors of God. My house was an evidence of His blessing. Our growing church was an indication of God’s pleasure. Things were going to get better and better while I kept my life on cruise control. These were not rumors that came from one man, one pastor. In fact, it’s hard to say that any of them did. Any search for the head-waters would be misguided anyway because that’s not the point. It’s not where the rumors came from; it’s why they came at all.

Here’s what I’ve learned: Rumors grow in the absence of revelation. Every time we keep God at arm’s length, declining an active, living knowledge of Him, we become vulnerable to rumors. The more my wife and I searched our own souls, the more we realized we had become passive, complacent, at times even indifferent about our own knowledge of God. We had been lulled to sleep by our own apparent success, numbed into coasting by our spiritual Midas touch. What began in the days after Thursday was a journey, a road of uncovering and discovering, of stripping away what thoughts of God we now knew were rumors and finding again the face of Christ.

Secondhand Jesus, then, is a combination of personal story and Biblical story that is meant to challenge a view of God based on secondhand information and inspire a journey toward firsthand faith. Too often we stand at the trailhead, studying the map and listening to stories of hikers coming off the trail, imagining the beauty and glory that awaits us. We stand around long enough that we’re able to tell hikers who have just arrived what the trail is like. And yet, we find ourselves unable to lead them because we’ve never been on the trail. I’m not advocating that a person plunge recklessly into the forest, giving no thought to the map and ignoring the trail. That’s a good way to get lost and wander into heresy. I’m not even suggesting that we take the journey of knowing God by ourselves. I am simply encouraging believers to take this journey for themselves.

So, read with an open heart. Read it with others. There are discussion questions at the end of each chapter to help in hammering out these ideas in the midst of conversation and community. And if my journey can help, if this book can be a guide, a way of taking the reader by the hand into the wonderful journey of knowing God for themselves, then it will have hit its mark.