Would Jesus drive a white Pajero?

Churches should be ashamed of themselves if they teach commitment and sacrifice WITHOUT DISCERNMENT.

I had coffee recently with a really nice guy. He loves God dearly and has made some pretty big sacrifices to do what he believes God is calling him to do with his life. I confess that at first I thought I was about to get the "can you spare a few baht?" conversation. A scam. But most scams include the "can you spare a few baht?" part, this conversation never even went close.

Humbly and graciously this man shared his hopes and dreams and pain. He shared where he's been and where he hopes to go. And how he believes God has called him to make some of the hard decisions in his life. And that's where I'm frustrated!

I love the fact that he's WILLING to suffer for Jesus. But I don't like the PARTICULAR sacrifices he is choosing to make. In fact listening to his testimony, I'm not AT ALL confident that GOD has asked him to do some of the things that he thinks God has asked him to do.

Let me explain.

He said God came to him in a dream. "Jesus was driving a white Pajero. He picked me up and dropped me at Luke 1." And the testimony went on from there. But I couldn't get past this first point. I don't think it was Jesus in his dream. Why? I don't think Jesus would drive a Pajero. It's just not consistent with who Jesus was and is. He's too modest for that. And this is one of the most simple rules of spiritual discernment, we should ask the question: Is this consistent with who God is?

There are lots of false "spirits" out there. Many masquerading as Jesus. People lie in Jesus' name. People get rich in Jesus' name. People even war and pillage in Jesus' name. But that doesn't mean it's really Jesus. Jesus was a man of truth. Jesus was a man of poverty and generosity. Jesus was a man of peace. Therefore I can conclude that when you do something in Jesus' name that is not consistent with who Jesus is... it's a false spirit.

After hearing about Jesus and the Pajero, my new friend told me how God had called him to Bangkok. He didn't have the money. So he scrapped together all the cash he could from his own savings, he had his church take up offerings and even did some illegal passport brokering at his Embassy to get enough money to come. He left his wife and two children (ages 3 and 2) in Nairobi.

If you are married let me be clear, God calls you to love your wife. If you have kids, God calls you to love your kids. That is NOT consistent with blowing the family savings and extorting poor members of your church to finance the trip to Bangkok that you think Jesus in a white Pajero called you to.

God didn't call him to this. It's just not the kind of thing God does. Keyword here is discernment.

I meet a lot of Christians who are disillusioned with God. They believe God promised something and God didn't deliver. Often they are angry at God because their church (pastor/Sunday school teacher/small group leader) encouraged them to believe something about God that's not true.