Relationship Goals<\\/h2>\\n The Evangelical Christian life aims to establish a personal relationship with Jesus. This means we must relate to Jesus as if he were our best friend, mentor, parent, Savior, and everything else.<\\/p>\\n The true story of the phrase Jesus is My Homeboy<\\/a> can be found in the link. It\\u2019s a cool story. However, Evangelicalism equates the personal relationship angle as a mandatory part of Christianity. It isn\\u2019t enough to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. You must enter into a friendship with him.<\\/p>\\n

{"id":290,"date":"2024-05-15T11:05:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T15:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/losingmyreligion\/?p=290"},"modified":"2024-05-20T00:09:06","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T04:09:06","slug":"jesus-is-my-homeboy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/losingmyreligion\/2024\/05\/jesus-is-my-homeboy\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Is My Homeboy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

"Photo:

Photo: Yeshua by Monozigote, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Jesus is my Homeboy.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard this phrase for half my life.\u00a0 It insinuates that Jesus is your best friend, which fits in with the theme of today\u2019s blog.\u00a0 In Evangelical Christianity, there is the thought that you must have a \u201cpersonal relationship\u201d with Jesus to be a proper Christian.<\/p>\n

Relationship Goals<\/h2>\n The Evangelical Christian life aims to establish a personal relationship with Jesus. This means we must relate to Jesus as if he were our best friend, mentor, parent, Savior, and everything else.<\/p>\n The true story of the phrase Jesus is My Homeboy<\/a> can be found in the link. It\u2019s a cool story. However, Evangelicalism equates the personal relationship angle as a mandatory part of Christianity. It isn\u2019t enough to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. You must enter into a friendship with him.<\/p>\n

The Myth of Personal Relationship<\/h2>\n Preston Sprinkle<\/a> provides an excellent dive into the phrase. He states that the personal relationship or \u201cinviting Jesus into your heart\u201d is not found in the Bible.<\/p>\n In truth, Jesus does discuss relationships and how we are to treat others. To be technical, how we react to others by following Jesus\u2019 example might be the best interpretation of having a personal relationship with Jesus.<\/p>\n The Evangelical bent is to invite Jesus to live in our hearts. While they may take it literally, much like the Catholics take transubstantiation as the bread literally becoming Jesus\u2019 body and the wine becoming His blood, it is a figurative way of saying I am following Jesus.<\/p>\n

The Truth of Personal Relationship<\/h2>\n \ Honestly, if you want a personal relationship with Jesus, you must do as he said: \u201cCome follow Me, and I will send you to fish for people.\u201d Matthew :19 NIV<\/p>\n Unlike what I wrote before of Evangelicals treating Christianity as if it were an MLM scheme<\/a>, actually following Jesus means living the Words in Red.<\/p>\n Living the Words in Red means loving our neighbors\u2014all of them. It means feeding the hungry and clothing and housing the poor\u2014even if they aren\u2019t working as hard as we think they should. We should not take away the rights of others because they act differently than we do.<\/p>\n It requires understanding that we live in a nation made of many people from many cultures and beliefs.\u00a0 We should not try to make everyone conform to our beliefs. We are not now and never have been a Christian Nation.<\/p>\n

I Have Decided to Follow Jesus<\/h2>\n \ The words to the song, I Have Decided to Follow Jesus, <\/em>say there is no turning back once you start.\u00a0 We, as Americans and as Christians, have not only turned back, we have gone miles in the opposite direction of Jesus.<\/em><\/p>\n \ If we genuinely want to see Heaven, we must look at the Words in Red and give them priority over Paul\u2019s or any other writer\u2019s words. Paul was a man who thought like a man and tried to interpret Jesus\u2019 words based on his faith.<\/p>\n \ Paul and the other writers in the Bible have many beneficial words, much like the words of other prophets in other religions. However, in the Christian faith, more emphasis has been put on the words of Paul than those of Jesus.<\/p>\n \ Jesus didn\u2019t plan on starting a religion. He intended to upend religion and wanted us to love everyone as God does. He was the example of God\u2019s love. If He were here today, He would not recognize the faith that the people who claim to follow Him teach. So, let\u2019s make Jesus our Homeboy again and follow His example.<\/p>\n \ What are your thoughts?<\/p>\n \ \u00a0<\/p>\n \ \u00a0<\/p>\n \ <\/h2>\n \ \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \ Jesus is my Homeboy.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard this phrase for half my life.\u00a0 It insinuates that Jesus is your best friend, which fits in with the theme of today\u2019s blog.\u00a0 In Evangelical Christianity, there is the thought that you must have a \u201cpersonal relationship\u201d with Jesus to be a proper Christian. Relationship Goals The Evangelical Christian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5531,"featured_media":287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[38,41,44],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicalism","tag-evangelicalism","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-the-words-in-red"],"yoast_head":"\nJesus Is My Homeboy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover how evangelicals equate Christianity with having a "personal relationship with Jesus." 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