The Sudden Rise of Jesus 2.0

Who is this guy anyway? This Jesus person that I hear preached by almost all modern evangelists and many pastors as well. He's not the Jesus I remember from my early days as a Christian.
The Jesus I recall was all about me seeking to please Him. We were taught to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind and that striving to live pleasing to Him was a natural response to that love.
This new guy, Jesus 2.0 we will call him is just the opposite. What I hear from pulpits today would leave me to believe that it is all about me, not him. He strives tirelessly to give me whatever I want, to bless everything I do whether according to Scripture or not and requires nothing from me.
Somewhere Jesus I was fired as Lord of the church and Jesus 2.0 took his place. Jesus 2.0 is much easier to get along with. Where Jesus I demanded obedience, thankfully Jesus 2.0 understands that you have a life!
A young college girl I was talking to recently hit the nail on the head. She simply stated that she is a Christian and loves Jesus but He understands that she is in College and that College kids are going to party. He knows that this will be the last time in her life that she gets to do this type of thing.
She must know Jesus 2.0 because Jesus I would consider that carnal thinking and would label her unfit for the kingdom of God. Why, because she failed? No, He would say she was glorying in sin and nailing Him to the Cross again. He would say, “if you love me keep my commandments.” or “if you say you know me and keep not my commandments, you are a liar and the truth is not in you.”
Can you believe He's so harsh?
Jesus 2.0 winks at the many verses about being worldly minded, conforming to the world, drunkenness, immoral behavior, fornication, and being an example of righteousness.
Later I spoke with a senior at the same University who boldly proclaimed his homosexuality. He is definitely saved and in good standing with God, he assured me. All the Scripture verses that decries his sinful lifestyle are misunderstood by people like me and that HIS god is bigger than all of that.
Bigger than all of what? He wouldn't tell me. I suppose he meant that his god is too big to be concerned about how his children conduct themselves. I guess he's to busy to steer his kids from activity that the Bible says will destroy them and send them to hell.
It must be Jesus 2.0, that's all I can figure. Because Jesus I would have condemned that lifestyle as an abomination in the sight of God. The old stick in the mud. Imagine, a God so petty as to demand a standard of Holiness from his people. A God so trite as to be concerned with what one little insignificant person is doing.
These two Jesus' are just so different. I wonder if they know each other.
Jesus 2.0 loves people so much that he will accept them any old way they want to live. No sin is too great, no valley too deep.
Jesus I demands that His people “go and sin no more.”
Jesus 2.0 died so that people could do whatever they pleased.
Jesus I died on a Cross so that people could live for Him.
Jesus 2.0 gives grace as a license for sin.
Jesus I gives grace to rise above sin.
Jesus 2.0 is concerned about what you do.
Jesus I cares more about who you are.
Jesus 2.0 paid for their carnal freedom.
Jesus I paid for their souls.
The sad thing is: I like Jesus I, in fact, I love Him. The more I love him the more I hate my sin. It makes me wonder; if God is Holy and and hates sin, and by the Word of God we know He does, can we willingly live in sin and claim to love Him?
Honestly I have really come to dislike Jesus 2.0. I have heard much about him lately. In fact, even though I am in the Bible Belt, his ideals are pretty much all I hear about in most churches. He blesses, heals, and gives his kids whatever they want while asking nothing in return. In fact, his preachers seldom even ask if the person they are praying for is saved.
He stands idly by while his kids destroy themselves in adultery, pornography, homosexuality, hate, the occult, violence, smoking, alcohol drugs, etc... while never warning them of the dangers. In fact, its rare that a true salvation appeal is heard anymore.
I miss them.
Jesus I demanded that my old man die along with my passions and lusts. And then demands that I die again every day! He says that's the only way He can live in me. And when I fail to kill some small part of me because of sin that works in me, His grace makes up the difference.
I have to say this about Jesus 2.0; he's not a glutton for attention. In fact, he is quick to share the spotlight. His name has been replaced by terms such as “anointing”, “spirit”, and “Holy Spirit”. I could get into the difference between the Holy Spirit that I have known and the one that they are preaching about but I will say only this: the Holy Spirit I remember glorifies the Son, so, how can it be possible to preach about the Holy Spirit without preaching the Son?
Today I will pack my family in our automobile and drive fifty miles one way to go to church because I know when I get there I will hear about Jesus I. I will hear about the Cross of Jesus Christ, the Blood of the Lamb, sin, heaven, hell, repentance, victory, redemption, grace, peace, joy, and death to the carnal man. I will know that what I hear will make a lasting, in fact eternal, change in people's lives.
Today millions will go to hear about Jesus 2.0. They will sing, shout, dance, pray, laugh, and slap one another on the back. Sadly though by Monday morning Jesus 2.0 will be gone and there will be little sign of him in their lives or behavior. Oh, they will try to “do better” but they will never know what it is to be redeemed.
I can't wait till church time!