Are you struggling with modern day Christianity that plays the game of duplicity where it is supposed to be one way, yet acts another or do you find yourself frustrated in a religious cycle from Sunday to Sunday? No matter where you are on your journey with God-whether just born again or a Christian of many years-Alisa Burns will give you practical applications to help you revive your passion for Christ and the world God so lovingly died for. She will take you through the necessary steps of unmasking religiosity and finding true love in Christianity. Join Alisa in her endeavor to see all fulfill God's desire for each and every person in their walk with the Lord. She invites you to meet the challenge of returning to Authentic Christianity and find the world's savior once again. "[This book] will inspire your heart to get real with God, come up higher and go deeper in cultivating an authentic lifestyle of Christ-likeness. Warmly written and rich with anecdotes that connect principle with practicality, this book brings fresh insight that will both challenge and strengthen you in developing right relationship with God, family, others, and yourself. A wonderful must-read for all who desire a truly Spirit-filled life!I -Nicole Williamson "This book, shows us with poem and poignance the problem we are all facing in the American church which is dead religiousty; but then points the way out by directing us to the real answer; which is Christ's love, mercy and compassion. -Alan Burns "What's Wrong with this Picture, was written from the heart of a woman with a mission to see a return to the authenticity of Christianity to the church. You will gain fresh insight to this important spiritual truth as you read and meditate on this book."-Beth Alves

What's Wrong With This Picture

A Return to Authentic ChristianityBy Alisa Burns

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Alisa Burns
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-5334-9

Contents

FOREWORD.......................................................ixINTRODUCTION...................................................xiChapter ONE: How is your Garden?...............................1Chapter TWO: First Love or Works?..............................6Chapter THREE: Intimacy or Effort?.............................19Chapter FOUR: Wise or Foolish?.................................31Chapter FIVE: Staying in the Race..............................38Chapter SIX: Hollywood in the Church...........................52Chapter SEVEN: The Greatest Commandment........................65Chapter EIGHT: Everyday Christianity...........................80Chapter NINE: The Marriage Behind the Mask.....................94Chapter TEN: Denominational Division...........................127Chapter ELEVEN: Ultimately it's Love...........................143BLEEPS & BLUNDERS..............................................149BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................151

Chapter One

How is your Garden?

As I was working in my front yard one morning pulling weeds, (don't yah just love them)? I was feeling the frustration of how treacherous they are! I began to think of the many ways they can speak to us about our Christian life. At my house, weeds always seem to be a major project. I am either assigning the weeds to be pulled by my children or I myself have to voluntarily pull them or they won't get done (unless of course we can hire someone to do them for us). Either way you look at it, they have to be pulled! I have tried sprays and even tried to cover the weeds with mulch which only deceived myself into thinking that I can avoid pulling them all together, because I was too lazy to continue pulling. You know what happens? They eventually end up popping back up through the mulch! So my list goes on and on as to the methods I've tried from keeping those dastardly weeds from coming back!

What is ironic is that this past Spring I had this wonderful idea of having my own garden (mind you, I still battle with the front yard)! What is funny is the fact that I thought maintaining my own garden wouldn't be any problem. I knew very well going into it that I needed to keep up with the weeds in order to have a prosperous garden. I had convinced myself that I would overcome even after knowing full well how much labor would be required. What was even funnier is that I gave other people advice about their gardens and planting seeds. In fact, I already couldn't wait to be able to give the vegetables away and tell my friends that they came from my garden. Excitedly as the weeks went by, I started seeing vegetables I had planted while doing my best to keep up with other responsibilities in the home front. But then the inevitable happened: we went out of town for a couple of weeks to do a conference and because there was no one to maintain it—you guessed it, the garden was invaded (actually taken over) by a new batch of dastardly weeds! Being somewhat still optimistic, I thought—well I just needed to get back to work. The work that should have transpired in two days dragged into several days, in fact weeks. All hope was lost and I ended up only salvaging a few peppers and some onions (still in hopes of my watermelon). The one nice thing that came out of it was my beautiful Marigolds ... which I was told later on that they were considered weeds in other countries because they grow without effort—what a blow for me!

I believe for those of us who have had the same opportunity of pulling weeds that we would tend to think life would be much better without them. Who needs them right? They only cause headaches and pains in your back after a while from bending over to pull them. Anyway, I began to think about how life would be without the weeds! I would be able to plant my garden, flowers, trees and shrubs and enjoy them without anymore weed pulling, cutting and pruning—right? Unfortunately, life isn't like that. Just imagine roses after they have bloomed never getting cut, pruned or watered. You would never have another rose to look at and your rose bush would eventually die. What good is the rose bush then? In comparison, what would life be without the need to overcome adversity?—a life of ease and no pain-but without beauty which would soon become a life of no spiritual growth. However, when we labor for something it is no longer taken for granted, but held as a treasure waiting to be looked at and taken in awe of: to bring delight and joy to the heart "The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul" (see Prov. 13:19a). There is much reward in seeing a masterpiece that you worked so hard at—which can apply to whatever you put much emphasis on. Obviously on this particular day, my curiosity about weeds had magnified to extreme proportions, so what did I do? I decided to do some research and find out more about weeds and what I discovered was amazing, which I will discuss later. In our walk with the Lord we have many stumbling blocks that come our way. There are distractions from the enemy—relationship battles—issues that come at us from all sides. How do we overcome, or how do we know if we have already been overtaken spiritually by the enemy? God is so concerned about every aspect of our lives that if left unchecked we become like my garden that was overtaken with weeds over time. It is so important that we don't just try to cover up and keep moving along in life as if everything is o.k. We must take the time to examine our hearts and look at the condition of our relationships, not only with God but with others.

God is interested in rooting out the unnecessary things in our hearts. It is my desire through this book that you would allow the Lord to walk with you hand in hand through your garden. It is important that your ground stays cultivated. If we are not keeping every aspect of our life in constant check, we can get off track very easily. Jesus took the time to explain to His followers the parable about the seeds that fell on different types of ground. We have to make sure our ground is nice and fertile so that the seed goes down and matures the way it is suppose to. Our ground needs to be good and not thorny or rocky.

What is our reflection

As a properly cared for garden reflects beauty, so we must also check ourselves to see what our reflection is like. Just think if you desired to give a gorgeous rose filled with fragrance and beauty to someone, but it wilted and died when you got there. What good would it be then? God wants our lives to be like His reflection—like a rose filled with His fragrance (to draw others) and beauty for others to see. God's presence emanating from our lives will then be admired. Unfortunately, we become that wilted rose when we don't keep cultivating (watering), growing and taking spiritual health checks. We can become like the man in the mirror whom Jesus talks about when, after looking at his reflection, forgot what he looked like. It seems that so many believers walk around like that. By not walking in the reflection of Christ, they become lethargic and passive in their actions.

So now that we talked about the word reflection let's find out what it means. Here we go, reflection: the return of light or sound waves from a surface. Isn't that neat? This is what Christ is to be through us—emanating His Glory, reflecting...