Jesus Freaks

Jesus freaks, out in the street
Handin’ tickets out for God.

I can remember seeing what people called “Jesus Freaks” in the 60’s and 70’s. Now some were on a hippie type ride that just used Jesus’ name, but many are still followers of that same Jesus today. The Rez band, Keith Green, and others were just beginning to bring a non-establishment wave to the church. Many of these people were not welcome in the traditional churches, and they of course were pulpit fodder for many.

But watching these believers express their love for the Savior in a unconventional and unashamed way was interesting to many of us who at that time did not know the Lord. Now as I ponder that phenomenon I often wonder if their detachment from many of the things of this world was closer to a supernatural life of a Christ follower than exists in so much of the western evangelical lifestyles, including mine. Throwing caution to the wind and immune to criticism they began a journey of seeking the face of Jesus with a cultural abandonment that is so attractive to me.

What is our calling as believing followers of the Messiah? Are we just called to be nice as we are willfully embedded in the debt ridden rat race, or is our calling one of a deeper separation from the things of this present world? Moses left the riches of Egypt because he heard the higher calling of God, and eventually he led the Children of Israel away from Egypt altogether. Oh, but how we love Egypt today. Bigger everything and consumed with entertainment, we have left the prayer closet and elongated seasons of worship to enjoy the leeks and garlic. Our Spiritual lives march to the convenient beat of our western lifestyles, being pushed and pulled by schedules and the allurement of the hedonistic culture, while our devotional life is basically a drive through window.

The freedom of the Jesus Freak mindset is today castigated as an anomaly, but in reality they had something else that has long since diminished within the body of Christ - community. The fatherless and the struggling widows are to a great degree overlooked within the church, and while the first disciples sold all and distributed, the latter day disciples horde up money for a comfortable retirement. Does it not seem logical that the world resists our message because our lives mirror their own? And many of those Freaks loved each other with an demonstable acceptance that was attractive to the dwellers in this dark world.

Maybe it is just me but I sometimes envy those who have given all and have no worries concerning this life and their only focus is upon Him and His Spirit. I truly believe that when we stand before Him to whom we owe everything we will as Spurgeon observed “count ourselves a thousand fools to have ever been captured by this world”. Let us seek to cast off this worldly bondwoman and seek to be the chaste bride of the Living Son of God.

I might have short hair, I might own my own house, I might not wear hippie clothing, and I might not belong to a Christian commune, but I am a Jesus Freak. I am looking to be released from the cares of this world and seek nothing but Him. So if you see me standing by the side of the road holding a large sign that says “Prepare Today, I am Coming - Jesus” you can roll down the window and holler out “Jesus Freak” at me and I will wave a wave of brotherhood.

By the way, when I have held my sign on the highway I am called many things except Jesus Freak.

Maranatha.