Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Zhu Zhu Pets

Zhu Zhu Pets™ are predicted to be the hottest item for Christmas this year. These little hamsters can do just about anything, including riding around in little cars, zip up ramps and spin down slides, run in their hamster wheels, and get into all sorts of crazy situations. Their artificial intelligence even allows them to know what room of their hamster habitat they are in. They make toilet-flushing or teeth-brushing sounds when they enter the bathroom and sleeping noises and alarm-clock sounds when they go into their bedroom (http://www.zhuzhupets.com/).

What more could a kid want? It's a pet that doesn't die if you fail to feed it, doesn't stink up the house, and can be left behind during vacation without having to pay for an animal hotel room. There's still something about these pets that is missing, and it's something that every kid knows is true but doesn't want to admit. While Zhu Zhu Pets™ look and act real, they simply lack life. Unfortunately, just like Zhu Zhu Pets™, many people today are also doing a fantastic job of looking and acting the part of what they believe a true Christ-follower really is, but they just don't have the real thing.

One famous evangelist said that when people get just enough religion, it can inoculate them from getting the real thing. Most of them are good church attenders. They are moral people who care about their families and even give time volunteering at church and other places that benefit others, but the Spirit of Life is not present in them and they are on their way to an eternity apart from their Creator.

At the end of the day, you'll find that most of the people I'm describing are depending on something external to get them into a right relationship with God and get them into heaven. Perhaps they had a grandparent who was a pastor or deacon. Maybe they sing in the church choir or teach a Sunday school class, or maybe they are passionate about feeding the poor. When you talk to them and ask them why they believe they are going to heaven when they die, their answer will almost always be linked to something having to do with their own goodness.

I personally believe it is much more difficult to share the message of Jesus with people who are already inoculated like this than it is to share with someone who has had very little exposure to Jesus and the Bible. If you share this burden with me for someone who fits the description in this blog, here are a few things to consider as reminders to what you already know and are doing:

• Continue praying for them and truly make prayer your primary means of getting them to Jesus, not just a side note to your prayer life.
• Let them continue to see the fruit of the Spirit of God in your life by getting rid of your own spiritual pretense, causing people to see the real you and the real Jesus in you.
• When possible, ask them about their starting point with Jesus. When did they realize they were lost and without Him? How did they come to know Him?