What's Wrong with This Picture: A Return to Authentic Christianity

By Alisa Burns and Beth Alves

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 Godwhether just born again or a Christian of many yearsAlisa 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 Gods 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 worlds 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 religiosity; but then points the way out by directing us to the real answer; which is Christs love, mercy and compassion. Alan Burns

Whats 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

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 27, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452053356

Alisa Burns

Alisa burns has a degree in Theology from Christ for The Nations and has been a student of the word for more than 20 years. As a gifted author and teacher, Alisas audiences rave at her abitlity to say things at a grass roots level just as they are with such transparency that brings revelation. Her talents have opened doors at womens conferences and for teaching at a prominent bible school. As a mother of four and wife to Alan Burns, Alisa speaks openly about common issues that plague the American household with both maturity and understanding. Alisa has also given particular attention towards the ministry of singles, married couples, women and kids. She is a graduate of Christ for The Nations BIble College in TX. and is currently residing in Plano,T.X. with her husband and 4 children pastoring a House Church.

Book preview

What’s Wrong With This

Picture

A Return to Authentic Christianity

ALISA BURNS

Foreword By: Beth Alves

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All Bible quotations are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979,1980,1982 by Thomas Nelson, IN. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (Amp) are taken from the Holy Bible, Amplified Copyright © 1954,1958,1962,1965 by the Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Used by permission. The Zondervan Corporation and Lockman Foundation Grand Rapids, MI 49530

Scripture quotations marked (MSG) Taken from the Holy Bible, The Message Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of Nav Press Publishing Group. Colorado Springs, CO 35001. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations The Source New Testament: With Extensive Notes on Greek Word Meaning © Translation and notes by A. Nyland. © Copyright by Ann Nyland 2004. Published in 2004 by Smith and Stirling Publishing, Parramatta, Australia. www.smithandstirling.com. All rights reserved.

Alisa Burns

972-881-2259

www.womenofincrease.org

© 2010 Alisa Burns. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 8/25/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4520-5334-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-5335-6 (e)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

By: Beth Alves

Introduction

Chapter One

How is your Garden?

Chapter Two

First Love or Works?

Chapter Three

Intimacy & Effort

Chapter Four

Wise or Foolish

Chapter Five

Staying in the Race

Chapter Five

Part II

Chapter Six

Hollywood in the Church

Chapter Seven

The Greatest Commandment

Chapter Seven

Part II

Chapter Eight

Everyday Christianity

Chapter Nine

The Marriage Behind the Mask

Chapter Nine

PART II

Chapter Ten

Denominational Accord or Division

Chapter Ten

Part II

Chapter Eleven

Ultimately it’s Love

Bibliography

About the Author

Acknowledgements

First of all I want to thank the Lord for all He has done in my heart and enabling me to write this book. I want to thank my husband for encouraging me to continue writing this book and not give up and Jeanine Matthew that helped me beyond what words could convey with putting this book together. I would like to thank Steve Storey and Suzanne Ridner as well for helping me with the editing. Also a special thanks to Nicole Williamson who helped me with the sub-title after hours and hours of trying so many sub-titles. Lastly, I would like to thank all my friends and family and mentors who believed in me.

Foreword

By: Beth Alves

In the late 1980’s, I taught a class at CFNI in Dallas, TX. Alisa Burns was one of my students; however with the passing of time, I did not remember her some years later. I visited the school for a night of worship. After the service, I went to the student center where I met a very vivacious young man named Alan Burns. When I was introduced to him and he heard my name, he said with great excitement, Don’t move! I have to get my wife, you were one of her favorite teachers here! and with that he was gone. In a short time I saw him running back with his wife walking closely behind.

When I saw her, my heart skipped a beat. WHY? Because as an intercessor, I immediately sensed that I was in the presence of someone who truly knows God. I remember thinking, I would like to get better acquainted with truly a beautiful young woman and her husband. Little did I know the blessing that God had in store for me and the joy it would bring into my life. This experiential woman is now a special friend and my co-laborer in ministry, as well as a capable minister on her own.

It isn’t often that one has the privilege of linking arms both in ministry and in the personal life of someone where Godly attributes are quietly surfacing in their character. This is what I have found in this humble, diplomatic woman of God with a servants heart. If you spend any time with Alisa you will soon know she has a special relationship with the Lord, her husband and family. Alisa exhibits a great desire to see the righteousness of God come forth in the body of Christ. She is an excellent teacher with a Prophetic Anointing and now has joined among leaders of excellent reputation.

As one of her mentors, as well as a personal friend, I have had an opportunity to see Alisa on her good days and bad ones, yet I can always identify the character of the Lord shining through. It is a blessing to observe her relationship with the Lord, it is equally rewarding to see the servants heart she has towards her family.

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. To me, the greatest witness of all is to see Alisa truly walk out her call in everyday life and to partake of the fruit it produces. Yes, this is a sober but timely message. May you be blessed as you read and see what The Spirit is saying to you, through Alisa in this hour. –Elizabeth (Beth) Alves –Increase International

Introduction

This book idea was conceived in me about 10 years ago and I couldn’t get the title out of my mind and everywhere I went it seemed I kept hearing people say "What is wrong with this picture". So I finally obeyed and moved forward with what I felt the Lord was speaking to me to write. In my heart I kept thinking of the American church and how far she has gotten away from the basics of Christianity and what her true reflection of Christ is supposed to look like. The Lord began to show me what was wrong with His church regarding her love and passion for Him. So the question in What’s Wrong With This Picture is part of what I believe is the problem, when we see so many people claiming to be believers in the faith and yet are not living the life of Authentic Christianity.

I believe the Lord wants you and I to embrace the full purposes He has for our lives and family by understanding His revelatory concept of Life & Love. His fire needs to remain alive in us so that we can spread the true love of Jesus so as to not just go through the motions and wear the camouflage of Christianity (which I believe is an artificial Christianity). It is your duty to make sure you haven’t lost your First Love!

In this final hour of the Church, God is calling His Bride to arise out of her slumber, to awaken into the Love she has been called to walk into. It’s time to unmask any areas in our life where we might be walking as a carnal Christian. I pray this book will bring change and transformation, not only in your personal life and family, but also in your local church.

Walking in God’s love and forgiveness is the key to all spiritual, emotional and financial success in the kingdom of God! Just as a river that is not constantly moving and flowing will become stagnant and end up becoming like the Dead Sea; so is our lives that are not consistently giving out to others the way the word of God has commanded. It is crucial we exhibit and gain the full revelation of God’s love for our lives in every aspect of our life!

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 Himself to others. It is through the yielding of our hearts that Christ can be emanated. As in the water reflects the face, so the heart of man reflects the man. (Prov. 27:19). The condition of our heart can determine how we will love God and our neighbor, as we will be talking about throughout this book. Also, we know that everyman reflects something right? So it is important to ask yourself, what am I reflecting on a continual basis? Lastly, it is impossible to reflect Christ and not bear fruit at the same time.

So many times in Christianity we can get to a certain plateau, where we enter into stagnancy. But is that to be the case? Are we to get to a certain level where we hear the word of God, but then think it doesn’t really pertain to us? Like the man that looked in the mirror and immediately forgot what he looked like; let us stop and examine our own lives, instead of refusing to believe what we see staring back at us. One way to determine what is truly being emanated from our lives can be tested through Mark Chapter 4. In this Chapter we are able to see what kind of fruit we are bearing after the seeds have been planted. When we hear Christ talk about the seeds and the types of ground in the parable of the seed and the sower, most of us assume we are that good ground. But how do we know if we are? Are we really reflecting Christ back to the world? One might ask Am I that good ground where Christ has been given permission to plant seeds in my heart to enable me to go from Glory to Glory? The proof is in the fruit. When there is fruit, there is proof of a gardener at work. Someone to take care of that seedling and protect that little sprout until it has reached the age of maturity to bear fruit. It’s as simple as that. In the parable with the seeds in Mark 4:3-7, the Lord distinguished the good ground versus the stony and dry ground by that one criteria : And others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing; and brought forth, thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and hundredfold. Often times many just settle for the 30 or 60 fold return being 70% and 40% unfruitful. I don’t know about you, but I want to have a 100 fold return. I desire to be that fruitful ground that reflects all of God’s glory—emanates His beauty and fragrance in order to draw men unto Himself. For many, you may know the word of God, but due to stagnancy from not using the gifts within you or by letting the negativisms of life cause you to get embittered you have just settled and lost that fruit that you could have continued producing. When the word of God goes in, it is imperative that it penetrates our hearts in order to bring the right reproduction. Simply said, God is not looking for stagnant, mundane Christianity. He’s not looking for our deeds, he’s looking for a heart: fertile ground yielded to Him, the gardener, where he can plant seeds and in due season bear fruit. It is God’s desire that we bear fruit, much fruit" This fruit is a direct relationship to how effective we are in influencing our society. In this book, we’re going to hone in on our garden; the very place of our heart where Christ’s word is planted. Once we take some inventory of what our garden might possibly look like and see its true reflection as seen by ourselves and others, we will attempt to reclaim our garden by taking out weeds and stones that are hindering our fruit, thus making provision for a 100 fold return.

Take for instance a rose, without its petal becomes just a stick with thorns which is undesirable and causes pain. It’s like the church without love: it becomes as repulsive and offensive as weeds, thorns and thickets. Weeds are competitive, persistent and interfere negatively within the garden. In the same way we have to watch out for the enemy whose persistent activity is against us for the purpose of tearing us down and trying to keep us from moving forward. This first part of the book is dedicated to help you reclaim your garden, take out those weeds that may be choking your faith and preventing your fruit. Secondly we will step into a greater revelation of His love and how to come into a more full depth