And my speech and any
preaching
were not with
persuasive words
of human wisdom, but
in
demonstration of the
Spirit
and of power, that
your faith
should not be in the
wisdom of men
but in the power of
God.
1 Corinthians 2: 4 --
5
Looking
back into the history of Christianity in early America especially after the
year 1776 A.D. we can find that there was not only a great movement of people
from the East Coast moving towards the West Coast into new lands, we can also
find they also became more liberal in their thinking about God and the
Scriptures. Men such as Charles G.
Finney went about preaching a new form of Christianity that men themselves could
come to Jesus Christ by their own power.
Other men such as the Wesley brothers, especially Charles, there was a
movement towards a more socialistic form of Christianity. Now I speak of these men, I speak of their
actions and not of their salvation because salvation is solely between a man
and God. While we do find though that
they were teaching that by our might we can come to God and this was limiting
thinking about the power of God. Many
men who had eloquent speech and had words that were so enticing that many
followed them only to follow a man's wisdom.
Paul was telling us that he did not come to the Corinthian church with
man's wisdom but rather he demonstrated the power of God and of the Holy Spirit
who operates in the lives of Christians.
It is not by some form of outward power that many go about preaching. Such as things like praying for a healing and
expect that God will do exactly what they prayed. It is not that God will not answer prayer, it is whether or not
we simply have faith in that God will display His power however He wills to
display it and it is not by the will of man that God is forced to act. We must understand that if in our preaching
the gospel, we go about substituting the clear knowledge and clear
interpretation of the Scriptures and we use our wisdom. If we use man's wisdom for the knowledge of
a way to salvation a way to get power from God, or a way to have confidence in
the power of God, all that done is a hindrance of getting people to know and
come to the reality. Here seems to be a
hindrance in the lives of people: WE DO NOT MAKE TIME TO STUDY GOD'S WORD! We will make time for almost anything else:
running kids to sports activities, to even events that are fun and enjoyable
but so often take us away from sitting down with our children and teaching them
about God and how to use the word of God in their life. I'm not speaking against doing things with
our children that are fun and enjoyable rather I am saying are we actually
setting aside time, not moments of time as important as that may be, rather time
to actually sit down and study God's Word with our spouse and with our
children? You see we must first ensure
that we are rooted and grounded in our faith in God. As I have said before, inspect what you expect, and never rely
simply on the clearness of our exposition, or another's exposition, ensure that
you are relying on the Holy Spirit. We
must rely with all conviction and commitment upon the certainty of God's
redemptive power and allow Him to create His own life in our souls. It is this; once you are rooted in the
reality of God then nothing can shake you and cause you to waver and vacillate
from your faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If our faith is in experiences, our experiences, then those
things that may happen to you are likely to upset your faith. Remember this, God and the reality of God in
redemption is never upset and nothing can change what he has willed for His
children. Our trust is not in the
eloquent of speech by others, although it is nice to have those who can speak
well speak to us, rather it is that we examine all things by the Word of
God. What is missing in today's lives
so often is critical thinking. We are
so willing to accept things that make us feel good rather than doing those
things and believing those things that are in opposition and contradiction
to God. Our faith is based upon the
security of Reality when we get into a personal contact with Jesus Christ then
there is nothing in this world that can move us away from our faith. So often we think that sanctification is
simply an outward work, those things that we exercise, and it is true that in
our sanctification we should be moved to do good things according to God's Word. But God does
not put his approval upon human experience and believe that sanctification is
merely an experience. We cannot forget
that sanctification itself has to be sanctified: "And for their sakes I sanctified Myself, that they also may be
sanctified by the truth" (John 17: 19). As did Paul and the principles that he has set forth for all
Christians is that he, and we, deliberately set aside himself, ouself, and gave, give our life, his life to be a
sanctified life to God and for God's service.
This is so that God can use us as His hands and feet. Is your life demonstrating Jesus Christ, and
not by some outward false demonstration of His power? Is it by simply doing the everyday mundane things, things like
simply mowing the lawn, fixing the fence or gate? Is it by cleaning the house, doing our work at work as it should
be done, in other words, are we actually living as what we are, ambassadors for
Jesus Christ knowing that others whom we may never know or see are watching
this in determining whether or not we are really Christians or just Christians
in Word only. So often, we work so hard
at being a Christian when it is simpler.
As I have often said and learned, it is simply by putting our pants on
every day and going about life and living according to his principles, precept
come and his commands that when the Bible says do a thing to it, and what is
says not to do a thing, don't do it. It
is that simple!
We grope for the wall like the blind,
and that we
grope as if we
had no eyes; we
stumble at noonday
as at
twilight; we are as dead men
in desolate places.
We all growl like bears,
and moan sadly
like doves;
we look for justice, but there is none;
for
salvation, but it is far from us....
The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to
those who
turn from transgression
in Jacob, says the LORD.
Isaiah
59: 10 -- 11; 30
Our hope is in God
No comments:
Post a Comment