Thursday, January 22, 2009

A thought for the morning

Popularity is always a dangerous thing. The reason for this is simple - the World is very Evil, and it is full of people who are sinful. There are always more who are unrighteous than those who are righteous, and even in the righteous we do tend to like to give into the Old Adam.

The Church should never try to be popular, it should never appeal to fame or the like, it shouldn't be thinking along the lines of what might draw people into itself. . . because once you start thinking like that your thoughts become focused trying to meet the desires of the sinful masses. The Church is not to try to appease sin, the Church is to be about forgiving sin.

We are not to look to the whims of society, but in all that we decide we should have as our first consideration, "Does this rightly proclaim Christ and Him Crucified?" Paul is determined to know nothing but Christ and Him Crucified; we must have the same determination as well.

Now, in this effort, we can look to see places where we can improve on this proclamation -- not that we make the Gospel clear or effective, but that as sinful human beings we can cloud or obscure the Gospel. It's not that our actions make the Gospel more. . . Gospely. . . but that we should strive to get out of God's way.

A better preaching of the Gospel isn't done by trying to figure out what people want. . . it is done by examining one's own self and repenting of your sin which turns eyes away from Christ. Don't plan - just repent.

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