Seize the Word

My BCS this past Friday was basically a oral version of a post on my site that I wrote right before BBS that Friday.

As Christians, we’re referred to as “the salt of the earth.” We’ve heard all the illustrations, all of the pop-subculture cliches like “salt makes people thirsty, go and make people thirsty for Jesus.”

We’ve also heard that we’re to be out in the world to preserve it, to be among non-Christians, that salt in a salt shaker is useless and should be among other non-salt sorts of things like flour and eggs. That’s a pretty neutral expression, though. How about this:

Ever eaten a salt packet? It’s pretty disgusting. Makes you want to gag. How about that for a more forceful push to get out there and care about the lost?

We as salt are nauseous — that is, barf-inducing — if we stay bunched together. We as Christians aren’t doing one of our biggest jobs when we do nothing for the lost. What could be more shameful than a wasted life — yours and the lost?

I referred to this article on my blog in my BCS this past Friday. Reposted here for those who don’t read my blog.

A very striking message this past Sunday. It was about focusing on presenting the gospel: witnessing to others. The direct, spoken variety, not the indirect living-testimony type or “outreach” — there’s a time and place for that too, but honestly, a lot of times it’s simply something we hide behind.

The speaker talked about the first step, the reason we don’t witness: we do not feel true compassion for the lost. We don’t care that a person is going to Hell.

Think about that for a second.

Eternal suffering. Unending suffering. The deepest suffering. The deepest despair. All hope truly lost. The bygones truly all gone. All intentions having become regrets. God truly unreachable and having left you to your own sinful self. He is truly dead to you.

Let be Honest, Now

We don’t pray for others because we truly don’t love them. We truly don’t care for them or about them. We don’t care what happens to them or where they’re going.

I admit, this is why I have a lot of trouble praying for the world at large, or even my nation or my nation’s leaders on a regular basis and meaningfully. No, the times when someone tells you to or when it’s a special day to count for nought. No, I don’t say so: God says so.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

— 1 Corinthians 13:1–3