Post by Zac Loh on Dec 13, 2008 4:39:54 GMT -5
Dear Friends,
The Bible says to speak the truth in love ( ...even if it hurts ...ouch ...this parenthesis is entirely mine!).
Seriously, we need to go back to the Bible (and I mean reading it devotionally, regularly and systematically).
Every soldier has his gun. A Christian not reading his Bible? A soldier cleans and maintains his gun. He most assuredly wants to avoid the situation which his gun starts jamming in the middle of a one-to-one gun fight.
Not a few soldiers treat his gun like a darling. His gun saves him. His human darling can't do much for him in the line of fire (unless she is a person who prays!). He needs to fire back in the thick of a battle, when he is in the line of fire.
Love your Bible. Read your Bible.
The Gospel Must Be Preached!
Matthew 24:14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)
We are a people easily diverted from the truth, partly because many of us don’t read the Bible systematically.
Many preachers and teachers can continue blasting away, veering off from the core and centre of the message of the Bible, simply because the audience is not well-acquainted enough with the Bible.
We conveniently allow the speakers at the pulpit to read and interpret the Bible for us. We seldom read the Bible, I mean just the Bible, not reading the Bible from books quoting the Bible.
We go after promises but don’t understand that the whole Bible is a promise. We jump around all over the pages like jack rabbits looking for promises in the Bible.
Make a guess: how many Christians have read the Bible through just once? We have abdicated our responsibility but the blame is still on us!
Educated professionals studied hard for their degree: a career on the line. Read the Bible, my friends, eternal life is at stake!
Back then at school, we pore over the books to secure our future. Today, we leave the Bible at home untouched.
To make it easier to understand (to the overly sophisticated ones), to compare a career to eternal life …is like a bicycle to a space shuttle!
Why am I so fiery? To tell you, my passion is the gospel.
Do not be distracted by many Christian activities and forget the gospel.
God does the saving, we do the preaching. God is looking to the gospel being preached. Don’t worry about the numbers.
A few prominent Christians I’ve heard advocates that Christians should be a positive practical influence in every aspect of human existence. I agree with them. But the end-game is still the gospel. Let me say this lest anyone forgets.
Nobody, regardless of the name, title, rank and following; can supersede what Jesus had spoken and laid down: the gospel.
And I mean nobody.
We live and breathe the gospel.
The gospel can be preached in so many different ways: story-telling, drama, mime, props, illustration and video. But the gospel must be preached from the mouth. God loves to anoint our lips.
The gospel must be preached plainly and creatively …a blend of passion and gentleness of the Holy Spirit …our feelings of fear and rejection …overtaken, overpowered, covered, eclipsed …by divine love and tactfulness.
No matter what we do as Christians as far as evangelism is concerned, we have to open our mouth: the gospel must be preached.
We can invite, but the gospel still must be preached.
Crowds, numbers and members are all very good, still the gospel must be preached.
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” (Matthew 13:24-30)
In the end-time before Jesus returns …what is hidden will be made obvious.
The real preaching of the genuine gospel will divide the false and the true, the tares and the wheat.
This is an age-old message that need not be kept in the ancient treasure box of the Bible.
Let’s take it out. Let’s dust it off.
Let’s make the old-time gospel message new again!
The Bible says to speak the truth in love ( ...even if it hurts ...ouch ...this parenthesis is entirely mine!).
Seriously, we need to go back to the Bible (and I mean reading it devotionally, regularly and systematically).
Every soldier has his gun. A Christian not reading his Bible? A soldier cleans and maintains his gun. He most assuredly wants to avoid the situation which his gun starts jamming in the middle of a one-to-one gun fight.
Not a few soldiers treat his gun like a darling. His gun saves him. His human darling can't do much for him in the line of fire (unless she is a person who prays!). He needs to fire back in the thick of a battle, when he is in the line of fire.
Love your Bible. Read your Bible.
The Gospel Must Be Preached!
Matthew 24:14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)
We are a people easily diverted from the truth, partly because many of us don’t read the Bible systematically.
Many preachers and teachers can continue blasting away, veering off from the core and centre of the message of the Bible, simply because the audience is not well-acquainted enough with the Bible.
We conveniently allow the speakers at the pulpit to read and interpret the Bible for us. We seldom read the Bible, I mean just the Bible, not reading the Bible from books quoting the Bible.
We go after promises but don’t understand that the whole Bible is a promise. We jump around all over the pages like jack rabbits looking for promises in the Bible.
Make a guess: how many Christians have read the Bible through just once? We have abdicated our responsibility but the blame is still on us!
Educated professionals studied hard for their degree: a career on the line. Read the Bible, my friends, eternal life is at stake!
Back then at school, we pore over the books to secure our future. Today, we leave the Bible at home untouched.
To make it easier to understand (to the overly sophisticated ones), to compare a career to eternal life …is like a bicycle to a space shuttle!
Why am I so fiery? To tell you, my passion is the gospel.
Do not be distracted by many Christian activities and forget the gospel.
God does the saving, we do the preaching. God is looking to the gospel being preached. Don’t worry about the numbers.
A few prominent Christians I’ve heard advocates that Christians should be a positive practical influence in every aspect of human existence. I agree with them. But the end-game is still the gospel. Let me say this lest anyone forgets.
Nobody, regardless of the name, title, rank and following; can supersede what Jesus had spoken and laid down: the gospel.
And I mean nobody.
We live and breathe the gospel.
The gospel can be preached in so many different ways: story-telling, drama, mime, props, illustration and video. But the gospel must be preached from the mouth. God loves to anoint our lips.
The gospel must be preached plainly and creatively …a blend of passion and gentleness of the Holy Spirit …our feelings of fear and rejection …overtaken, overpowered, covered, eclipsed …by divine love and tactfulness.
No matter what we do as Christians as far as evangelism is concerned, we have to open our mouth: the gospel must be preached.
We can invite, but the gospel still must be preached.
Crowds, numbers and members are all very good, still the gospel must be preached.
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” (Matthew 13:24-30)
In the end-time before Jesus returns …what is hidden will be made obvious.
The real preaching of the genuine gospel will divide the false and the true, the tares and the wheat.
This is an age-old message that need not be kept in the ancient treasure box of the Bible.
Let’s take it out. Let’s dust it off.
Let’s make the old-time gospel message new again!