For thought and meditation

[rl69]

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.—James 1:27 (http://harvest.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4f108f827aed8d503b5fca9fa&id=750404309a&e=3dd732485b)We are living in a time described as the postmodern generation. And in church circles today, there is a lot of talk about how to reach postmodern people. But here’s what I think: The gospel doesn’t change. Whether it’s for the ancient culture, the modern culture, or the premodern, postmodern, or post-postmodern culture, the gospel never will change. The same message that Peter gave on the Day of Pentecost to people in the first century is relevant for us today in the twenty-first century.

I hear people saying today, “I want to reach my nonbelieving friends, so I just need to hang with them. I need to kind of be like them and not be too holier-than-thou.”

I am with you on that. I don’t think we should ever come off pious or as though we don’t care about people, because we should care about them. But sometimes in our attempt to build a bridge, in our attempts to relate, we end up becoming more like them than they end up becoming like us. They are bringing us their way more than we are bringing them our way. So we need to be very careful in this area.

The rationalization is, “Well, Jesus hung around sinners, so I will hang around sinners.” Jesus didn’t really hang around sinners, however. I’m not saying that Jesus had no contact with sinners. He had plenty of contact with them. But he didn’t hang around them. He hung around His disciples for the most part. When Jesus was around sinners, they were changed.

We must always want to bring unbelievers to faith, not end up being like them. Be careful that you don’t overcompromise. Because sometimes we lower our standards in order to extend our reach—and we end up reaching no one.

[square butte]

It's a good lesson - Thank you rl69

[buckwheatpaul]

rl69 once again you are spot on.....thanks for the lesson

[Boaz]

Thank you rl69 , a good lesson .

[Blackwater]

Wow! What a crucial lesson for our time! Indeed, we're provided with many pre-packaged excuses to use in following our wills rather than the Lord's! And certainly, our wills being as strong and often contrary as they are, it's pretty challenging to NOT fall into at least some of them. But that's our challenge, and either we meet it, or fail in it. And if we fail, we diminish our own selves and our immortal souls, but if we are steadfast, and stick with the wondrous advice and admonitions Christ left for us to govern ourselves by .... well, He gave us those things so that we'd profit, benefit, and be much happier, in the end, so how could following them result in anything but our betterment?

And indeed, neither the Gospel nor people seem to change. We "moderns" tend to think of ourselves as the "elite," simply because of the wonders modern science has wroght. But in essence, we're STILL the very fallible and willful creatures we've always been! G. K. Chesterton pointed out a number of times how superior Medieval people generally were in at least taking serious things seriously, and little things lightly, to even his world, which was generally about 100 years ago! And he was right! The easier we have it in life, and the less real "work" we HAVE to do to survive, the more lightly we tend to take the really big things and issues in life, like our salvation, and eternity, and our souls. Truly, we can be a very lazy and irresponsible lot! But nothing but our attitudes and a bit of our surroundings really changes, over time. We're still what we are, and have always been, and God and Christ and the Holy Spirit are and will always stay just exactly what they truly ARE.

Yep. It's really true: "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Ain't it funny how that works?