Maranatha Anathema

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/abortion-and-the-will-to-power-so-what-if-abortion-ends-a-life-asks-salon-w

Wow.

Here is the article itself:

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/23/so_what_if_abortion_ends_life/

Maybe I haven't been paying attention enough, but is this the most shocking thing the abortion camp has ever come up with or is it just me? In her words:

 Here’s the complicated reality in which we live: All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always.

Yeah, I think she has missed the whole point of those who argue that abortion is wrong. We don't argue that "all life is equal." We argue from Scripture, from common sense, and from the most basic understanding of what humanity is about that "all life is SACRED" and no person has the right to kill an innocent, defenseless person. 

Is that the best moral defense for the killing of babies they can conjure? That some lives don't have the rights of other lives? This lady has had some well-known friends, like Hitler and Stalin, just to name a few. 

To say (she uses the word "fetus" while recognizing in the article that it is, in fact, a human child) that "a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides" is a breathtakingly evil statement. 

She truly believes she is God.

Another gem:

If by some random fluke I learned today I was pregnant, you bet your ass I’d have an abortion. I’d have the World’s Greatest Abortion.

Uh, ok. So the end of the argument is I am going to have an abortion just because I want to, and my life is not going to be turned upside down by some nasty horrible thing happening to me, like having a baby. My wife and I have had nine of those little blessings, and I am so glad that they have ruined my life. They have made me less selfish and made me work harder. They have left me breathless with their boundless energy. I have seen the fingerprints of God on each one of them. 

Since I am weak and sinful I have to pray, God, give me the grace and strength to love and endure my blessings. 

I wonder what this lady's mother thought about having her? As Ronald Reagan said, those who are for abortion are already born. What an ungrateful, arrogant, and miserable person she must be. 

Surely Titus 3:3 describes this poor woman:

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.   

The Lifesitenews.com writer makes an outstanding statement on this:

At the very core of its black heart, it is the scream of the nihilist, who seeks power and ownership over anyone weaker, for no other reason than the pure exercise of the will: because we want it. Abortion for woman has become the final manifestation of the old “will to power”. And at its core is nothingness, a black hole endlessly gaping and swallowing everything in its orbit. It seeks, finally, no good that anyone, even the abortionist movement itself, can identify, let alone defend rationally.

Well said. I am too outraged by this to say anything else.

 

Lord, forgive us for our sins as a nation. We have led people like this lady to believe she sits in your seat. We have convinced her that the life that you bring is to be despised, rejected, and thrown into the garbage. Maranatha Anathema Lord, would you come quickly to judge us? Bring your curses upon those who hate you, Lord. Bring your gracious mercy on those who trust in your grace through Jesus Christ.

 

 

Going "Dark Side" - President Obama on "Completing the Journey"

While the media elites drooled all over themselves at the second Inauguration of President Obama, the presidential speechwriters were beaming over their glorious creation - the inaugural speech itself.

It was intended to be somewhat of a story - a journey - begun early in our history and continued by our founders, but now the journey must meet and conquer new challenges in changing times. 

One particular paragraph stood out to me:

It is now our generation's task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm. 

Let's see, that kind of rings a bell, "Our journey is not complete..." where have I heard that before? Hmm, Barney? Nope. Veggie Tales? Don't think so. Or maybe it was Han Solo? No, but that's getting closer. Oh, that's right, it was in a Star Wars film. Not Han Solo, but old wrinkly-face Emperor Palpatine, AKA Darth Sidious. When Luke is wanting to pick up his lightsaber and slice up the Emperor, Mr. Dark Side himself smiles with glee and says:

Good. I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete.

Ok, is it too much of a stretch to think that maybe the speechwriters had Return of the Jedi playing in the background while they were staying up late writing the speech?

Well, the dark side and the uh, light side (other side? they never really call it anything) of the "force" is a terrible, terrible illustration of the good of God's law and the evil of rejection of God's law. I've heard that in sermon illustrations, and it just wants to make a devoted student of the Bible want to chew his arm off. 

However, I just can't help but think that with this Presidential speech, the U.S. has officially gone "dark side." 

One of the three uses of God's law is that nations are to use it to have a standard by which to judge what evil is, and to use its force in government to restrain the evil within all of us.

Romans 13:1-5  Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.

But instead of holding up God's law as the glorious, absolute standard of morality, President Obama went "dark side" in this speech, and especially in this paragraph. There are two overt denials of God's law in here (maybe three if you think about the second sentence a little bit). 

The first:

Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

Now the President didn't use the word "Marriage," but I think it is pretty obvious what he is saying here. Let's back up to the first, second, and third paragraphs after his introduction:

Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional — what makes us American — is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth. The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a Republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed.

The President of the United States is stating clearly here that our journey is not complete in our quest to treat all people as equal Creations of God with certain rights, like "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" until gay people have secured the right to be married. And by extension, that the law of the land must be changed to protect that right.

So, that means marriage, as defined by God as between one man and one woman (Genesis 1 &2) at least 6000ish years before any colonial rebel started firing musket balls at red-coats, is to be pitched out into the garbage and a new definition determined. By us. Because we are so smart. Because we can. Because we have "progressed" to a new understanding of human interaction led by "science" and "education." 

So God's law, His definition of marriage, His word, His created order, is tossed out like the space junk trash ejected from an Imperial Cruiser.

The second:  

Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm. 

Yeah, there's one, teeny, tiny location that he didn't mention. It happens to be the place where more children are murdered every single day than perhaps all the children ever killed by guns in Detroit, Appalachia, or Newtown. It is the womb of an American woman. Oh, but I forgot. President Obama doesn't want his daughters to be punished with a child. So the simplicity of the sixth commandment is also discarded like so much trash. 

The only possible way that God's law can be honored and every child would know that they are cared for, cherished, and always safe from harm is that they, first of all, have to be allowed to be born. Children must be under the protection of the law, or surely our nation is made up of the worst of terrifying barbarians.

To quote the Declaration of Independence, claiming God himself is the creator of rights, and then to turn around and say that obviously we know better than God what rights people should have is the ultimate in futile and darkened, alienated from God thinking:

Ephesians 4:17-24  Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!-- 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

I would say that if the journey to the dark side is not complete in the United States, President Obama took us a large leap forward with this speech.

Unhappy Birthday, Roe V. Wade

Today is the 40th anniversary of Roe V. Wade. This unhappy birthday means that over 55,000,0000 lives have been terminated in the US alone since the ruling.

Although the US population is evenly split on their opinions about abortion, there must still be a concentrated effort to end abortion. The problem now is that abortion is just part of the landscape now, and we have accepted it as a continual reality.

The gruesome irony of this has been seen so horribly recently, at the Sandy Hook Elementary school. Americans were shocked by this, that someone would murder 20 innocent children and six adults. The incident has highlighted the national divide over moral issues, as liberals raced to seize the crisis to forward their agenda of gun control and conservatives raced to forward their claims of Second Amendment freedoms.

One newscast I heard said that most of the Sandy Hook school victims still had their baby teeth. But what about the thousands of children murdered that day whose baby teeth hadn't chewed anything yet? I wonder how many Americans paused to consider that while those 20 children were slaughtered mercilessly that day, over 3000 children were slaughtered mercilessly that same day, and every day since, through the horror of abortion.

So it comes down to this: abortion will never end in this country until people are so outraged by it that they are willing to sacrifice something (maybe a lot) to make it end. And that will only come by offering the world a moral proclamation based on something that is much higher than public opinion.

The prevailing culture is demonstrating daily that morality relies on the largest voting block. Take for example the inauguration. Instead of having Louie Giglio pray the prayer at the event, Giglio was disinvited because of comments he had made many years ago about homosexuality being a sin.

Said Addie Whisenant of the Presidential Inaugural Committee:

 “We were not aware of Pastor Giglio’s past comments at the time of his selection, and they don’t reflect our desire to celebrate the strength and diversity of our country at this inaugural. Pastor Giglio was asked to deliver the benediction in large part because of his leadership in combating human trafficking around the world. As we now work to select someone to deliver the benediction, we will ensure their beliefs reflect this administration’s vision of inclusion and acceptance for all Americans.”

Uh, translated, that means that the official state religion of the United States is now summed up in just a few words "talk about sin (especially homosexual sin) is completely forbidden in public discourse. If you have talked about it ever, you are voted off the island."

What this means is that the proclamation of God's law, unlike Presidential Inaugurations of the past, will never be the same. God's law is a no-no. Talk about anything you like but God and His absolute moral standards.

So the world has said, "not interested, not going to listen." Unfortunately, that is where the church is as well. That is why the church is not outraged, and that is why abortion will never end in this country on our current theological and ecclesiastic track.

Two Forces of Prophetic Voice that are Needed

The prophetic voice must state two equal forces to the church and in the world - the force of law, and the force of the gospel. It is interesting to me, that the church has for the most part on the topic of abortion, (and many others) abandoned both. It's also important to hold out the idea that God rules in two kingdoms - the kingdom of social and governmental institutions, and the kingdom of the church. 

This is not about the separation of church and state, this is about the proper roles and distinction between them. God rules in both kingdoms, but his rule is different in each kingdom. Luther called this the "left hand" rule of God and the "right hand" rule of God. God's "left hand" rule over men in social and government established authorities means that God's moral law should be held up by the government as the standard to enforce so that the evil estate of men could be restrained. 

Left Hand Kingdom - Social and Governmental Authority

So, in the abortion issue, God's moral law (which is the foundation of natural law, which used to be the legal standard in the U.S.) states unequivocally that the taking of an innocent life is forbidden, and the penalty for murder is death.

Exodus 20:13 ¹³ “You shall not murder.

Numbers 35:30-31 ³⁰ “If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses. But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. ³¹ Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death.

The current cultural winds on abortion state that "abortion is not murder, because it's just a fetus, it's not a human being." (Interestingly the word "fetus" is from the Latin word that means offspring or bearing children.) To say that an baby in the womb of her mother is not a human being is not an argument based on reason, science, or logic. It's just wishful and stupid thinking.

Furthermore, the Bible demands that that "thing" growing in a woman's womb after conception is a human child. In reference to pregnant women, the term "with child" occurs twenty-six times in the Bible. There are no other Biblical descriptions of pregnancy. Always, the mother is "with child." Psalm 139 is clear about this. Psalm 51 speaks on it.

In Luke 1:36 & 41, we are told that Elizabeth conceived a "son" and that the "baby" leaped in her womb. This word translated baby is the Greek word Brephos. This is the exact same word that God uses to describe Christ in the manger after He is born (Luke 2:12, 16). Luke also uses this word to describe the children who came to see Jesus in Luke 18:15. The Holy Spirit inspired Luke to use the same exact word for a pre-born baby and a post-born baby. They are both living human beings! Every one knows this except those who want to defend abortions.

So that's the Law, and in the left hand kingdom that God rules through his moral law, natural law, and even reason, this Law needs to be proclaimed and defended, because God most certainly is the ruler of that kingdom. If a judge were to find evidence convicting someone guilty of murder, would the judge be considered just if he let the murderer free without harsh penalty? That's the Law. That's the left hand kingdom. That's the prophetic voice that must be raised and defended. 

Unfortunately (and I am talking to myself here), we have been afraid to talk about God's rule and natural law and the moral law, because, well, it's not polite to discuss. It's taboo to say that anything anyone is doing is "wrong," because our culture has decided that "wrongness" is determined by popularity, not by God's revealed Word. People want to have abortions because they want to have sexual license without any responsibility.  That's why God ordained marriage, so that men and women could have the law of obligation and responsibility connected to the marriage act.

Right Hand Kingdom - The Church

But God's rule also reigns in the "right hand" kingdom of the church, whose central message is that Jesus Christ died on the cross so that sinners could be forgiven of their sins and declared righteous through faith alone in the atoning work of Christ. So in the abortion issue, God's Word states unequivocally that those who have murdered children by having abortions should put their trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.  

Because of God's "great mercy," they will be "made alive in Christ" even though they were "dead in trespasses and sins." (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Jesus Christ died on the cross so that murderers of any kind can be forgiven. While this gospel is the central, historic message of Christianity, it is shocking how many churches are not teaching consistently and faithfully the gospel of Jesus Christ. Instead, a large majority of churches are teaching a psychobabble gospel of self-help moralism.

If you combine the church teaching self-help moralism with American political correctness, what you have left is a church that will never even make a dent in abortion or any other issue. Neither will the church call anyone to faith in Jesus Christ.

However, if the church is careful to keep the left hand and right hand kingdoms distinct, proclaiming both God's law and His gospel loudly, clearly, and with commitment, we could through the proclamation of the terrifying Law and the precious Gospel from the words of Scripture, make abortion be seen as the horrific crime that it is.

Exposition of 2 Corinthians 4:1-2

The church is so busy distracting itself with nonsense that we have forgotten the gospel.  Jesus told us in the Great Commission in Matthew 28 to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded.  The job of the church is to connect people to Him. That is why we proclaim God's Word.  Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. (Romans 10)

In 2 Corinthians 4:1-2 the Apostle Paul makes several statements about what he did and did not do with the gospel message.

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. ² But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. ³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

Let’s consider the context of this passage for a minute.  A huge theme of this letter to the church at Corinth is the defense of Paul’s ministry.  He had been attacked, maligned, made fun of, and criticized.  False apostles and flashy, gifted preachers had confused the Corinthian church and convinced them to believe (it says in 11:4) in a different Jesus, a different spirit, and a different Gospel than what Paul preached to them.

In 4:1 Paul tells us that the ministry he has been given is from God and through God’s mercy. Because we have been given God’s great mercy, we have the strength to go on and not give up.  Starting in verse 2, Paul speaks of himself and his ministry in contrast to what these other false apostles and preachers have said and done. In this verse, Paul makes four statements that will challenge you to think about how we share God's truth - how we use the Word of God to connect people to Christ.

First of all, Paul says, “we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways.”

There are three significant words in this statement.  “Renounced” means literally to “Speak away”  - to state openly and clearly that something is not a part of your life.  It implies being open and transparent; confessing that which is hidden.

“Disgraceful” refers to those areas of life that we don’t want to talk about because we are too ashamed. It’s dark and dirty, and we don’t ever want it to see the light of day.

“Underhanded” is translated as “hidden” in the King James Version.  This word is the same Greek word from which we get the word “Cryptic.” It implies something hidden away deep inside you that you don’t want to let out.

Paul does not say specifically what these disgraceful and underhanded ways are, but from the context we see that this is about the ways that false teachers are handling the word of God.

It comes down to a matter of truth. If God's Word is true, then any time we mess with it, we are reducing the potential connection that people can make with the living God. This is why Paul spent a lot of time confronting false teachers. Anyone can stand up and talk about God and Jesus and sound sincere, but that doesn't matter. God's truth and the lies that we come up with are always at war.  As a pastor, one of my jobs is to confront false ideas using the truth of the Bible. Those false ideas are everywhere, in fact, they are right here among us because we are sinners who would rather hear false ideas than true ones. Let's go on:

Secondly, Paul says,  "we refuse to practice cunning" 

This statement could be literally translated as, “we don’t walk in trickery or craftiness.”  We don’t use methods that are deceitful.

Now, we don’t know exactly what kind of tricky and crafty methods these false apostles and preachers were using.  There are some hints in the letter, like in 2:17 where he says “we don’t peddle the word of God for profit.”  In 11:7-10 it seems that Paul was criticized for not asking for money from the Corinthians.  Putting these hints together, it looks like these false apostles were trained, gifted speakers who were eloquent and dynamic, but were teaching false doctrine and making good money doing it.  They were fakes.

There was a guy who desperately needed a job.  He heard there was an opening at the zoo, so he applied. It turns out that the zoo had lost their gorilla, and they asked him to wear a gorilla suit, jump around in the gorilla cage, and swing on the bars.  He wasn’t sure about it, but he needed the money.  He put on the suit, got into the cage and just sat there for a while.  After an hour or so, some kids came up to the cage and threw him some peanuts.  Now the guy loved peanuts, so he got up, started jumping and swinging around, and the crowd grew.  They kept on throwing peanuts, and he kept jumping and swinging till finally, he swung himself so hard that he flew out of the gorilla cage and landed with a thud on the floor of the lion cage next door.

He saw the lion pacing back and forth, looking at him with a hungry stare.  So he started yelling, “Help! I’m just a guy in this gorilla suit!  Get me out of here!”  Suddenly the lion pounced on him, pinned him to the ground, and said, “Would you shut up!  You’re going to get us both fired!”

I think many people see Christians as tricksters who are always trying to get a new angle on them.  The media certainly portrays Christians in that light whether they are or not.  That is why clear, open transparency is so vital to making those connections.

We don’t need gimmicks.  We don’t need to give away money and Ipads to get people to come to church.  We need God's truth demonstrated in regenerated, transparent lives.  We have the life and hope that a dying world desperately needs.  If we feel we need gimmicks and trickery to connect people to Christ, maybe we don’t even know Him ourselves!

If you buy a bag of apples, would you buy apples wrapped in black plastic?  If you bought a case of apples, wouldn’t you open the box and look through them to see if any were rotten?  Wouldn’t you rather see the fruit that you want to buy?   Making clear connections between lost people and the gospel demands that people can clearly see the fruit of your life.  There are no gimmicks, no trickery, no rotten, hidden fruit.  Just real, clearly seen fruit of a genuine relationship with Christ.

Third, we don't "tamper with God's word."

My paraphrase of this statement is “we don’t deceitfully twist the Word of God according to our selfish motivations.”  We’ve already seen that the false apostles did tamper with and twist the Word of God.  This statement is closely connected with the last one, “We don’t use deception.”  But in this statement, Paul is not talking just about crafty methods, but about actually taking God’s truth and twisting it for our own benefit: having our personal agenda for personal gain at the expense of God’s truth being clearly communicated.

One of the ways that people distort the Word of God is by taking things out of context.  I hope you have noticed that I have tried to help you understand the entire message of 2 Corinthians.  In understanding the Bible, it has been said, “Context is King.”  The Bible is an entire love story, from beginning to end, with one cohesive message, which is remarkable considering there are 66 books with many different human authors written over thousands of years in several different cultures and languages.

But many people today think the Bible is like a fortune cookie.  You crack it open and find some pithy saying that is supposed to be helpful to someone when they need a pick me up.  Don’t just try to find the verse that says what you are looking for.  Spend time with it.  Memorize the Word.  Let it soak in.  Read it to your kids morning, noon, and night.  If you are too busy to put God’s Word in your family’s life, you are too busy.  My prayer is that every home represented here today would be utterly immersed in the Word of God.

The fortune cookie Bible study method reminds me of a story I heard about a man who began to study the Bible.  His wife was thrilled because she had always wanted him to study the Bible.  He stopped studying the Bible after He found the verse he was looking for.  What he found was something he thought said that wives are to shut up and submit.  Context is King!

People (Christians especially) also distort the Word of God today by making it more friendly.  By making it easier to market – by taking the bite out of it so that people will like it better.   We were just talking about gimmicks.  Making the Scripture  “user-friendly,” or,  “politically correct” is a deception and a distortion.

In the classroom setting of one Peanuts comic strip, on the first day of the new school year, the students were told to write an essay about returning to class. Lucy wrote, "Vacations are nice, but it's good to get back to school. There is nothing more satisfying or challenging than education, and I look forward to a year of expanding knowledge."

Needless to say, the teacher was pleased with Lucy and complimented her fine essay. In the final frame, Lucy leans over and whispers to Charlie Brown, "After a while, you learn what sells."

God's truth seldom sells well. Jesus' saying that no one comes to the Father except through Him doesn’t sell.  Telling people that Hell is a reality doesn’t sell.  When we don’t tell the whole truth of the message of Christ because we want to be politically correct, we are liars.

The fourth statement of Paul in verse 2: “but by the open statement of the truth"

Literally this statement says “by the manifestation of the truth.” In other words, "Proclaiming the truth with absolute clarity."  So what happens when we set forth the truth plainly?  Look at the next phrase at the end of verse two: but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

What does that mean?  Look back at 3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?

Remember, Paul is defending his ministry.  He wants to remind the Corinthians that they know him.  They heard him preach, and they responded. But apparently some of the false apostles showed up with letters of recommendation or letters of introduction. 

The word “commend” in both places means, “to bring together.” To make an introduction; to make a connection. This fourth statement is a summary of the previous three expressed in a different, but positive way.  In proclaiming the truth with absolute clarity, we do the other three.  We renounce disgraceful and underhanded ways.  We don’t use cunning, and we don’t tamper with the Word of God.  So the final question here is why does that help make the connection between a lost person and Jesus Christ?

For this reason: the Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. When we mess with it, twist it, jumble it up, people don't hear the Word of Christ, they hear something else. They just hear our opinion or our experience or they hear what some ear-tickling money grubbing preacher is telling them to sell something.

There have been times in my life when I have not proclaimed the whole Gospel.  I have said to people “God loves you.”  But I didn’t tell them, “You are in the same boat as everyone else, destined for destruction apart from the hope and the light and the glory of Christ.”  I told a lie.  I didn’t set forth the truth plainly.  I believed that my lie about God was more potent than God’s truth about Himself.  I missed the chance to make the connection.

Here’s the rest of the passage: ⁴ In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵ For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. ⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Only the full light of the Gospel of Jesus is going to cut through spiritual blindness, and that light from God’s Word is reflected out of our walk and our talk.  When people look at your life, what do they see? Even a better question is what would they hear from you?

There was a preacher who had befriended a brilliant lawyer and had invited him to his church.  The lawyer was an agnostic but eventually agreed to come.  He came and sat on the third row – the preacher was ecstatic until a young, mentally handicapped man came up the aisle and sat right next to the lawyer.

The preacher worried about what the lawyer would think, and worried more, when, during the invitation, as the audience stood and sang the song, the preacher saw this young, mentally handicapped man lean over and whisper something to the attorney, who soon left the building.  All week long the preacher debated and agonized over calling his friend and apologizing for whatever the young man had said or done, but he decided not to call.

The next Sunday the lawyer returned and as soon as the invitation was offered, he came forward and professed his faith in Christ. The preacher asked what it was that persuaded this brilliant agnostic to become a Christian.  The lawyer said, “It was last week.”  The young man who sat beside me asked, “Do you want to go to Heaven?”  I was so offended at the question that I said ‘no.’  And the young man said, “Well, go to hell then.”  The lawyer said, “I’ve been thinking about that all week and just couldn’t get it off my mind.”