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All is quiet on the eastern front today. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Here’s a teaser from the intro of my message for this Sunday. If you’re in town, why not drop in and hear the whole thing?
Many are the times, when receiving information, that we are called upon to consider the source. I get emails, as you do, asking for my help to assist some former royal ruling party member leave their country with billions of dollars. I even had one person offer to give me $10 million dollars for helping her if I would promise to use the money for missions and outreach. I do nothing but roll my eyes and delete these emails because I know it is nothing but a scam.
The former ruling emperor of Giddy Up A Oom Poppa Omm Poppa Mow Mow, himself, may be legitimately offering me millions of dollars but I will delete his email because of my lack of trust in the offer. Come to think of it, the former ruling emperor of Giddy Up A Oom Poppa Omm Poppa Mow Mow could be offering me $100 and still wouldn’t believe him.
Believing to be true whatever someone may offer has everything to do with what I believe about them and little to do about the offer itself. My lack of faith in the offer is nothing but a lack of faith in the person behind the offer. I have considered the source and determined the offer to be a hoax.
Talk about an offer that sounds too good to be true! Eternal salvation is offered to anyone who places their trust in Jesus Christ.
You do well to reject that former emperor’s offer. Those of the Oak Ridge Kingdom, and Queen Elvira in particular, are specifically denounced as “unworthy of of thy time, verily even unto the discount bin” somwhere in the book of Hezekiah.
Sounds good. The only problem is how seldom I find myself in your neck of the woods.
I’ll be praying Sunday morning anyway.
Good stuff! Wish I could be there to hear the whole thing………..
Trusting the source makes all the difference in the world. My lack of faith in the offer may also have something to do with the mechanism through which the offer is made, in addition to the person behind the offer. Some venues through which we receive a message are notoriously untrustworthy.
E-mails are easy to send to a mass audience and, thankfully, easy to delete. We’ve all received items through mass mailings (don’t you need a 37th & 38th credit card in your wallet??). Even blanketing a city with a door knocking campaign comes across to many folks as disingenuous and often aren’t trusted. It seems that most methods of mass communication these days are met with a pretty skeptical eye.
As I consider the source of the offer we get for eternal salvation, I’m also thankful it didn’t come to me through an untrustworthy mechanism. The form of “mass communication” He chose was quite different and ultimately, more successful. Obviously, the mechanism through which he delivered his ultimate message of love to us was perfect and can be trusted.
Unlike me. Why would God use me – an imperfect, sometimes arrogant, sometimes annoying, sometimes very incompetant person, among many other shortcomings – as a means to communicate His message today? Some days I feel like I’m more like your ruling emperor with the way I deliver God’s message, both in word & action.
Now I really am glad I live in beautiful downtown West Cocoa, Florida. I’ve never received one of those emails you mentioned.
Maybe these deposed rulers are afraid that to accept “Florida money” means a trip to our wonderful state during hurricane season?
Have you seen the email that goes around from some supposed lawyer (clue one not to trust it) who says Bill Gates is going to share his billions with owners of Windows??? I’ve sent out a truckload of emails (they do ship in truckloads, don’t they?) to people linking them to the site that exposes the scam for what it is but they keep coming. Sounds like a good sermon, though. Are you going to wear a tie? Coat? If not, smile a lot!
I was praying today and it was revealed to me that I should send you this email. An important government official here in Switzerland has left beaucoup bucks for me to distribute to some worthy cause in the Arlington area. I just need to have your ATM card and your pin number to make the deposit…
Love the illustration! Preach it!
Coming from a country from which some of these emails originate, I have sometimes replied such mails with an admonition to the writer that the time spent concoting and transmitting these tools of deceit could be better spent in more wholesome, legal and financially rewarding ventures.
It has to be said also that those who are taken by these scams are perhaps themselves a little greedy.
I agree with z-man. I think that our way of trying to be bigger and bigger hinders the message. We are “marketing” the gospel rather than getting into the lives of the people with whom we need to share the message of love. We bid them to come in and be like us rather than our going out to them and showing them what we have in Jesus.
God help us to be genuine and real in this world of deception and virtual reality.
Keith’s thought on asking people to come be like us rather than getting out to them reminds me of a book I’ve started, “The Celtic Way of Evangelism” by George Hunter. It speaks to the way we’ve historically done outreach vs. what might be more effective these days.
Historically, our method of evangelism has begun with a presentation of the Gospel story to those who often are no more than casual contacts. If successful, this effort leads to a decision for conversion. Upon conversion, the new believer is invited to community and fellowship.
Hunter contends the Celtic approach is actually an inversion of this conversion model. In the Celtic approach, the potential believer is first offered fellowship and hospitality, which leads to opportunity by us for service, ministry and authentic conversation. After this connection and commitment are built and trusted, the prospective Christian may choose belief and conversion based on the reality of relationship, leading to full inclusion in community.
I kind of like that approach.
It’s that kind of “hospitality” that made Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics the class of the NBA in the 80′s.
Just kidding Z-man.
I like the “Celtic approach.”