"I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." -1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (ESV)
I spent a lot of 2012 reading from the Old Testament. Just so we're honest, I'm quite hit or miss when it comes to being consistent in the Word. I just don't want y'all reading this and thinking I'm the gal that's up at 6am every morning. I'm working on this, but it's a slow moving process. I've recently come back to reading in the New Testament and getting back to the letters from Paul. He's by far my favorite author in the Bible, which is humorous because he's one of Josh's least favorite. (Guess which one of us did Liberal Arts and which one can't stand run on sentences...)
If I'm honest (again) with y'all, I'm terrible at sharing the Gospel with grown ups. Give me a room of 3 and 4 year olds and I can preach it all day long. I feel safe in that environment. I'm comfortable answering questions, and good grief can they ask them! Even when they ask hard questions like, "If Jesus took on all our sins, did that mean he was bad?" I don't clam up, and sometimes I just tell them, "We don't know." Adults... no thanks, I'd rather not.
The hard part is, we're called to share. The last thing Jesus said before he went to Heaven was "Go and make disciples." (Matthew 28:19-end) This is a command. We should be sharing the Gospel with everyone in a loving and Christ-like way. (Emphasis on LOVING and Christ-like all you "God Hates" morons out there...) I digress.
I feel like I have to bring something to the table with them. I need to be smart, I need to have every answer laid out, I need to speak well and make sense and truthfully, I feel like I need to show that the Gospel is better that whatever else that it is that they're following or believing.
It's been so refreshing lately to read and be reminded that I bring nothing to the table. Our sermon on Sunday reminded me that we don't have all the answers, that's why we call it faith. Even Paul, who finds such confidence and purpose in Christ, spoke in "fear and trembling". Great, even Paul had a fear of public speaking, this is great news and encouragement for me!!
The Gospel doesn't need us to add anything to it, it doesn't need to be dressed up and made into something cool or palatable. My words won't be what saves someone, so why do I feel like I have to do something perfect? The Lord daily works in spite of my shortcomings.
What a great reminder this morning. If you read this, I hope you find some encouragement in it to. We don't have to be perfect, the Bible is full of stories of men and women who were FAR from pulled together, but God used them for His purpose and his glory. He does the same for us, daily.
Happy Thursday!
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