New Year's resolutions are all the rage for the first few weeks of the new calendar. Freshly determined self-improvement practitioners pencil in their pledges to shed pounds, quit smoking, get a real job, or stop being a jerk. Fitness centers have booming business for the month of January. Donut sales dwindle for a week or so. This happens every year.I recently went to a Christian concert and listened to a youth pastor talk about such things during intermission. He pointed out our tendency to make resolutions we can't keep and to dwell on things of the past. After some personal illustrations and a video clip from Napoleon Dynamite, he recommended that we choose Jesus and live for now. It was gospel-lite aimed at the "seeker" crowd.
Interestingly, the featured musician, presented a heftier message than the pastor. The singer mentioned the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, and our desperate need for Christ to save us from the wrath we deserve. He pointed out that some of the churches he visits proclaim a gospel of success and self-improvement. Jesus is sometimes portrayed as the ticket to the good life, and he can clear up your acne to boot.
I am reminded of a popular TV pastor with a bright smile who encourages people to think positively and be all they can be. Why talk about sin, repentance and justification when we can find fulfillment by getting more in touch with our wonderful selves? Everybody's got an inner song and a voice like Josh Groban inside to sing it. We all just need to find it and let it out.
Folks are attracted to this stuff like moths to a porch light. Who needs a savior when God already loves you just as you are, and He has a wonderful plan for your life? Unfortunately, the Bible says that wide is the gate and easy is the way that leads to destruction, and those who enter it are many (Matthew 7:13).
Perhaps 2008 is a good time for Christians to preach the gospel in full strength. It may offend some of the "seekers," and it may seem like a downer to the glibsters, but Christians are called to speak the truth in love.
When was the last time you shared the gospel with someone?
John
