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so Paul tells us that God chose nonsense to shame the wise, weakness to shame the strong, and what the world regards as nothing to bring to nothing what the world considers important. Paul tells us that neither the delivery nor the content of his message relies on compelling words of “wisdom” but on a demonstration of the power of the Spirit, so that our trust may not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power. how different his approach is than mine i think the difference explains the anemic nature of the message i have to share and the difficulty with which i share it see, both i and the persons i share it with recognize the poverty of my message! all it has is rationale mixed with weak emotion, a well thought out and convincing argument that the all powerful God and creator of the universe loves me and you so much that he is willing to let his own son be killed and raise him back to life… but gives no sign that he is working for my good today or if he does its some random getting of this job or that car or occasionally healing somebody’s great aunt Petunia from cancer and then only after an enormous investment in prayer and petition! begging him in effect for gifts he seems to give out rather arbitrarily i was thinking about the things i posted here, that Jesus could do no miracles in Nazareth because of their lack of trust… again, i think its the same with me… my friend Kent says that the three great lies of the enemy are these, 1) that God isn’t good 2) God isn’t powerful and 3) God isn’t loving. it seems that i’ve bought one or more of these lies. Paul tells us that it is the demonstration of his goodness, his power, and his love that brings people to him not the proposition of these things but why don’t i demonstrate these things because i’ve merely given assent to them i haven’t really trusted in him otherwise why is it that i’ve bought into the notion that God doesn’t do these things any more or that he only does them in third world places like china, india, central america or africa? why is it that i’ve bought the notion that just depending on Jesus for my sustenance is crazy and stupid? why is it that i’ve bought the notion that i have to somehow earn his love, that the relationship is works based? i desperately want to begin demonstrating my trust by obeying Jesus’ teachings all of them! so that he can begin to demonstrate his goodness, power, and love in me then i think i will see and believe that HE IS! and my message will be believable
Original content at: http://towardsimplicity.net/?p=887.
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Scott Bartchy is a radical. He believes in a subversive system that embraces those on the fringes of our society and seeks to establish a new way of life that goes against the status quo.