When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. 2 I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified. 3 I stood in front of you with weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking. 4 My message and my preaching weren’t presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 5 I did this so that your faith might not depend on the wisdom of people but on the power of God. 6 What we say is wisdom to people who are mature. It isn’t a wisdom that comes from the present day or from today’s leaders who are being reduced to nothing. 7 We talk about God’s wisdom, which has been hidden as a secret. God determined this wisdom in advance, before time began, for our glory. 8 It is a wisdom that none of the present-day rulers have understood, because if they did understand it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory! 9 But this is precisely what is written: God has prepared things for those who love him that no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or that haven’t crossed the mind of any human being. 10 God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, including the depths of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-10, CEB)
Recently I have been talking to some pastor friends of mine about calls and we were telling some of our call stories. I was up for a call in the midwest as an associate pastor. I had gone to visit the congregation with my wife and did a meet and greet and an open mic question/answer session and preached at all of the services for the congregation. The vote would be the next week, but it seemed like a done deal. I got a call the next week, which was Reformation Sunday and the council president said it was a majority but not a supermajority, meaning the yes votes were over 50% but not over 66% which is what is needed for a call, so they congregation voted to not call me. Then the council president said something to me which made me realize that this was actually a good thing. The council president said, “Maybe if you would have preached more about yourself, than preaching the gospel, it would have gone differently.” I pray that I always get accused of preaching the gospel!
If we talk about our selves we are short changing those around us. We have the best story known to all and we need to share it.
Let your life be an open book and live the gospel out loud. And let you light shine so you love out loud!
Loving People. Loving God.
aSacredRebel 