Instead of using all our powers to convict and change the sinner, while God stands back as a gentleman quietly waiting for the spiritual corpse, His declared spiritual enemy, to invite Him into his heart, let's preach the Gospel like gentlemen, trying to persuade but knowing we can't convert. Then let's stand back while God uses all of His powers to convict and convert and change the sinner. Then we'll see clearly just who has the power to call the dead to life.
11.21.2007
Preach Like A Gentleman
From Dever and Alexander's The Deliberate Church.
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2 comments:
Amen! So often we forget that we are just the instruments - not the instigators - of salvation in our brothers and sisters.
An interesting and valid point. I was just reading through a discussion board and it was so frustrating to read through posts made by "christians" who were condemning, judging, and using mean and unkind language when responding to posts they didn't agree with. There was a decided lack of love.
I think too often we consider ourselves to be God's moral police, expecting that somehow if we reign judgement upon "the sinner" they will see the error of their ways and repent. And yet all I see Christian's achieving is the alienation of people - as they radiate moral superiority.
The Gospel message we are given is the story of God's love for all men which is continually manifest through His ongoing love and grace in our own lives. Not that we cannot declare moral truth, but it must to be clothed in the reality of God's love and served in the humility of our own fallenness.
That I think is preaching like a Gentleman. Uncompromising love and unapologetic humility - and as you say, let God convict and draw people to Himself.
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