In his book, "Sodom Had No Bible," Leonard Ravenhill said: "Ours is now the most chronically unhappy world in history. It would be folly to give an aspirin to a cancer patient, assuring him with lying words that this would cure his malady. Equally criminal (in my judgment) is our attempt to ap­pease the soul-hunger of the millions around us by sermons that are not Christ-centered, not born in the burn­ing heart of a yearning preacher, and not wet with the tears of his own tra­vail and anxiety for fallen man" (p. 38).

To those words we respond with a hearty "amen." In recent years it seems to me that many people want a soft, watered-down gospel that is un­able to do anything except put those who crave it even further in the miry filth of sin. We want to hear all the promises of reward in that gospel, but don't want to be told that judgment will also befall the disobedient. We want to hear the frilly sermons that so many today style "positive," but when something is said that cuts to the quick - well, "don't preach like that to us."

Have we forgotten that the word of God is a fire (Jer. 20:9), and as such will burn as well as purify? Do we not remember that it is a hammer (Jer. 23:29 ), that will destroy as well as build up? Do we not realize that it is a sword (Heb. 4:12 ) that will % stroy as well as defend? Yes, cer­tainly - there are many wonderful blessings and promises in the word of God. But we sometimes get "out of balance" in our thinking, preaching and teaching. To never want to have sin exposed and condemned; a failure to tell people wherein they are wrong in their lives, is dangerous. It is to ignore the dangers of Satan all around us.

We desperately need to get back to Christ-centered preaching; the kind that not only holds out promise of blessing and reward, but also con­demns the ugliness and sin that often takes the form of that which is good. The preacher who fails to speak out against sin is not worthy of the term by which he is called. The hearer who does not want to hear it is deceiving I himself, and will lose his soul as a re­sult.

So as preachers we ought to be willing to cry out in warning against the wiles of the devil, and as hearers we ought to be craving, not only those great blessings of the gospel, but that por­tion of it which will correct us when we are wrong. Only then do we have the right attitude toward both hearing and teaching the word of God.

May we ever be willing to want "the whole counsel of God" spoken at all times; "in season and out of season." That is the only thing that will truly turn men to God, for with the rod of chastisement applied to our lives, we are made to see that God is serious about what he says, and will tolerate no halfway measures. - Bill Moseley

 

 

 

Bumper stickers are interesting; some are funny, some are not, and some are just downright immoral. And some don't make sense. I think I once saw a couple in the latter category.

Driving down a main avenue, and car in front of me bore a bumper sticker which said: "Happiness Is Being Healthy." "Pretty good," I thought. Then I passed they guy and you could hardly see him for the smoke in the car. I thought about waving him down to tell him the back seat of his car was on fire. It looked more like a train engine than an automobile! Then one day I saw another one that said: "Honk If You Love Jesus." Well, the guy almost ran into me, and so I honked. Guess he thought I didn't really love Jesus, because all I got from him was an gesture. Life is full of incongruities, isn't it?

This is sort of like folks who claim to be Christians. and yet their conduct says anything but that. Maybe I ought not be to hard on the "health nut" with the bumper sticker - perhaps it was on the car when he bought it. That must be it! Surely nobody could be that inconsistent, could they? And surely a Christian would not be so - would he? - Bill Moseley