Christian Hype or Help

Below is an old post from an old site.

I did not have to think this one up. I was actually thinking it. Here it is.

Lots of people veer close to the edge of substituting hype for the gospel. They stand in pulpits yelling and groaning. They tell us to touch two people, give the person sitting next to us a high five and say amen. They parrot cliche’ after cliche’ and call it the Gospel.

There is no substitute for the Gospel. There is no substitute for studying God’s Word. There is no substitute for taking the necessary time to chew on it and get the juice out of it.

It is clear that we are going to need it in these next 4 years.

I originally started reading the Bible because I needed help with my life. I did not know anything about the Bible beyond what I learned in Sunday School, in Church and at home. I learned a great deal from those sources but I needed more because my life was, as they use to say, “a pure-dee-mess”.  My friends were gone and my money was gone.  Maybe thy left with the money. LOL!

Surely, those who loved love me did not have a clue about the depth of my spiritual lostness. I concealed it with finely starched shirts, good looking suits and shined shoes.  The Bible was my last chance.

I drove to Church in a borrowed car when I could get it and caught the bus when I couldn’t. And some of them laughed when they saw the car but it was serious business for me and not just hype. My existence depended on it. I still does.

As I turn the page decades later I submit that November 8th was a cataclysmic turn in the history of the world at large and my world in particular. America, the supposed bastion of freedom and all that is good, right and hopeful elected a man who admitted to fondling women, judged people on the basis of their sex and their religious orientation and who habitually uses lies as a tool. I believe that it is a cataclysmic turn in the history of the world that is not as evident as it will be.

As I said, “It is serious business and not just hype.” When I discovered how powerful the Scriptures were for living, especially the Book of Ecclesiastes, I latched on to them.

I recently got word that a man committe suicide. I did not know him. Somebody told me about him and I thought, “If only someone could have reached him with a Word of caring and, of course, some loving companionship it would have made all the difference in the world.

There is no substitute for the Gospel. Just a few Scriptures to close this Thought For The Day. The Bible says:

12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb. 4.12). WOW!

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. (Psalm 119.9) WOW!

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2.15) WOW!

And perhaps this last one is the most powerful as it speaks of life step aft r which our church is named.

105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. (Psalm 119.105).

Response by Mr. Carrington Smith – Dec. 2, 2016

Once again, something that we assume that people know because we use church words with church friends. That’s how I felt watching a specific tribute to a Gospel icon last week. I was having a hard time watching the “gospel” fashion show along with the “gospel” singing groups, who probably did not do as well as they thought they did. Yet, everyone assumed that they were spreading the “gospel”. If it seems that “gospel” is only a style, then we need to know the word of God is more than just a “style”. I was always taught to choose substance over style. What I am seeing in some instances is not even style. So you are right, give us the “Gospel” of Jesus Christ.

Reply Dec. 2, 2016

I could not have put it better. Your response is the very reason I appreciate the collective contributions to any subject. I almost did not mention this but I will and that is that, as I read your response I was thinking, “No wonder you are an educator.” Great thoughts. The church needs to hear this.