Just the Basic Gospel?

1 Cor. 2:1  And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 
1 Cor. 2:2  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 
1 Cor. 2:3  And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 
1 Cor. 2:4  and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 
1 Cor. 2:5  so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 
(ESV)
I find this passage very interesting, and I think it is a good reminder of how we should be witnessing to others.

"And I, when I came to you, brothers,"
Paul went from Athens to Corinth, and stayed with Aquila and Priscilla and made tents with them, for they were tent makers. On the Sabbath, he went and taught and witnessed and probably debated in the synagogue. Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half before leaving for Syria (Acts 18:1-18).

"did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom."
When Paul came to Corinth, he preached the Gospel: you are sinners, Christ came to save you from your sins, repent and you shall be saved.  He didn't come to prove that he was smart or that he was better than than those to whom he spoke.  He came to share the simple truth. Now, I think the key word is "simple," as we will see in the following verses.

 "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
Paul preached the very simple Gospel - nothing more nothing less - Christ died for you.  That is how he witnessed.  When he came to Corinth, he witnessed, not using deep doctrine, but he witnessed using only the Gospel: You are a sinner, you need to be saved, and Christ came to save you.

" And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,"
Why would Paul, one of the pillars of Christianity, be afraid?  Was he afraid of people hurting him? Was he afraid of being rejected?  I think not.  I think he was afraid of letting Christ down; that, in some way, his doctrine might not be correct, or that he might say something he didn't mean to say. He is afraid of leading others astray by accident.

"and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,"
The Gospel doesn't make sense logically.  Why would a God send down his own Son to die for sinful men?  You can't figure it out through logic because it just doesn't make sense. Then, you might ask why anybody would believe it, and here is my answer to you: "demonstration of the Spirit and of power."  The Holy Spirit has so much power to move men's hearts, that you can't imagine it.  He uses His infinite power to save men, and move their hearts.

"so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God"
If our faith rested in the wisdom of men, it would draw away from the power of Christ and His death. Not only that, but it wouldn't make much sense, and we would be fools since what we believe does not make sense without the Bible to explain it.  If Paul had been able to convince people based on logic, or based on reasoning, or because of his eloquence they would not have stood faithful; they would have reasoned themselves to false theology and doctrine. When people are saved by God's power, that is where they will always look for wisdom, or at least that is where they should look for wisdom, because God promises us that He will grant us wisdom.

Jas. 1:5  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 
Jas. 1:6  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 

So next time you witness to somebody, keep in mind that the basic Gospel is all you need to use, because it will show His power, and it will be to His glory. 

Through Him Who Strengthens Me

2 Cor. 3:5  "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God."

The part of this verse that really strikes me is "but our sufficiency is from God." If you are trying to be a Christian on your own; you can't. Not only can you not do it on your own, but you are taking away from God, and taking away from what He wants to show through you.


2 Cor. 12:9  "But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Cor. 12:10  "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 

God shows His power though our weaknesses, and grace through our sins; believe it or not. If you are powerful, or think you are bigger than the rest, you will be brought low, whether here on earth, or after death.

1 Cor. 1:27  "But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 

1 Cor. 1:28  "God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are." 

Now, the weak don't do this by themselves.  They do it through God, using His strength.

And its not like you can just do some things; no, you can do ALL things through Him who strengthens you.

Phil. 4:12  "I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 

Phil. 4:13  "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

I leave you with this: 

He strengthens those who are weak, and He weakens those who are strong.  He tore down empires and kings without any problem.

Isa 40:23  "Who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. 

Isa 40:24  "Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when He blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble."

If he can destroy rulers like this, can He not take those who are nothing, and make them the rulers? Can He not  make you into the strong? He promises He will make the weak strong. HOWEVER, only if you let Him will he make you stronger, and only if  you allow yourself to be His tool will you do great works for Him. 

In Christ, 

Dawson

A true Christian?

A true Christian, you maybe have heard this phrase before. What does it mean to be a "true" Christian? Lets look at Romans 12 to give us that answer.


Rom 12:1  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 
Rom 12:2  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 
Rom 12:3  For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 
Rom 12:4  For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 
Rom 12:5  so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 
Rom 12:6  Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 
Rom 12:7  if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 
Rom 12:8  the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. 
Rom 12:9  Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 
Rom 12:10  Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 
Rom 12:11  Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 
Rom 12:12  Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 
Rom 12:13  Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 
Rom 12:14  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 
Rom 12:15  Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 
Rom 12:16  Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 
Rom 12:17  Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 
Rom 12:18  If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 
Rom 12:19  Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." 
Rom 12:20  To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." 
Rom 12:21  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 
(ESV)\

I'm going to focus on verses 9-21, talking about, what it looks like to be a Christian, what you should strive towards, and what God expects you to strive towards.

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 
Love what is good, what is good? well, whatever God is, is good. Abhor evil, this means to Hate evil! Don't laugh when somebody says a dirty joke....... don't enjoy sin, but hate it as much as God does. Hold fast to what is good, when in trials, when in pain, when in hard spots... hold fast to the truth, hold fast to Christ the solid rock.

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 
"one another" is talking about our family in Christ, our brothers and sisters in the faith. Why is there conflict in the church? why is the American church the way it is today? Because those in the American church, don't love each other, because they don't love Christ as He would have them love Him. the second part "outdo one another in showing honor" literally means, we place each other above ourselves, if somebody has a need, we should take care of it, if it's in our power, this should be the same selflessness that Christ showed.

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 
If we are slothful, or lazy, are we following Christ? Was Christ lazy? Did Christ neglect his work? No, so if we are lazy, if we are slow, if we neglect our work, we are sinning, and not doing Christ's work.
Be Fervent in Spirit... Fervent actually means "to boil" now... what spirit? The Holy Spirit of course. We are to boil with the Holy Spirit, it should overflow, people should be able to see it in us all the time, and only when we are boiling over with the Holy Spirit, will we be able to effectively "serve the Lord".

Rejoice in hope, 
Rejoice... what does that word mean? well I looked back to the original language and this is the definition: (Strong's concordance)
G5463
χαίρω
chairō
khah'ee-ro
A primary verb; to be full of “cheer”, that is, calmly happy or well off; impersonal especially as a salutation (on meeting or parting), be well: - farewell, be glad, God speed, greeting, hail, joy (-fully), rejoice.
I didn't like this definition, so I went to Websters dictionary and I found this To experience joy and gladness in a high degree; to be exhilarated with lively and pleasurable sensations; to exult.
"to experience joy" this is what I was looking for, we are to experience joy, because of, the hope of salvation, and the promise of salvation.

be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

These go together, why? because the former can not happen without the latter. The former is also addressed in James 

Jas 1:2  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 

Jas 1:3  for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 

Jas 1:4  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 

Again, we are to go through trials knowing that it is God's will that we do... (don't let me say that all hard things come from God, because a lot of "trails" are a direct result of our own sin, natural consequences) Why would God want us to go through pain? why would God want us to feel the stress of not knowing how we will make it through a situation? Because it is the testing of our faith, and produces in us, steadfastness, making us be able to overcome whatever stand before us. However, without constant prayer, we will fall during trials, because the trials God puts forth, are enough to overcome us, so that we have to lean on him. Constant prayer, means not that we are always praying, although our spirit should always be being guided by the Holy Spirit, David prayed 7 times a day, others in the Bible had a certain amount of times they prayed every day. However, this amount of time depends on the conviction of the Holy Spirit, there is no set amount of time you should be praying every day. 

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

This relates back to the point on "Outdo one another in showing honor." In fact, I would venture to say, that it is the same point twice,  because repetition is used in the NT to show especially important things. 

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 

We are to bless all, the saints, our enemies, everyone. A common misconception  is that we must trust them, or we must be their best friend. No, this isn't what it's saying. it's saying if somebody pokes out your eye, don't take out their eye, don't curse them, but pray for them, like Christ did about the Roman soldiers that nailed him to the cross "Father, forgive them, for they know now what they do". 

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 

When somebody is joyful, or mournful... don't be indifferent. Christ was not indifferent when Lazarus died, he cried, he was mournful, why? Because others were mournful, they felt the loss, he was feeling the loss with them. When somebody has good news, feel joyful with them, congratulate them, don't just tell them "huh" and continue what you are doing. The main point of this, is to be interested in the lives of others, don't be looking at yourself, or your circumstances so much that you can't be interested in the lives of others.

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 
Be peaceful with each other, don't cause strife within the body of Christ, that both ruins your witness to the community, as does it also distract you from the focus on Christ. (there will still be conflict, Peter and Paul for example, but don't cause strife as far as it goes with you) Don't be haughty.... in other words, don't be prideful, don't ever think of yourself better than any other human, because the only reason you are different, is because God allowed you to be different, and because of His saving grace. "associate with the lowly" I think this relates to James chapter 2:1-4

Jas 2:1  My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 
Jas 2:2  For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 
Jas 2:3  and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet," 
Jas 2:4  have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 
Don't be mistreating the poor, don't be favoring your time with the rich, because they are rich. Be spending your time with people, because of who they are in Christ, not because of who they are according to the world.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 
The first part of this is kind of repeating: "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them." But it is different....the phrase "but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all".... what exactly does this phrase mean? what does it refer to? Let me quote the KJV (I think it translates this better) Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. We are not to steal because somebody stole from us, we are not to cheat, because we were cheated. We are to be fair, we are to be graceful, and we are to be honest. "Provide things honest in the sight of all men", this literally means: When you obtain material things, go about it honestly, don't steal food, don't steal for food... work for it, get is honestly.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 

A repeat of "live in harmony with one another" with the added clause of "as far as it depends on you" which clarifies that it may happen no matter what you do to prevent it. 

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." 

"forgive and you shall be forgiven" if you look at the word avenge it has an interesting meaning (Websters dictionary) Avenged

AVENG'ED, pp. Satisfied by the punishment of the offender; vindicated; punished. 

We want to feel like the wrongs against us have been righted, but God says that he will repay to the offender what is owed, and that we should forgive, so we can be forgiven. How many times have we sinned? They are uncountable by you! each time you sinned, the proper punishment was death. Yet you have been forgiven, and are not going to die. All God asks, is that you forgive those who sin against you. 

To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." 

When you feed your enemy, when you treat him with kindness, he will not understand it, and will probably feel foolish, and will feel stupid for being your enemy.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 

When you are following God, and let his Spirit indwell you, you can overcome evil, you can deny it access to your heart, and you can help those that are not saved, when they do evil against you, do good to them, and if it be in God's will, you will overcome their evil, with God's good. 

Hopefully this was an encouragement to you, either to change to become more like this, or that you have been doing right! Let me encourage those of you like myself that still falter and fail in part of this or even all of this: You can't do this by yourself, and while on earth, no man has done this to the perfection of Christ. However ,don't let Satan catch you in the trap of "oh I'm not good enough for God, so I might as well give up". While this is partly true, it truly is false. You are not good enough for God, and if you trust in yourself, you should give up, However, should you trust in Christ, the perfecter of the saints, the one who died for the whole world's sins, there is hope! DO NOT give up! because unless you give up on Christ, he will never give up on you, and he will complete the work he started.  

Christ reigns in my heart and many others, and can reign in yours also, should you be lacking his reign in your life.

the great trap

As Promised, I will talk about the trap that we can fall into.
This trap has trapped many, and eventually leads away from Christ. Grace abounds we know that, Christ's death paid for all sins, and could pay for unlimited amounts of sin. Also we have died to the law, and are not responsible to it. So does that mean that we can sin whenever? does that mean that there is no sin for those who are saved?

Let me present this passage of Scripture to you as evidence. (ESV)


Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 
Rom 6:2  By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 
Rom 6:3  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 
Rom 6:4  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 
Rom 6:5  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 
Rom 6:6  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 
Rom 6:7  For one who has died has been set free from sin. 
Rom 6:8  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 
Rom 6:9  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 
Rom 6:10  For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 
Rom 6:11  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 
Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 
Rom 6:13  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 
Rom 6:14  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 

We are not to live for ourselves, or sin, BY NO MEANS, How can after we die to sin still live in sin? we can't, we can only live for God. Does this mean we will be perfect? No, but I just said we are not allowed to sin. How does this work? Well let me explain how this works: are we to continue in sin THAT GRACE might abound? "By no means" is what the scriptures say. However when you read this you think that it means we cannot sin, not allowed to sin. what is says it says that grace might abound, let me rephrase that: "Shall we sin so that grace can abound all the more?"We all know the answer is no, there is no reason to sin except for obeying your own mortal, sinful passions. However, this goes back to the previous post that said we must give ourselves over to God, so he can control us. Don't fight his truth, don't fight his control over your life. give him complete control.

those two words, that none will ever obtain this side of death.

Self Control is something we all struggle with, (if you don't then I applaud you, and you can stop reading right now)

The phrase "Self Control" is mentioned 24 times in the Bible (ESV). It is used in the positive sense, and in the negative sense

1Co 9:25  Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 
1Co 9:26  So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 
1Co 9:27  But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. 
And in the negative:

2Ti 3:1  But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 
2Ti 3:2  For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 
2Ti 3:3  heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 
2Ti 3:4  treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 
2Ti 3:5  having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 
2Ti 3:6  For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 

yet it is mentioned more in the positive sense, of what we will get or complete, if we exercise self control.Those who didn't exercise self control, paid dearly: Esau, Samson, Saul, David and even Moses, all failed to have self control and paid for it dearly. Esau gave  up his birthright because he was hungry (Gen. 25:29-34), couldn't he have waited? Couldn't he have made something for himself? Samson, could not resist telling the secret to his strength. He was enslaved by the Philistines, forced to grind grain, had his eyes poked out. Saul, let himself be overcome with anger, trying to kill David. He never had peace, and eventually killed himself. David, he could not control his lust for Bathsheba, committed adultery and then murder to cover his sin. His first child with her, died because of that sin. Moses, when he was told to speak to the rock, he struck it in anger, causing him never to enter the Promise Land. 

Lack of self control is something everybody struggles with , it comes in many forms: in the form of lust, want for wealth, food, power, and almost anything else you can think of. What happens when you try to obtain self control over something you have let yourself do in the past? well, as I grit my teeth and say I will never do that again, I try to pray harder, but then I get tempted, and I do it anyway, always digging the hole deeper, and deeper. So what can we do to gain self control? The answer is nothing, now before you jump to conclusions, let me explain what I mean. We are humans, and except for in rare cases, we can't fight addictions alone. We need help, that is why we have counseling centers. Places like Teen Challenge, because we as humans have figured out we can't do it alone. Why is this? Why can't we do it alone? before I answer that, let me tell you something, the biblical meaning of self control is walking by the spirit , under the lordship of Christ [Priola, 2013] The only way we can control ourselves is though Grace, first we are saved though grace, (not perfection) second we are changed though grace (we are not perfect after we are saved) thirdly we are given not what we deserve though grace, (not taking into account our sins before or after we are saved) God wants us to realize that we CANNOT do it on our own, that is the answer the question. We must admit that we can't do it on our own, before God will intervene on our behalf. I find myself praying quite often: God help ME to overcome this, or that. I should be praying: "God please overcome this FOR me, because I can not do it at all.
 Tit 2:11  For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 
Tit 2:12  training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 
Tit 2:13  waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 
Tit 2:14  who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 

as you can see in Titus 2:11, and 14 God saved us though Grace,
as you can see in verses 12, and 14 God wants to change, train, and purify us.
in verses 13, we wait for our hope, which is Christ, who is also our reward: Eternal life

Your only hope of ever controlling an addiction, or ever controlling yourself, is though God. you can on rare occasions overcome an addiction with the help of people. But you will never be free from it.
Christ, when he died on the cross, freed those who accept his gift, from judgment by the law,
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 
The law, brings to light sin, and therefor leads to death.

Rom 7:4  Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 
Rom 7:5  For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 
Rom 7:6  But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. 
Rom 7:7  What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 
Rom 7:8  But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 

once we accept his gift we are apart from the law, and the sin lies dead. However this can lead to another trap, which would give us licence to sin. This is not the case, and in one of my future posts, I shall cover that subject.