The title for this installment of my
Ramblin’s is borrowed from a popular series of television commercials in which
a man sits down with a group of kindergarten children to conduct conversations
in the style of the late Art Linkletter. Even if you are not old enough to
remember Mr. Linkletter, I am sure you are familiar with these commercials that
try to convince us that buying insurance doesn’t have to be a royal pain. The
company for whom the ads are produced knows something about human behavior.
When we are trying to achieve a goal (i.e. purchase insurance), and if we are
not confident in the process (i.e. choosing the best deal for our money), we
often fail to pull the trigger. In most cases, the same can be said about our
sharing of the Gospel. Sometimes we are intimidated, because we are not confident
in our knowledge of all that the Bible entails. The Gospel, however is very
simple. Here is an over-simplified explanation of the history of God’s
relationship with man.
1. God created man (and a bunch of other stuff)
2. Man was deceived by Satan and sinned against God
3. Man continued to be deceived by Satan (and his cronies) and continued to
sin against God
4. God chose a righteous man (Abraham) by whom to build a nation of people
to call His own
5. God gives His people a basic set of rules to live by (Ten Commandments)
6. Man takes ten simple rules and over analyzes them in an effort to take
charge over God’s business (busy bodies)
7. Man cannot live up to the expectation and begins to offer sacrifices as a
covering for sin
8. Sacrifice is overcomplicated by man and is insufficient, and men begin to
judge themselves and each other
9. Jesus comes to earth to live a sinless life and further simplifies the
basic set of rules (Love God, Love one another)
10. Jesus is rejected by man and offers himself as a perfect sacrifice in
order to pay for our sin once and for all
11. Most men reject the idea of sin and salvation, while those who don’t
continue to complicate the whole notion
12. The “church” splits several times and continues to split over the details
of the basic rules
13. Many do not come to Christ because the “church” can’t seem to get it
together.
So, here we are… Dazed… Bewildered… Trapped
in a world where righteousness and judgment collide…. We find ourselves
floundering in The
Conviction Zone. That’s an interesting word, CONVICTION. It has 2
meanings. The first meaning is, “to be judged as guilty”. The second meaning
is, “a strong set of beliefs”. It is interesting that within the church we let
one meaning morph into the other. We tend to let our beliefs judge us as
guilty. Why is that? It is because we cannot live up to our own set of rules,
and we are labeled hypocrites.
One Sunday school teacher once told
me that I had a problem “majoring in the
minors and minoring in the majors”, meaning that I placed too much importance
on the details and not enough on the big picture. As Christians, it is our job
to share the Gospel with people, and it is the Holy Spirit’s job to change
hearts. So many times we want to do His job. We want to control the details. We
want to over-complicate the process. We are called to be witnesses, but we want
to “fix” people. We would be much better at OUR job if we would leave the
details to the one who KNOWS the details. As for me, I will try to witness more
and judge less, thereby displaying God’s mercy and grace to those around me.
Please join me. It’s not complicated.
