A Place To Begin...Let's Be HONEST!

So Carson-Newman had the most EPIC booksale of all time recently! McKay's got nothin' on this sale. All(well most anyway) books were one dollars, yeah! ONE DOLLAR! Good times I know. So I went with a friend and we racked up on theology books, some I was more excited about than others but hey, what can I say when they were all $1?!? Story told, I ended up with a book called, "Your Other Vocation" by Elton Trueblood. Never heard of him? For those of you who do not know, he "was a noted 20th century American Quaker author and theologian, former chaplain both to Harvard and Stanford universities."(and yes, I did wikipedia this so I could be as precise as possible!). The first chapel is full of interesting insights to the time it was written. Russia communism was a threat to world security and the news was full of it. And this is how is goes...

Truth is nearly always complex

Well, bummer for all you who thought it was oh so easy! ;) Trueblood goes on to state that unfortunately we are losing so many people due to our(Christians) lack of honesty! So let's look at the diagnoses: The PROBLEM: People are (1) unwilling to come to Christ, and (2) Christians are walking away from Christ, due to lack of strategy, and honesty. LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE A PROBLEM. The CAUSE: Several causes but mainly, Lack of honesty in our walk with Christ and how we COMMUNICATE this walk with others(our strategy). YIKES! The SOLUTION:(favorite part!) Becoming Honest and transparent to ourselves and others. ~Reasons for this lack of honesty are many but let's address 2 main ones: 1) The fear of losing position of academic "objectivity". People will think we are being closed minded(oh no!) or worse they might think we are dumb(Shudder, thats worse!) Jokes aside, self-image in today's world seems to be affected by what others think about us. So....this means that our actions at times can be dictated by others words/actions. 2)The fear of daily following the status quo or social norm. We all want to fit in no matter what it takes. *We need to understand that honesty is both commanded and is necessary in communication: 2 Corinthians 4:2 Matthew 5:33-37 Ephesians 4:25 Psalm 101:7 STRATEGIES TO OUR PROBLEM: 1) As my last post talked about let's be real. Honesty is truly the best policy. Honesty allows us to see where we are in our walk with God and how we are communicating this walk to others. 2) True, honest, unadulterated Gospel needs to be given to others, communicated to others. For what it really is. Each person on this mission must use the gifts God has given them in the way He has commanded. "All can feel that the enterprise is a single one, even though individuals give themselves to lonely and widely separated assignments. " (Trueblood) 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 Ephesians 2:10 3)The Gospel must be advanced remaining simple but allowing one to go deep so that a new convert can actually grow and not remain a spiritual baby. (1 Peter 2:2). To sum up, this entire chapter, or post, let's just say it's time to be honest in our walk. By being honest with ourselves and God, we enable others to see the Gospel at its core at work in our lives. That Gospel that consist of sin and a mediator who stepped in to talk our sin. Enabling us, to come before the Father...whole. For those who read this and felt a little hopeless, let the words of Trueblood encourage you to think about your life and give you a little hope. "There is always hope when men are roused out of their dogmatic slumbers." In Christ, movement occurs. In Him, our hope fills us with a passion to communicate to others the truth of the Gospel.