Thursday, November 8, 2012

You Stink!


You Stink! It Is Unavoidable

For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance of life to life” [2 Corinthians 2:15-16]
Unless you are willing to become the aroma of death to those who are perishing, you will never be the aroma of life to those who are being saved.[1]
The point of Paul’s words to the church at Corinth were that you couldn’t have it both ways. If you are going to be used by God as a witness to the gospel, you are going to stink to those who don’t get it no matter what. Jesus Christ is the aroma of death to those who are perishing.
Let us not loose sight of a critical point; unless you are willing to become the aroma of death to those who are perishing, you will not become the aroma of life to those who are being saved. How much of our programmed evangelism in horizontal churches is an attempt to avoid what cannot be avoided. Vertical oriented churches move past the methods we intend to make evangelism easier for people that have their heals dug in, resisting what God desires from us – GO! Let us not get caught up in “stealth evangelism” sneaking up on an unsuspecting soul that we are about to pounce on. Following Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 he states; “For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word…”[emphasis added]. I want to become BOLD in my witness. I do not want to become a peddler of the gospel like some carnival barker!


[1] James McDonald, Vertical Church [David C. Cook, 2012 electronic ed.]

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