Words, Words, Words

ASHLEA's Proclamation for day: The time for niceties is over. Have we, as Christians, been so inundated by postmodern relativism that we no longer consider the value of words? Do we no longer realize that words do mean something--that different words have different connotations and different values attached to them? When will we wake up and discover that language is a gift of God that ought to be cherished?
I fear, that in our desire to be relevant to the world, we have forgotten into what we go. Modern American "Christians" (and yes, I also think that we throw around the term 'Christian' far too lightly, but I shall save that for another post) suppose that they go into a carnival to hand out free balloons to every passer-by, hoping to please and entertain. So, they water down the message of the gospel and turn it into a trite phrase. If you happen to feel fear of speaking the gospel of Jesus, you can turn to such things as the "Four Spiritual Laws," "Faith" or "Grace" for help. Share any of these with someone, and ask them to "make a decision." If you cannot even do that with confidence, show the "Jesus" film.
Where, o Christian, is your confidence in the power of the Word? We have replaced the message with a technique and the Word with a picture. God has not called us to lull people into a stupor so that they will sign a dotted line. He has called us to war, and our weapon is His Word--the Scriptures, which were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, THE WORD MADE FLESH.
No, we are not at carnival handing out that which is airy and pleasing to the eye. We are in a war, and our weapon is the Word of God. Yes, conservative Christianity has won the battle for the inerrancy and infallibity of Scripture, but we now need to fight for the sufficiency of it. What good does an inerrant and infallible text do us if we ignore it? Yes, we have methodologies to help, and we are drowning in those methodologies. We are strangled by our pragmatism.
Remember the first chapter of John:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. . . . The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."

This is indeed the Word of power, and there is nothing that can compete with it. Why would you want to proclaim anything but the whole of that Word?