Good advice is where you find it and to discover whether the advice is good, fact check it from the repository of scriptural wisdom. Change has been on my mind for the last few weeks, mostly along the lines of adjusting the packaging of ministry in order become more effective. Successful endeavors always do this. Or perish!
While browsing through quotes from Les Misérables, the magnificent creation of Victor Hugo, I came across this gem:
“Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.” Victor Hugo.
Hugo encapsulates the solution to the problem many Christian assemblies and charities are facing; How can we reach the masses who are turned off toward the truth of God?
In many cases the masses are not turned off to God’s truth, but are less than in love with the package. Wheaties are Wheaties no matter the style of the box. I point this out to hopefully cause a pause in adjustments. The doctrinal statement I and our church uses is old, but not moldy. Truth never changes, thus our statement on God’s Word reads the same as one would from the First, or Twelfth, Century. No truth is new.
So, what to do? Clean up the package, get rid of untrue traditions, put a little color in the leaves and most of all claim the power of God by holding to the principles of truth.
Some time ago a man asked me, “Larry, with what you’ve been through, how have you managed to do so well?” My answer is simple, I have stuck with the verifiable truth of God’s Word and followed the leading thereof in “box” trappings.
To do this you or I, must avoid getting married to current trends. If current trends pass biblical muster, use them, and when they are no longer the rage, throw them overboard, but never ever jettison God’s Word. When I seriously delved into this subject I was amazed at the latitude of the cultural differences in the Bible as told in the early church. And many things some think they hold dear, were and are merely a part of a local culture, and were adhered to for the sake of reaching that culture.
Proverbs 23:23 “Buy the truth, and do not sell it, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.”
Copyright © 2017 Larry Lilly
IT help that works. Oral Deckard
While browsing through quotes from Les Misérables, the magnificent creation of Victor Hugo, I came across this gem:
“Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.” Victor Hugo.
Hugo encapsulates the solution to the problem many Christian assemblies and charities are facing; How can we reach the masses who are turned off toward the truth of God?
In many cases the masses are not turned off to God’s truth, but are less than in love with the package. Wheaties are Wheaties no matter the style of the box. I point this out to hopefully cause a pause in adjustments. The doctrinal statement I and our church uses is old, but not moldy. Truth never changes, thus our statement on God’s Word reads the same as one would from the First, or Twelfth, Century. No truth is new.
So, what to do? Clean up the package, get rid of untrue traditions, put a little color in the leaves and most of all claim the power of God by holding to the principles of truth.
Some time ago a man asked me, “Larry, with what you’ve been through, how have you managed to do so well?” My answer is simple, I have stuck with the verifiable truth of God’s Word and followed the leading thereof in “box” trappings.
To do this you or I, must avoid getting married to current trends. If current trends pass biblical muster, use them, and when they are no longer the rage, throw them overboard, but never ever jettison God’s Word. When I seriously delved into this subject I was amazed at the latitude of the cultural differences in the Bible as told in the early church. And many things some think they hold dear, were and are merely a part of a local culture, and were adhered to for the sake of reaching that culture.
Proverbs 23:23 “Buy the truth, and do not sell it, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.”
Copyright © 2017 Larry Lilly
IT help that works. Oral Deckard
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