WORD Power

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ...."
"For it is the POWER of God to salvation for everyone who believes..."

"For I determined not to know anything among you...."
"Except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

Is the message of the Gospel truly the power that Paul claimed it to be? Or have we offered something more palatable to those who are dying in their sin? Do we truly move under the unction and power of God's Holy Spirit once salvation has been laid hold of and accepted? Or do we store away religious platitudes in our memories and pull them out like Chocolate Cordials to feast on and make us feel better?

I am at a point in my life where some things are becoming clearer. I have walked on the side of darkness and have felt the hopelessness that people carry whose lives are trapped by sin. I have heard the cry of "That which I want to do, I cannot....and that which I don't want to do...that is the very thing I do. O Wretched man that I am...who will save me from this body of death?" And I....who claims to be a minister of the Word of God....Do I give an answer to that cry? Do I proclaim that salvation if found only in Jesus? Or do I water down the gospel so as to make it easy on the soul?

It truly is fine line that one walks when sharing the message of salvation. I guess the one question that must be asked is "Do I want to be popular and accepted?"....or do I want to be obedient and tell the complete truth of who Jesus truly is and what sin can truly do to a soul that rejects God.

There are so many opinions and theories of what addiction is and isn't, that it can be truly confusing. I guess the main goal of all recovery is to aid the individual in breaking free from the craving / using cycle and the destruction that follows. The longer the person stays in addiction, the greater the destruction until unless it is arrested, that person will either die, be in jail, or locked away in an institution. What we offer is life! Simple as that. Not life that is perfect, at least not on this side of heaven, but life that is worth the living. Life that can be faced by the individual without the aid of a pill or a mood-altering substance. Life found only in Jesus. I guess you could say that there are a lot of programs out there who offer recovery.....What I want to offer is RECOVERY PLUS! It begins with the solid truth that we are powerless to enact change in our own lives. Why are we powerless? Because our choices and decisions have been made by giving into our old nature that wants to be independent from God. The nature that wants to be like God (even though we don't ever say that). We want to be captains of our own ship. We want to be in control. We want to stand above anything or anyone that would tell us what to do. Addiction is a byproduct of a person being totally independent from having anything to do with God. 

So is there POWER in the Gospel message? Sure there is.
Is it the POWER for salvation? Yes it is....
The message proclaims that we are all sinners before God....
And unless our minds and heart and lives are turned over to Him through confession and asking for forgiveness of our sins....then we have sealed our own fate and destiny. 

We will continue on this dark path of destruction that will ultimately end up in hell.

It doesn't have to be that way...
It doesn't have to end this way...

There is a Power greater than ourselves who can do more than restore us to sanity....
And that Power has a name....
Jesus....

God on you...

mb