Church bulletin:
Now that the hot weather is coming along we are being warned to watch out for snakes. One November day about 10 years ago our family went for a picnic in the Blue Mountains. In the car park we were greeted with a sign which said something like this: Beware of Lily the Tiger snake. She in now awake and doesn’t like being touched. The warning was accompanied by a picture of a very cute and colourful looking worm with a broad smile, lipstick and long eye lashes. I couldn’t help but feel there was a slight disconnect between the sign and the danger posed by Tiger snakes.
It is important as Christians that the message we convey with our lives is consistent with the message presented in the Bible. The apostle Paul makes the point that the Corinthians are “living epistles” (2 Cor 3:3). God’s Word is not merely written with ink on parchment but etched into their hearts. If there is a disconnect between the written Word and the way we conduct ourselves, something is terribly wrong.
In your personal sphere of home, work and leisure, the most significant advert for the Christian faith is you. You are God’s message to those around as you live faithfully according to His Word. Francis of Assisi supposedly said, preach the Gospel at all times; use words if necessary. It is almost certainly a misquote and without a doubt a falsehood. People need to hear the Gospel or they will not be saved (Rom 10:14). Nevertheless, they also need to see the Gospel at work. It is after all a message which proclaims the power of God to change lives (1Thess 1:5). If in our tastes, priorities, hopes, and principles we are no different to non-Christians, we are sending a mixed and contradictory message. According to Christ in the Sermon on the Mount we are meant to be salt and light in a decaying and dark world.
Let us preach the Word with our mouths and let us preach it with our lives. It ought not to be one or the other, but both working together.
1 Peter 2:12, “having your conduct honourable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.”