As incredible as it may seem, people are blowing gaskets over this ad by Mike Huckabee. You see, it is offensive that he might actually [gasp] wish people a merry Christmas! Don’t you know that it is WRONG to do this? How can someone be so crass as to not be politically correct and say “Happy Holidays”? He even [and this is my favorite part] has a bookshelf in the background that, if you are crazy, may be a subliminal message trying to control your mind because it resembles a [gasp again], CROSS! how dare a Christian have an ad where he mentions Christ and may or may not have intentionally put the image of a cross in it! Of course I suppose the other candidates will simply scream at how terrible the other candidate is and the “experts” will find that just fine. I shake my head in amazement at the stupidity of the american politic.

Last night, while the kids were at youth group Kathy and I took our idiot canine to the island park. Because it is winter, no one was there, which is how I like it. We let the dog run free (he won’t leave the island because he knows that in order to cross the bridge he has to be on the leash and his free time is over… he stays away from the bridge.) It was beautiful there. Kath and I both had on snow pants and boots etc. so we were fine. As we sat on the swings looking at the unbroken (except for our footprints) snow and the bare branches of the oak trees I commented that this reminded me of home and being young. Kathy asked “Winter reminds you of home?” To which I replied “To me, winter IS home.” I guess it’s a Yooper thing. When most of the time is winter you just have more memories of that time than any other.

Yesterday we had quite a bit of snow (for this far south in Michigan) and today it is really cold. I have two little electric heaters going in the office to try and keep it warm. We turned the furnaces way down to save money because we didn’t want to heat a bunch of rooms with the furnace when we really only need the church office warm. The problem is, on REALLY cold days, the little electric heaters have a hard time keeping up to make the place nice. Perhaps what we need to do is purchase one of the nice gas propane heaters you can now get, even online. That would have the place toasty warm for sure!

Postmodern Resistance

We’ve looked at the Church and how she has been unfairly maligned by Christians. We’ve looked at the real problem, namely evangelism. And, we’ve looked at some of the reasoning used by contemporary brothers and sisters to justify their man-made evangelism. We’ve seen that several main pillars of contemporary Church thinking have little substance. In fact, some clearly twist the Bible’s words to make them say the opposite of what God intended.
I’m guessing that you’ve become impatient with me. So, I’m going to give you a really big clue about New Testament evangelism. I’ve not answered your biggest question. That question is only complicated because we are still thinking like the world.
So, how do we evangelize people who are postmodern? How do we evangelize people who are resistant to our message? Well, the second question is much better than the first. To talk about postmodern people as its own unique group is to believe that we live in a singular era that has its own particular resistance. In truth, the natural man has always been resistant to the message of the Gospel. They were resistant in Jesus lifetime. They are resistant today.
By speaking as if this generation is more resistant than any other generation, it gives us license to be “creative”. It justifies us using our brilliance to come up with unique ways to win the lost. I’ve read the books about postmodernism, and I’m just not buying it.
Let’s get to the point. So, how do we preach the Gospel to people [who] are resistant to our message? It’s not all that difficult. But, it’s extremely costly.
This true story is recounted by Donald Joy: “When Mother Theresa spoke at Harvard in the early 1980’s the crowd of students went breathless as this shriveled up Christian giant said. ‘I am told that some of you are having premarital sex. And I hear that some of you are even getting abortions. I must tell you that this is wrong.’” Can you think of a more “resistant” audience than Harvard? Our finely honed contemporary evangelistic skills would not get us in the door there. Yet, this resistant crowd listened politely. The truth of her words, backed up by her Christ-like life, demanded their attention. Not everyone was “converted” by her words, but they were compelled to listen to her message. Her life gave them no choice but to listen.
Do you remember the Amish girls that were killed execution-style? ABC news reported that one girl said, “Shoot me first.” And her sister said, “Shoot me second.” We complain that the media slants it’s coverage of Christianity. But, even the “resistant” media dared not to have distorted this story. It was reported faithfully and its message was heard loud and clear by our resistant world.
What about Jesus? How did He overcome people’s resistance? “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). Quite simply, He laid down His life. And in doing so, He claimed that He would draw humankind to Him.
Do you think that post-modern people are more resistant than the graduation class at Harvard? Do you think that post moderns are more resistant than the American media? Do you think that postmoderns are more resistant than the people of Jesus’ day? Do you think that a postmodern person wouldn’t listen to Mother Theresa, those Amish girls or a crucified Jesus?
Our generation is not listening to our message because they do not see us laying down our lives. If the world saw individual Christians living sacrificial lives, then they would hear the message. We have tried to use our smarts instead of sacrifice. We have tried to use men’s methods, rather than holiness. E.M. Bounds put it better than I ever could: “People are God’s method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better people.”
Death to self is not just an evangelistic technique. It is mandatory for every believer (Mark 8:34-37; Like 9:23; 14:27). This is not the mark of a “super-Christian.” A Christian who is dying to himself is a redundancy, according to Jesus.
The world is resistant to our message because our message has not killed us. The world is resistant to our message because we are resistant to fully obeying it. Would you buy a product from a salesman who doesn’t own it himself? I wouldn’t. Until the world sees us dying, they have every right to ignore our message.

Well, if things go according to plan the church will be getting our new 15 passenger bus with wheelchair lift today. This would be just in time for our Christmas caroling tonight! Several of us on the board went and checked it out and it is in good shape. It just needed a couple things fixed which is being done today. I am really excited to have it to use, we have at least two people from the church who have not been able to attend for quite some time because we lost the ability to do handicap pick-up when a member of our church with a van moved to a nursing home. This will be good on all fronts.

I went back to the Secretary of State’s offic today because I had to get new plates for my cars. I asked about my moped and the lady I talked to today said there was no problem with me getting it as a moped. She looked it up and the book says that things which EXCEED 50 cc’s cannot be considered as mopeds. Well, it IS 50 cc’s which does not exceed it, so she wrote me out a paper saying to register it as a moped and then sent me down the line to the lady who does the paperwork (apparently lower on the authority list) because it was the same Nazi who wouldn’t give it to me last time. She seemed put out that she had to do it, but I got my registration and my sticker, so I am all set. And being that it is really nice out today (for mid December) I think I will take it for a ride.