Short of Sin

I recently listened to a message by one of my favorite pastors, Perry Noble. He is hardcore to the bone for Christ.

He made a statemement, that I have heard recently somewhere else, that has really got me thinking. He saud,” We will do anything short of sin to bring the lost to Christ” Wow!

I am so fed up with religion and non-Biblical rules that tell us as Believers what/when/ how we are supposed to act and share our faith. I am tired of people allowing tradition to drive their actions instead of passion for real people who will burn for an eternity in a real hell.

It is so ridiculous to hear Christians says things like;’ You can’t play that kind of music’, ‘You can’t show that movie’, ‘You can’t hang out in those places, or ‘You can’t talk to those kind of people’ when it comes to doing church and taking part in evangelism.

I think of Jesus and the people that he associated with, particularly ones that he ate with. Eating with someone in the ancient Near East was a way of showing acceptance of someone. He hung out with the sinner and the cultural outcast. Religous/ Traditional people were so upset by it that they started calling JESUS a drunk!? They couldn’t handle Jesus breaking their made-up rules. I think it was because they realized that it really wasn’t their good deeds that could save them, but Jesus. And that made them uncomfortable because of their arrogance. They wanted to believe that they could take care of themselves…and that they didn’t need God to do so instead.

Our Church today is the same. We have come to rely on our traditions, our music, our charisma, our teaching style, our programs, and our contemporary made-up rules; and we are pathetic. It’s time to get back to Jesus! There are some of us who are starting to wake up to our incessive need for God, and a movement is beginning. I hope for the day when our nation and our generation of Christianity experiences a revival in ferver and passion for Christ, and in particular, evangelism.

Like Jesus, we need to start influencing the sinners and the outcasts with our friendship and convicition. We need to do so with wreckless abandon without the worry of what religous Christians will think of us. Because afterall, we must see embrace becoming all things to all men so that some may be saved.

And this means truly doing anything short of sin to save the lost! I’m with you Perry.