Being Creative

They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Mark 2:4 NLT Faith is full of inventions. This house was full and a crowd blocked the door, but faith found a way of getting to the Lord and placing a paralyzed man before Him. If we cannot get sinners to Jesus by ordinary methods, we must use extraordinary ones. It seems, according to Luke 5:19, that tiles had to be removed from the roof, which would make dust and cause a measure of danger to those below. But where the case is urgent we must not mind running some risks and offending some sensibilities. Jesus was there to heal, so whatever might happen, faith risked everything so that her poor, paralyzed charge might have his sins forgiven. If only we had more daring faith among us! Dear reader, can’t we seek it this morning for ourselves and for those around us? Won’t we try today to perform some gallant act for the love of souls and the glory of the Lord? People of the world are constantly inventing; genius serves all the desires of the human race. So can’t faith invent too, using new means to reach the outcasts who lie dying around us? It was the presence of Jesus that excited the victorious courage in the four friends who carried the paralyzed man; isn’t the Lord among us now? Have we seen His face for ourselves this morning? Have we felt His healing power in our own souls? If we have, then let us—through the door, the window, or the roof, breaking through all impediments—work to bring poor souls to Jesus. Every effort is good and proper when faith and love are truly set on winning souls. If a hunger for bread can break through stone walls, surely a hunger for souls is not to be stopped in its pursuits. Oh, Lord, make us quick to suggest methods of reaching your poor, sin-sick creatures, and bold to carry them out at all perils. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening 

This post comes at a point where God has blessed it to the tune of over 25,000 views.  He still speaks, I still write, that's the way it works.  I still remember how much I wanted to write a book, God said that I was thinking too small. 

Being creative in reaching people, as Spurgeon suggests, should be in a balanced way.  Too many megachurches are using too many worldly ideas and have blurred the lines between what is the Gospel message and what is entertainment.  They have truly integrated idolatry into a worship service meant to bring praise, honor and glory to Jesus Christ alone.  If anything done detracts from that alone, it's not acceptable in the eyes of God. If what is used only reminds you of an idol more so than Jesus then it shouldn't be in that Church.  Reimagining something that's an idol to attract people to Christ is like putting whipped cream on a pile of manure with a cherry on top. 

Being creative in reaching people for Christ should only be done in such a way that actually reaches people, not misleads them into believing idolatry is ok as long as you include an element of Biblical worship.  Christ is the center, Christ is the head of the Church, Christ alone should be the single objective, nothing was needed in Jesus's day to attract people to Himself but Himself. 

Many years ago, at the Church that I grew up in, a Bible verse was on a plaque above the entrance to the Nursery.  It read that we may not all sleep but we would all be changed.  For years it was a lighthearted joke with a Biblical connection.  Yet a visiting Godly man pointed out how wrong it was to use it so far out of context. It was soon removed.  If people don't say something about abuse of methods within the Church, who is going to?  Some may say that what I write about such things is my harping on their methods without good cause.  May I remind such people that I only write what God leads me to write.  I am not that good of a writer else I would have had over 2 dozen books published by now.  I have that many started and unfinished. 

At work recently I was commended for bringing up a theft from the building.  That all too often people don't get involved, to see something and say nothing.  I wasn't raised that way.  I have left companies due to safety issues.  If they wouldn't resolve them I went to the authority that would make them resolve them.

Being creative in reaching people needs wisdom and care.  In the last 20 years I have seen God get very creative in showing me how to reach people without tarnishing my integrity or my life among others. 

To reach someone whom I couldn't physically meet with or contact, He made a way.  In my dreams and theirs He made a bridge and made them stand on it and listen.  It took a very long time but a connection was restored and fellowship resumed.  I still lift others up in prayer that I cannot contact.  God will find a way when there is no way for me.  He is the God of the impossible. 

I was and am saddened to write that after the Rapture there will be a great many Churches full of people.  They will be full of those who only then realizing that the people who witnessed to them were right.  They will be full of those who thought they were saved but in reality were deceived by those who introduced so much idolatry in the Church that the Gospel message was lost on them.  People who will be those who claimed to have done great and mighty things for God why weren't they let into Heaven?  It's those whom Jesus speaks saying depart from Me for I never knew you.  They didn't have the seal of the Holy Spirit.  Their names were in the membership list but not in the Book of Life.  

Be careful of what measures and methods you live by and accept as valid in your walk with Jesus.  If it's anything more than the Word of God, then you have great cause to be alarmed.   Prior to the Rapture you have time to correct it. 

Nothing is impossible to God, but it must be in accordance with God's Will.  He can use our creativity and ingenuity but doesn't need it. We don't need what's in this world to reach people for Christ, we need the light of Christ to spread the truth, and nothing more.  

Be careful and be alert.  There's a huge reason why Satan is like a prowling lion seeking someone to devour. Don't let it be you.