Telling the Joke, again...

Telling The Joke, again…

Rich Mullins wrote a series columns in Release and it was in one article call “Telling the Joke” also called “Joking Matters” he wrote this about a conversation with a friend:
Then I remembered two things. The first thing I recall is an argument I once had with a friend. After I had whacked away his last scrap of defense, after I had successfully cut off every possible escape route that he could use, after I had backed him into an inescapable corner and hit him with a great inarguable truth, he blew me away by simply saying, "I do not want to be a Christian. I don't want your Jesus Christ." There was no argument left to be had or won. Faith is a matter of the will as much as it is of the intellect. I wanted to believe in Jesus. My friend wanted to believe in himself. In spite of how convincing my reason was, my reason was not compelling.
He went on to talk about how it was not someone who, “explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity to me, but because there were people who were willing to be nuts and bolts.” This really hit me the first time that I wrote this and I didn’t really see how true that this was until just today I was reading in 1 Corinthians (suggested to me by a friend that I reread it when I was feeling dry about my faith, thanks Tiff!) that I really see what Rich was writing about and how it was not just something that man came up with, but rather something that the Holy Spirit spoke through him to say to me, and hopefully others as well. In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 and even through the rest of the chapter Paul says this:
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
The matter is not about me being some awesome preacher by worldly standards, nor is it about me being someone that has all the answers for Christianity, but rather it is knowing Jesus and letting the Holy Spirit be the one that speaks. The world is not going to be won or one by the eloquent words of Jerome Peterson, but rather by a weak man, saved by grace, that lets the Holy Spirit work through him that is going to save the lost of this generation and maybe the next. We are not here to be “All that we can be” like the US Army, but rather we are to be nothing so that there is nothing that draws men to us, besides the power of Christ within us. Like quoted above Paul said, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.”

Before I got into chapter two I was reading chapter one and it confused me and brought so many questions to mind.
Since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe… For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

So when I read this the first time, I was confused. The chapter brought so many questions to my mind and it seemed as though I would have no answers when I was done. Does this mean that God doesn’t want us to preach to the wise, the rich, or the powerful? Does this mean that God can not be understood in science or in logic? Then does that mean that we are to preach only to the people that are dumb enough to accept this, not that the Cross is dumb but that the people that don’t have their world view on the worldly things, the people who want to escape this world’s pain and sorrow? Does that mean that the world leaders or the celebrities are not wanted in the kingdom? These questions racked my mind and I couldn’t believe that the Word of God would be so narrow in His desire for people. At first the whole thing sounded like Paul was saying get the people who are dumb enough to accept it because the smart people of the world will never believe it.

This scared me and really made me question Paul, but just like taking a quote out of context I needed to read on and that is when chapter two brought chapter one into the light of the Holy Spirit’s wisdom. My questions were so far off based that when I read the second chapter I felt like an idiot for even considering those questions and doubting our perfect God! Paul was saying that our faith is not just another fad brought about by the rulers or celebrities of this age like; Pogs, Rubik's cube, disco, horoscopes and slap bracelets. It is something that is real and he has chosen to show the weak, the poor, and the foolish to reveal his power. The power of God is revealed in the little people of our world that we would know that it is nothing of man, but only the power of God through man.

Thus we know that people are not going to be one over by the powers of speech that we possess, but rather the power of God that is displayed through us. The world is not going to be changed by our vast knowledge in apologetics or in our B and T degrees, but it is going to be changed when people humbly come to their knees and give their hearts to God and let the Holy Spirit work through them freely. The study of the Word of God, ancient texts, and devotionals are there to help us grow closer to God, but we can not believe for a second that our vast knowledge of spiritual things will be the thing that wins souls for Christ. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Phil. 4:13)

I leave you with this, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God…Such alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven on Earth.” (John Wesley).