Forside Articles The Foolishness of the Cross
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Skrevet af Jørn Nielsen   
Fredag, 07. september 2012 02:11





Permit me to read with you this key word from 1 Cor. 2:1-5:

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.  For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.  And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

At a prayer meeting in Copenhagen many years ago our visiting guest speaker from Norway started  that Saturday night with these very words.  And I remember his comment, “I do covet to be a preacher like that!”  I do too by God´s grace.

The words of the apostle contrast with the world´s “excellence of speech” and “persuasive words”, so full of emotional stories, showy appearances and charm met with the enthusiastic and naive applause of the thousands.

Let me honest with you.  As I watched those spell-binding speeches from the electrified U.S. I was almost entrapped myself.  My, I wish could speak like that!  I soon saw the folly of all that.  Are those “big shots” really my role models?

Or have I made up my mind once and for all, that I want to be like the fearful and trembling apostle, who´d said, “Imitate me as I also imitate Christ!”  1Cor. 11:1.

A Bible school or university or seminar or a course in speech-making can´t teach you that!  Oh yes, there is one though.  “The University of Mary” (Luke10:42), i.e. our frequent times at the feet of Jesus.  The need of the hour is not sophisticated conference speakers, but simple men and women “gossiping the gospel” at eye level in the power of God. I´m sure that even the ageing and celebrated evangelist and powerful speaker, Billy Graham, would say “Amen” to that!

Sept. 7, 2012 – jn

 
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