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@cassandraia

I agree with most of what you said! 🙂 I do not think that you can help people with their problems without directly bringing God into it, though. I see what you mean, but I don’t agree there.

You can give people a lot of really good answers to problems that seem super sound, and even are at a certain level, but unless they have Christ as their Saviour they are going to end up in the same place they would have. “Cleansing the outside of the cup”, as Jesus warned against in the Gospels, is not going to do anything but just that, ultimately. They cannot stand before God in judgement any more when outwardly appearing clean than they can when outwardly dirty! Even those who did “many righteous works in (His) name” will be told by the Lord that they did not know Him one Day (Matt. 7:22). There are a lot of examples throughout Scripture that prove that theme repeatedly.

Why didn’t Paul, or Peter, or John, use easier methods of preaching than they did, so that their highly-pagan audience would not (naturally and typically!) be instantly be turned off? Paul said he not do so because he trusted to the power of God to turn their hearts to repentance, regardless of the offence of his message. “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:2-5)

I also want to share this passage. I know it is long, but please read through it…so rich! 🙂  “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.  For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:18-31)

The Bible teaches that the Gospel message simply is “a stumbling block, and a rock of offense”(vs. 23) to everyone who needs that very message! Christ knew that firsthand, and He gave us a clear picture of how to graciously share the truth with others. He did not ever mince words with anyone. The hypocrites, He exposed. To the needy people truly hungering for truth, He “spoke the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15, etc…) at all times. Always the focus, the central and elemental theme, was the inadequate sinner’s need for Christ alone. Without the only Source of life and truth, there simply was no life or truth or healing at any level, and telling them to find life-giving water apart from the living spring Himself would be false to what He taught was true.

Compromise in the smallest area never reaps true fruit…never has, never will. If we desire to bless others by drawing them to the truth, we must share it in love as we’ve been commanded, and step back in prayer, asking God to bless our feeble efforts that are nothing apart from Him. We are only tools for His use, and He is the only one who can change the hearts of the hearers. He created them, He can certainly change them!  “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)