Consider the following:

 

  • Many years ago, a young lab tech, in a major corporation, spent about 20% of his shift witnessing for Jesus. Witnessing was far more important than doing the work he was paid to do.  Unfortunately, his fellow lab techs had to cover for him and do the work he was neglecting.  What was the influence of his Christian witness on his fellow lab techs?  Can you guess?

 

  • A retired 8th grade teacher, who works part-time in a local church, is eager to tell everyone that, sometimes, when he reads the Bible, he is moved by the Holy Spirit just as if he was present at the first Christian Pentecost. Is this sound theology?  More than 100 years ago, neo-orthodox Christians (e.g. Bultmann and Ogden) taught that the Bible is not God’s revelation to man; it is not infallible and inerrant.  Rather, God reveals Himself through the Bible by means of a personal encounter with the reader. When God breaks through the written record in a personal way to speak to the reader, then the Bible at that moment becomes the Word of God to him. (Geisler and Nix, p 19-21)

 

  • Some preachers say they never preach a sermon unless the contents are given to them by the inspiration of God.

 

Are these admirable examples of super-spiritual Christians?  Consider the words of Oswald Chambers:

 

“Some of us always want to be illuminated saints with golden haloes and the flush of inspiration, and to have the saints of God dealing with us all the time.  A gilt-edged saint is no good, he is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and altogether unlike God.  We are here as men and women, not as half-fledged angels, to do the work of the world, and to do it with an infinitely greater power to stand the turmoil because we have been born from above.

If we try to reintroduce the rare moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want.  We are making a fetish of the moments when God did come and speak and insisting that He must do it again; whereas what God wants us to do is to ‘walk by faith.’  How many of us have laid ourselves by, as it were, and said – ‘I cannot do any more until God appears to me.’  He never will, and without any inspiration, without any sudden touch of God, we will have to get up.  Then comes the surprise – ‘Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!’  Never live for the rare moments, they are surprises.  God will give us touches of inspiration when He sees we are not in danger of being led away by them.  We must never make our moments of inspiration our standard: our standard is our duty.”  (Chambers, May 1st)

 

(See also Sections 7.7, 7.9, 7.10, 7.13 and 10.15 of Theology Corner)