Scripture

A few years ago I was listening to a Hillsong United Youth rock album a few weeks after it came out. My sister bought it and I was terribly fascinated by Christian hard rock, especially since I'd associated Christian music with gentle riffs and flowing bass lines, partnered with sweet, feminine vocals regarding the love of Jesus and grace and mercy and everything else un-gritty (as opposed to sin, death and wrath I mean). It was a breakthrough for the Christian music scene. The first track had a mean continuous pattern by an electric gat, and the drums were so loud in this recording I couldn't believe that music about God could be so thrashy! I mention the record because the singer interluded with this lyric:

"The message of the cross... is foolishness to those who are perishing.. but to us who are being saved.. it is the power of God!"

I was about 12 or 13 and didn't understand it. In my head I inserted a colon in between 'message of the cross' and 'is foolishness...' so it basically never made sense to me. It does now.

I always say this, but I love how God draws out things from your memory, however insignificant they may seem. In this instance, I didn't even UNDERSTAND the lyric at the time! A few years later I came across the verse in a group Bible study and thought to myself "ah, yes I've heard that verse in a song before" but I still didn't really get it. You must be thinking I am really dense to not grasp a pretty self explanatory verse!

I draw attention to this memory revisit, because God answered a prayer about recognising opportunities to witness in my days on earth. Through the internet I have found tenfold chances to share the love of Christ.
One person I have been sharing the gospel with has been particularly hard to deal with, in that he is abrasive in his speech and quick to insult and mock most of what I say in response to his questions. I am not surprised by it, more just tired. For three nights I had prayed and prayed for this friend to be saved, and I asked God to give me increased discernment and sensitivity to his situation and what is really going on inside his heart.

1 Corinthians 1:18 then hit me. This happened in one of my desperately heated prayers to God. I am certain of a few things:

One - that my friend believes a relationship with God is only as good as any religion that causes wars and is an intellectual dead end. And

two - that despite knowing the gospel which he has heard from his spiritual background and me trying to tell him, he is duly convinced that he is not a sinner.

I emphasise this --

He does not believe he is a sinner.

I continue to pray for him in his search for meaning, in understanding God. Overall I am thankful that God has revealed Himself to me through his grace in my life when I hit rock bottom. I am aware of my sin. I am a sinner, I need God or I would probably not survive.

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who don't belong to God. Does the intellect do any human justice, let alone God, who has invented humanity's intelligence? This is my third year being a Christian, and more and more I realise how much my faith in Him was a gift. No one could have convinced me to believe had it been through pithy human conversation, no matter how clever their arguments were.

Thanks be to Christ Jesus, who died for my sins. And because of Him I am now dead to sin, with the Holy Spirit, who is now ablaze in my soul..