THE MIRACLE OF BELIEF

"My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words." 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

   Paul was not a scholar and an orator of the first rank; he is not speaking out of abject humility; buy saying that he would veil the power of God if, when he preached the gospel, he impressed people with his "excellency of speech." Belief in Jesus is a miracle produced only in the efficacy of Redemption, not by impressive wooing and winning, but by the sheer unaided power of God. The creative power of the Redemption comes through the preaching of the Gospel, but never because of the personality of the preacher. The real fasting of the preacher is not from food, but rather from eloquence, from impressiveness and exquisite diction, from everything that might hinder the gospel of God being presented. The preacher is there as the representative of God--"as though God did beseech you by us." If it is only because of my preaching that people desire to be better, they will never get anywhere near Jesus Christ. Anything that flatters me in my preaching of the Gospel will end in the making me a traitor to Jesus; I prevent the creative power of His Redemption from doing its work.

   "I, if I be lifted up; will draw all men unto Me."