Paul

Silly small man, feet pattering,
Feet scurrying across the world:
Small silly man with message
Small and silly as the little man.
 
How can the macrocosm fit,
Becoming a microcosm in the heart?
How can one humanity contain
The supernatural power?
  
Peer into the little man, little heart.
Withdraw perplexed—afraid:
Fear pouring out to timeless reaches
At the dynamic full contained.
 
Here is the dynamic held in little man—
Power’s explosive to shatter worlds
Of even smaller men, and make
A new cosmos—nuclear wine.
 
Down in the little container surges
Exploding power and vibrant thrust
Aimed at destroying larger men and nations:
At most—destroying the darker world.
 
Silly small man, feet pattering,
Fussing across the fearful foam:
Carrying a message in his beating bosom
To blow us all to Kingdom Come!
  
 
 

From The Spirit of All Things, by Geoffrey Bingham, pp. 44-45

The Practics of Proclamation

KNOWING HOW TO GO AND PROCLAIM
The term ‘HOW’ is often one of the cleverest words a Christian can use. When we ask the question, ‘How?’ we are really saying, ‘I can’t do this work because I do not know how to.’ Learning ‘how’ can take many years, and waste time. It can encourage procrastination.

We saw that the church at Thessalonica immediately began to preach the Gospel which had gripped them. We saw Paul was converted m order to convert others. Churches can be so inverted, so preoccupied with themselves, or with teaching and training that they are constantly putting off the day of proclamation, in which cases they lose their nerve, and rarely, if ever, actually proclaim!

We have seen in our studies that the Gospel is of itself the power of God. It transforms persons who then wish to transform others. It thus has its own inner drive. Christians often suffer from guilt because they do not obey this inner drive, and tell the good news. When they tell it the sense of guilt vanishes!

The last chapter showed us that ‘word and deeds, the power of signs and wonders, and the power of the Holy Spirit’ are all present to every believer to enable him (or her) to preach the Gospel If we forget the ‘how to’ and get busy proclaiming the ‘how to’ will look after itself.

THE GOSPEL IS ALREADY RELEVANT
We have heard it said that we must make the Gospel relevant. It is already so. It is built specially for sinners and this we all are. Some try to make contact by certain formulae. In one sense man knows the truth since (i) he suppresses it in (acts of’) unrighteousness (Rom. 1: 18f.), and (ii) he has exchanged the truth of God for a lie (Rom.1:25). He knows the truth, hates it, tries to rationalise it away, and yet the Gospel immediately confronts him with the truth and so he is faced with the lie he is living. Doubtless, then, the Gospel is relevant. The Gospel does not need to be made relevant. It is relevant, which is what so angers many hearers.

WHAT OF ‘NEEDS’?
Some see the Gospel as fulfilling needs. In a general sense this is true, but man is more interested in his wants than his needs. Even so he generally realises he has needs. His greatest need may be said to be that of his emotional fulfilment. This emotional fulfilment would happen were he to fall in love with God (because of God’s love to him), and love Him with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. The Gospel is able to bring man to God, and–in this sense–fulfil his needs. However his greatest need is not even to be saved, but to become a son of God, sanctified and–ultimately–be glorified. We should be wary of a need-fulfilling kind of Gospel. We may just be giving welfare emotional hand-outs, and not getting to the heart of the matter, namely God acquitting human beings of their sin, sins, and the judgement which lies upon these.

THE FACILITIES WE MAY USE
These are innumerable. The human person is a great audio-video medium of communication. Most communication is a ‘gut’ one, i.e. ‘out of your belly [inner man] shall flow rivers of living water’. The human person is the greatest medium of the Gospel, but he may extend the faculties of the body by using the present media.

Writing, recordings, audio- and video- tapes, songs, music, records, films, art, printing, publishing, and the use of audio-visuals–amongst numerous others– are all aides to powerful proclamation. There is nothing ‘unspiritual’ about the use of media.

In using media and other facilities we must not be caught up in over- preoccupation with these means, for they can be attractive, and divert us from the Word of God itself. Thus constant reading of the Word, instruction in situations structured for such training are all worthwhile. We ought to remember Roland Allen’s warning that by certain kinds of training we can lose the local idiom, the local flavour and became exotic to it. If we all keep sane in our local situation, then we may be far more effective at long distances! If we keep in mind that God the Father is ever about His creation, that the Son is Head of the church and is ever directing and enabling it, and keep in mind that the Spirit of God always precedes us in any endeavour, then we will not think that all depends on us! When we remember the media that God has used, and continually employs such as the creation, the law, theophanies, angelic visitants, the Scriptures, the prophets, and a host of other–often hidden–means then we will not despair.

From Proclaiming Christ's Gospel In Today's World, by Geoffrey C. Bingham, pp. 66-68.

A Meditation On Motivation

The word motivation technically relates to energy or force. Gradually it has come to mean ‘that which impels one to take a certain line of action’.

Paul, of course, does not use such a word. The closest he and others come to this is the word ‘constraint’ (e.g. II Cor. 5:14). We know that the energy or life force– especially for Christian service–is the Holy Spirit. In another sense love is the motivating force. On the practical level, what was it that drove the early Christians to proclaim the Gospel, even to martyrdom?

The answer must be that their own experience of salvation, of being redeemed from the bondage of sin and evil, of having their sins forgiven, of being justified, sanctified and adopted, mast have been so dynamic as to fully liberate them. This was how they knew the love of God in action. In fact their hearts were flooded with love by the Holy Spirit who also came to live in them and empower them.

We can see it also from a slightly different viewpoint. What must have been the effect of seeing Christ risen from the dead? Because he has not, just now– at this point of time in our age–risen, and appeared to us, we are not so deeply affected. Yet today the Spirit has to make that resurrection and triumph over death and sin just as immediate and total to us, as he did to the early believers. The reality of Christ, and his presence by the Holy Spirit was so vivid that they could not but talk about it.

Were we to listen hear, meditate, and realise, then we would be just as motivated or constrained as they were. If we were to know dynamically the new birth by the word of truth (James 1:18; I Pet. 1:22-23), the ‘washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit’ (Titus 3:5-7), then we too would be greatly motivated. As it is we need–time and again–to come back to the overwhelming grace and love of God in order to receive fresh constraint and (thus) driving power.



From Proclaiming Christ's Gospel In Today's World, by Geoffrey C. Bingham, p.25.