"I resolved"

"For I resolved to know nothing (to be acquainted with nothing, to make a display of the knowledge of nothing, and to be conscious of nothing) among you except Jesus Christ...and Him crucified."  (1 Corinthians 2:2)

Some of the things which I have been sharing recently about Dietrich Bonhoeffer are from my reading of Eric Mataxas' biography of his life.  While spending a year at Union Theological Seminary in New York, he made observations of the students there.  "They become intoxicated with liberal and humanistic phrases, laugh at the fundamentalists, and yet basically are not even up to their level."  What he observed was the plight of the mainline denominations in early twentieth century America.  The man touted as the greatest preacher among them in those days was Harry Emerson Fosdick (I had to listen to one of his sermons in my graduate school homiletics class).  In 1922, while pastor of New York's First Presbyterian Church, he had pushed the session to its limit by expressing his doubts about the virgin birth, the resurrection, the divinity of Christ, and the atonement (cross), among other things.  Fosdick took preemptive action and left the church.  The Rockefeller Foundation, "seeing an opportunity to knock out fundamentalism in New York, funded the construction of a church for Fosdick," the famous Riverside Church.  The battle was escalating in America. 

Yet such is the draw of a religion devoid of the Cross of Jesus Christ.  Now while to you and me this is no religion at all, but a sham of personal gratifying, self realization, anything-goes-and-believed mockery of the, "faith of Jesus," it nevertheless dominates the American and European landscapes.  And do not be fooled!  A large, growing, local church does not necessarily equate with Biblical Christianity and "anointing."  By this standard, our Lord Jesus was a failure!

That which equates with the message of the Bible is centered in our text today.  While it must be clear that Paul does not advocate the repetition of the same words and messages, the foundation of Genesis- to-Revelation Theology is the Cross.  Some people try to separate Jesus' teaching and miracles and contemporary feel-good religion from the Cross.  That is like trying to separate Hydrogen and Oxygen and still have water.  The teachings of Jesus center in His Cross; the miracles center in His Cross; the prophetic utterings center in His Cross; the deliverance from sin, death, and Hell are only in the Cross of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.  That joy and peace to which so many of us give witness is because of Calvary, of which there can be "no more"-------------------------  and certainly "no less."

Father, in Jesus' Name, grant me the discipline in the midst of pop culture religion to, "know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."  Amen.
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* I am preaching the next two weekends in the CCE meetings. 
* No devotional tomorrow
* News, Commentary:     www.apf327.blogspot.com

  When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2