The Message of the Cross by Chuck Smith

The Message of the Cross 

For 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. —1 Corinthians 1:18 

To the Jew, the notion of their Messiah being arrested, beaten, and crucified on a cross was utterly unthinkable. They expected their Messiah, the descendant of David, to rule over the world in righteousness and peace. 

To the Greek, the idea that one man could die for the sins of all men was pure foolishness. None of the many gods the Greeks worshiped would ever have done something that loving. Their gods were selfish. So the idea of a God who was willing to give Himself to save His people was ridiculous. 

"The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him" (1 Corinthians 2:14). Though the world considers the cross to be foolishness, we who are saved see it as the beautiful instrument of our salvation. 

We are not ashamed of the cross. It is the power of God unto salvation. Through the cross, God set us free from the bondage of sin. Through the cross, He conquered death and the grave. Through the cross, He adopted us as His own. 

Through the cross, He made an end of the war that existed between us. Through the cross, He secured our eternal future. Let the world think what it wants. We know the truth. And oh, how we love that old rugged cross.

Fun Argument for God

Fun Argument for God

This is a fun argument that I like to give to people that I witness to and to young believers that want to enjoy witnessing to others on the proof for God.

Man craves what is real.

Man does not crave what is not real.

Man craves food or water, 

he may not find it, 

he may not believe it, 

he may argue against it, but it still exist.

Man craves God, because God exists.

What other God is there?

Christianity came into existence in a polytheistic world, where belief
in the existence of many gods was commonplace. Part of the task of early
Christian writers appears to have been to distinguish the Christian God from
other gods in the religious marketplace. 

At some point, it had to be asked which god Christians were talking
about, and how this god related to the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” who
figures so prominently in the Old Testament. 

The doctrine of the trinity appears to have been, in part, a response
to pressure to identify the god that Christian theologians were speaking about.

As time passed, polytheism began to be regarded as outdated and rather
primitive, especially within the sophisticated intellectual culture of the
cosmopolitan city of Alexandria.

The assumption that there was only one god, and that this god was
identical to the Christian God, became so widespread that, by the early middle
ages Europe, it seems self-evident.

Thus Thomas Aquinas, in developing arguments for the existence of God
in the 13th century, did not think it worth demonstrating that the God whose
existent he had proven was the “God of the Christians,” after all, what other
God was there?

E.M. Bounds on Prayer

God wants, and must have, all that there is in man in answering his prayers. He must have wholehearted men through whom to work out His purposes and plans concerning men. God must have men in their entirely. 

No double minded man need apply. No vacillating man can be used. No man with a divided allegiance to God, and the world and self, can do the praying that is needed.