How sad that so many people want to be god in their own worlds! And how seductive and insidious all this intellectualism and ‘transformed’ thinking is! People, echoing Oprah, say things like “I’m keeping an open mind” (which always gets praised), and “I’m doing it myself, I’m self-reliant” (which is always admired as strength, certainly in American culture), and the ever-popular “Who are YOU to say there’s just one God?!!” Unfortunately, millions of people have had bad experiences in churches and are hungry for a new age ’spirituality.’ So they’re latching on to the ‘law’ of . . . well, the Law of Oprah! If all these people would just read the Bible – just the New Testament – they would see the garden of theological weeds that is religiosity, and that Oprah espouses her own version of religion. But in my opinion, the heart of the problem is that SO many people just dismiss the Bible (like I did once upon a time) as too ancient and out-of-date, or they say, who knows WHO those authors were, or, as my sister says, it’s just words and fairy tales! So we followers of Christ are commissioned with faithfully modeling Jesus’ teachings, and not deceiving ourselves, so that our life is so Christ-like, all those around us look at us and say “Hey, there’s something really compelling here, something I’d like to have in my life, too!”

Bottom line: Let’s pray for each other as we witness to our friends, family, and to all people. I mean, if Paul in a rotting, stinking prison cell could rejoice and see clearly how God has chosen to make known the mystery of the supremacy of Christ to all of us, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory, then we who are born again can surely witness to our beloved ones and to all people as well.

Glory to Jehovah-Nissi, our Banner, who delivers and saves us!!