Convictions are certain standards that are so deeply rooted in your life, you are prepared to live and die by them. They are values that cannot be compromised or changed. Very often our convictions are put to the test. Especially during this current age when Gods word is neglected and put on the back burner in our pulpits and ministries. Scriptures were never meant to be the condiment for the sermon, the scriptures are the sermon.
The pressure that many are succumbing to in our times, is the pressure of being successful. It seems that many ministries are willing to sacrifice anything to be a success. Even the word of God. I don’t get fed when I go to conferences and the word of God is hardly mentioned. Instead we have the church growth clichés, words that aren’t even used in scripture, such as coaching and strategizing, etc. Though I’m not extremely old, I’m feeling like an old lemon as I write these words, as I prefer the Preacher who comes out with his Bible and seeks to explain it, rather than the speaker who views himself as a coach and comes out empty handed with no Bible in hand.
We are just now celebrating the 500th anniversary of the reformation. Do we think we know our Bibles so well, that we don’t have to carry them out with us as we speak? This is a most troubling and disturbing trend we see. We must ask ourselves if we have success apart from preaching Gods word, is this true success? I know its possible as a Jeremiah to preach Gods word and yet appear as a failure in the churches eyes. But it is better to hold fast to ones convictions and fail than to compromise and be outwardly successful with no conversion. Perhaps as a grain of seed its best to first fall into the ground and die, [ to outwardly fail] and then later bear much fruit?