“… God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:19

Pam and I recently visited family at a favorite old haunt in northern Michigan: Mackinaw City. It was my boyhood summer home and my parents are buried there.

Time was short over the long weekend, but relaxation was bountiful, the weather was perfect, and a schedule was non-existent.  One of my favorite things is to visit small churches when we travel and I thought it might be fun to go to one in town not far from our old lakeside home.  But … I wound up not going.

I looked up the church online to see who the preacher was and discover any info about the congregation, doctrines, etc. This one was promising; it was a traditional Bible-based church with an obviously seasoned and able pastor.  I love those guys! But his sermon series was on “Discouragement,” and my enthusiasm waned.

Everything I read about Jesus in the Bible leads me to believe that my Christian walk is blessed by the encouragement of Jesus, not to be encumbered by the plentiful discouragement of the world, let alone a litany of discouragement from the pulpit.

“But you have to face up to the world, Bob!”  And I say … no, not like that.  Satan dishes out all the discouragement he can toward Christ specifically.  And I don’t agree with why churches (this isn’t the only one) feel the need to catalogue the world’s discouragement as an argument for the love of Jesus and our salvation in Christ. 

Why not just preach the encouraging message of Christ?  I can get a week’s worth of worldly discouragement from five minutes of any show on Fox News … and – trigger warning – I tend to agree with their slant on things. 

The pulpit message of Christ can be uplifting, should be uplifting, is uplifting.  When He faced the “discouragement” leveled at him by the Pharisees, Jesus knew the grace and love of God.  He also possessed the perseverance of His own mission, obedience, and love.  Jesus never lost sight of His purpose, which was to save the world, not gripe about it.  Our purpose is to accept His saving gift and glorify God.

It’s a legitimate if mysterious question to ponder: Was / is God “discouraged” by the sin of the world, the work of Satan, the gross disobedience of Israel, the death of His only Son, broken churches, heresies, or a largely disbelieving world? I won’t guess on that one, but I am sure God never doubts His own righteousness, purpose, or love.

I believe that the body of Christ – His church – should never purpose to scare or depress people enough about the world so that they crowd fearfully into a small space with no choice but Christ.  How much better when we see the glory and purpose of Jesus, fall in love with him, and freely choose to be in faithful relationship with Him?

This side of heaven we will never encounter a world where we seldom hear a discouraging word, but discouragement is no way to tell the story of Jesus.

I’ll never know what the nice preacher at the small church up north was going to say, but I do know that alienation and discouraging words come naturally into our fallen worldly lives.  In any case, my Home on the Range is the encouraging word of Jesus.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes the Good News of Jesus.  That’s true media.