Faith in God's Power

I Corinthians 2:1-8

The other night, I read an Internet marketing program e-book. The author said one can make vast amounts of money by following his strategy. Essentially, one can get an affiliate identification to a product by contacting the product owner. Using that Id., one can then send buyers to a sales website and collect a commision for every sale which results. The most effective way of finding prospects is by getting the search engines such a Google or Yahoo to list that page as an important site for the particular subject.

Such a listing can be obtained by getting a lot of other sites to point people to the sales page. The quickest way of doing this is by publishing a lot of different articles, which are carried on these other sites. Many blogs and directories carry such articles to help their customers with their problems. The author of the e-book stated that by going to a directory and finding an article on the subject, then rewriting it in your own words and including that Id, one should be able to churn out 2-4 articles per hour. By completely rewriting the article, plagarism complaints would be avoided, and it didn't really matter if you knew anything about the subject or not, or whether you could write well, as long as you had enough articles published.

The Apostle Paul wanted to know the subject he preached completely. He wanted to to be so clear that people understood his subject clearly, ratherr than being impressed with his knowledge of the subject. Notice his description of his philosophy.

"And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." (I Corinthians 2:1-8)

For the gospel to be effective, Paul believed that it was essential that the preacher have personal experience of that subject, which shows in his simple way of expressing it. There is an old saying that if you can't explain your subject to a 10 year old, you don't know what you are talking about. In order to do so, you will have to use words and demonstrations that they, and others can understand. Many with degrees do not understand their subject well enough to explain it, although they can perform the functions very well. as a result, their attempts to help others often increase rather than resolve confusion.

People do not automatically understand God's plan, and even many who are considered experts in the field lack personal knowledge, depending on someone else's knowledge. This leads to superficial and false conclusions in any field. Fortunately, most do not have the eternal consequences of doctrinal errors. Rather than knowing the accepted religious positions, we need to know the Lord. Demonstrating the power of God in the speakers life enables others to understand and believe.