"For the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the Power of God." - St. Paul

[Paolo Veronese (1528–1588)]

I just finished reading Michael Horton's book: "Christless Christianity". Here are a few quotes for you to ponder.

""Smooth talk and flattery" is part of the staple diet of successful American religion today. And it is almost always advertised simply as more effective mission and relevance."

"We are swimming in a sea of narcissistic moralism: an easy-listening version of salvation by self-help."

"Scripture never refers to the gospel as having a personal relationship with Jesus nor defines faith as a decision to ask Jesus to come into your heart, this concept of salvation fails to realize that everyone has a personal relationship with God already: either as a condemned criminal standing before a righteous judge or as a justified coheir with Christ and adopted child of the Father."

"We do not preach ourselves but Christ. The good news--not only for ourselves, but for a world (and church) in desperate need of good news--is that what we say preaches better than our lives, at least if what we are saying is Christ's person and work rather than our own. The more we talk about Christ as the Bible's unfolding mystery and less about our own transformation, the more likely we are actually to be transformed rather than either self-righteous or despairing."

"The evangel defines evangelism; the content determines the methods of delivery; the marks of the Church (preaching and sacrament) define its mission (evangelizing, baptizing, teaching, and communing)."

'...the Church is not a club for those with similar cultural tastes, political views, ethnic backgrounds, and moral leanings. ...the Church is not made up of people I chose to be my friends. God chose them for me and me for them. They are my family because of God's election, not mine. Gathered to be redefined by the kingdom of Christ rather than by the kingdoms of this age, we are then scattered again into the world as salt--not huddled together in Christian societies for moral transformation and ecclesiastically sanctioned political causes, but dispersed into the world as doctors, homemakers, plumbers, lawyers, truck drivers, citizens, and neighbors."

"When we regularly hear and receive Christ's forgiveness, we are filled with love for Him and for others."

"When our churches assume the gospel, reduce it to slogans, or confuse it with moralism and hype, it is not surprising that the type of spirituality we fall back on is moralistic, therapeutic deism. In a therapeutic worldview, the self is always sovereign. Accommodating this false religion is not love--wither of God or neighbor--but sloth, depriving human beings of genuine liberation and depriving God of the glory that is His due. The self must be dethroned. that's the only way out."