So, I’ve been trying to think how best to reach my audience. How to grow a following, how to profit off my creativity, and maybe, just maybe, how to reach my generation.
I am offensive, not because of what I say, or what I do, but because of my identity. I don’t mean as far as sexuality, skin color, or race. Christians are offensive to people. Jesus is offensive to people. The bible, the gospel, and God, are offensive to people, most people. It’s not hip or cool to identify with Jesus, but ultimately, it’s the right thing.
In Acts 17:16-34, Paul preaches the gospel to those who have never read the Law, never heard of Jesus. He can’t point to the scriptures. He can only use his own eye witness testimony, and things they understand culturally.
What more can I say that what he has said? I know I could explain it. I know I could link it. But maybe it’s what my generation needs to hear.
This is copied directly from Biblegateway, in the hopes that you will actually read it. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A16-34&version=NIV
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[a] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[b]
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
It is God’s will that everyone be saved. However, he gave us free will. Not to choose whatever we wanted, what amuses, what entertains, what feels good, but that we could choose or reject Him. Of the many people he witnessed to, he probably saved a dozen or so at the cost of 3000 or more. Yet, Dionysius, Damaris, and a number of others got saved. I have to hope, believe, pray, that some people, even if only a few, will read my blog, and come to know Jesus. The same with my comics, or whatever I produce, or in my daily walk with the Lord. If one person comes to know Him through my trials, mistakes, and hardships, then it’s worth it. However, I am hopeful, that there may be many more, and they will witness to many more, and they will witness to many more, up until Jesus returns, and perhaps afterward, when he redeems Israel.