city lights are blinding

The final piece to this and the reason that Paul made it a point to speak simply, and straight forward can be found in verses 4 & 5

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

God tends to do things on his own terms. He does not need a flashy spokesman, nor does he need a bunch of smoke and mirrors. The Lord is quite capable of standing on his own. His work is best displayed when it is allowed to stand on it’s own. The more junk you clutter around it, the less you can see the true beauty that is God’s power.

Take the stars for example, we live in a world of lights now. As the sun goes down and the stars come out, the lights of town come on. I remember when I was a kid, I would stand in my backyard and look up at the heavens. All of the stars were a sight to behold. Now we lived in the middle of town, so it would have to be pretty late and pretty dark to see the stars. I remember thinking how big the universe must be.

A couple of years later we moved out to the country, I will never forget that firt nigh out in the back pasture. No moon, clear, not a cloud in the sky. I remember I looked up and could not believe my eyes! What I thought was an amazing sight standing in the middle of town, had now been transformed into a work of utter awe! There were more stars that I ever could have imagined, I could see entire constellations. If you had enough patience you could see shooting stars, and planets. The work of God was finally on full display. The lights of town were far off in the distance, and there was nothing cluttering the full glory of God.

We also tend to behave just like those bright city lights. We worry about our hair, our clothes, we worry about how we will word our sentences, and just what words we will use. We want to project that perfect image, that smooth polished look, even though we have rough edges, and many cracks. All of that effort to conceal our flaws diminishes the display of the power of God, and his son Christ. That is the beauty, and the mercy of the Lord. HE loves, and accepts us with all of our cracks, and rough edges. When we move ourselves out of the way, then the world has the opportunity to see the Lords glory. Covering this up is to suggest that God is looking for perfection. This is why Paul spoke plainly. He did not want to cover up the Power of God. HE did not want to come across as a smooth talker. HE was concerned that by coming across as anything more than a simple servant of Christ, people would confuse his message. They would think that the message came form him, and not from Christ.

No matter your position in the world, when you run with the Lord, you are never anything more than the messenger. King and paupers the strong and the weak, we all should make it a point to stay out of the spotlight, least we cover up part of the glory of God.

Peace,
Rev. Thetford