2 Corinthians 4-5 -- Highly Illogical

Read 2 Corinthians 4-5

Today's Devotion -- 2 Cor 4:3-4
3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (NIV)
taken from www.biblegateway.com

There have been several situations lately where we've seen news accounts of people standing firmly for what they believe is right. There are boycotts, letters to the editor, and even occasional sit-ins sponsored by groups who have heard about situations and are voicing their displeasure. The sad thing is, many of these responses to situations are really responses to only one side of the story. People hear some news, are outraged, and respond without looking into the situation to understand the truth behind the story.

One example is the boycott of the Oprah show by a group of women in Florida. They are upset that she will not have Sarah Palin as a guest, presuming that Oprah is so much in favor of Obama that she refuses to promote the Republicans. What the women have failed to acknowledge is Oprah's commitment to not host any of the current candidates. Yes, she had Obama on the show, but back in 2006, before he was an official candidate. She has stated that she'd love to talk with Sarah on the show...after the election regardless of the results.

Other examples are the scary e-mail notes you receive that talk about terrible crimes, poison in our sodas or food, bug eggs on our lick and stick envelopes, etcetera. Stories with just enough logic in them that we get nervous and spread this 'truth' to everyone in our mailbox without first checking www.snopes.com to find out if the story has any reality.

The god of this age has blinded us to truth. We see something on the news, get a story forwarded to us in an e-mail sent by trustworthy friends, or even have someone we respect tell us of a situation. We jump right in and respond without checking it out.

The truth has been so maligned by rumor and one-sided newscasting that we no longer know how to find out what the real situation is/was. It's gotten so bad that the real truth of God's word gets lost or viewed as a fable because it doesn't fit into the logic of the world (which isn't very logical!).

God doesn't want us to make a choice to follow him based on logic alone. He's a jealous God, and he wants our minds AND our hearts. He needs us to trust that his way is the right way, then he removes the veil of confusion from our minds so we can logically see the reality behind his purpose. This makes it difficult for us to effectively witness to others, because we cannot possibly explain God's logic to others who are only capable of seeing the logic of the world.

The challenge, then, is for us to find ways to appeal to the hearts and souls of others. How do you help others see the illogical truth? Who helped you to see it, and what strategies did they use?