Don’t Get Caught Up the Creek Without Your Oars
September 14, 2009 at 8:22 am | Posted in Acts, Common Expressions | 11 CommentsTags: 1 Thessalonians 1, acrostics, Apostle Paul, Biblical preaching, Biblical witnessing, boat paddles, flowing in the spirit, how to preach, how to witness, oars, paddles, preaching the resurrection of Christ, precahing Jesus Christ, river of life, sharing the Gospel, Thessalonica, up the creek, up the creek without a paddle
The first Christian church in Thessalonica was in many ways an exemplary church. The Holy Ghost, through the Apostle Paul, commended their faith and zeal for the Gospel in I Thessalonians 1:8-9: “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;”
The church members in Thessalonica had been converted by the method of preaching and teaching which had been taught to Paul by Christ Himself. It is outlined in Acts 17:1-3: “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days REASONED with them out of the scriptures, OPENING and ALLEGING, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I PREACH unto you, is Christ.”
I have capitalized four words in the above passage of Scripture, and devised an acrostic (O.A.R.S.) to help remember the Biblical means for telling people about Christ Jesus.
O.pening – The Apostle Paul opened the Word of God, and it is of great importance that all our teaching about Jesus be straight from the Bible.
A.lleging – To “allege” means to take two ideas and lay them alongside each other for comparison or contrast. Paul showed his listeners that what He was claiming about Jesus matched up to what the Bible said.
R.easoning – Reasoning, in an evangelistic setting, involves a back-and-forth dialogue. Paul encouraged questions from his listeners, and he endeavored to answer them according to the Scriptures.
S.peaking – Actually, “speaking” is probably too tame a word for the “preaching” that Paul did. I just couldn’t make “preach,” “proclaim,” or “announce” fit the acrostic. But, the fact is, the Gospel is shared by the bold verbal proclamation of the truth about Christ Jesus. (“…faith cometh by hearing…” Romans 10:17)
Christians often speak of “flowing in the Spirit,” but there is a danger in floating blindly downstream. A limp body carried on the current can be washed into dangerous coves, or dashed against a protruding rock. We want to flow in the River of Life, but we must remember to use our “oars” to guide us toward those who are floundering, so that the Lord might use us to rescue them.
11 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a Reply
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
[...] President Woodrow Wilson Any old dead fish can float downstream. [...]
Pingback by All Presidents Should “S.W.I.M.” Like Woodrow Wilson « The Deep End— September 14, 2009 #
[...] and Pushing On The Life of a Missionary: Having a Fit, Making a Tough Choice, and Singing in Jail Don’t Get Caught Up the Creek Without Your Oars Varied Results Insincerity, Inaccuracy, or Incompletion? Promoted with Straight A’s Conscious [...]
Pingback by When in Rome, Preach To the Romans « The Deep End— December 15, 2009 #
[...] the pattern of calling an unbeliever to repentance, which I have analyzed with the acrostic O.A.R.S. from Acts 17. He O.pened. (Daniel 4:24). He A.lleged (Daniel 4:22), as he cited the Word of God as [...]
Pingback by After the Fire « The Deep End— May 20, 2010 #
[...] Holy Spirit through Paul refers right away to the holy Scriptures – opening the Word of God. By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among [...]
Pingback by The Deep End— August 26, 2010 #
[...] reading?” He was reading what we refer to as Isaiah Chapter 53. The Ethiopian had already “opened” the Word of God. Phillip could get right to the alleging and reasoning and sharing. Then [...]
Pingback by A Leopard Can’t Change His Spots « The Deep End— October 4, 2010 #
[...] is quoting, opening, and alleging Psalm 14:1-3: “[To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.] The fool hath said in his heart, [...]
Pingback by The True Jewish Justification « The Deep End— October 20, 2010 #
[...] stop people from calling us “mad,” but at least we can make sure that there is “a method to our madness.” LikeBe the first to like this [...]
Pingback by He Was Beside Himself « The Deep End— February 21, 2011 #
[...] more Philistines in his death than he did in his life. When Christians today talk about “flowing in the Spirit” it conjures up the image of a sort of effeminate passivity where church people are sort of [...]
Pingback by More Strange Weapons: A Bone (Simple, Silly, Serious, and Successful)) « The Deep End— July 20, 2011 #
[...] Here is the pattern of Ezekiel’s witnessing. He used his O.A.R.S. [...]
Pingback by The Prophet “Paddles” His Audience « The Deep End— September 30, 2011 #
[...] Having a Fit, Making a Tough Choice, and Singing in Jail 13. The Most Important Question in Life 14. Don’t Get Caught Up the Creek Without Your Oars 15. Varied Results 16. Time Is Running Out 17. Insincerity, Inaccuracy, or Incompletion? 18. [...]
Pingback by Acts « The Deep End— December 7, 2011 #
[...] up with one of the Apostle Paul’s favorite preaching techniques. I like to use the acrostic O.A.R.S. to identify it. But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets [O.pening], [...]
Pingback by Rowing through Romans « The Deep End— January 19, 2012 #