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To Be Clear…

                 I like the TV show “American Pickers”, so when I realized that a trip to the Indianapolis 500 was going to take my brother and me right past their shop in Le Claire, Iowa, I had to stop.  It was fun looking around and seeing some things that I had seen on the show.  I even bought a few souvenirs. 
                As I was leaving, I asked the girl behind the counter, “What do you do when they start shooting around here?”  She gave me the strangest look as if she had no idea what I was talking about, so I rephrased my question. “When they are shooting the TV show, what do you do with the store?  Do you close it?  Do you use part of it?  What happens?”    She laughed and said, “I grew up in Chicago, so when you asked about shooting, that meant something completely different to me!   I was thinking, ‘There is no shooting around here!  This is Iowa!’”  (In case you are curious… They film early in the morning before the store is open).
                It is so easy to misunderstand one another. 
                The more I talk to people, the more convinced I am that miscommunication is the church’s biggest problem.  Many of the things that we debate and argue about have no meaning to the average person.   Therefore, they pass it off as being either too confusing or, worse, completely irrelevant.
                This is not a new problem.  The church in Corinth was confused and off the rails in several areas.  Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul tried to sort out some of their issues, but his biggest remedy was to urge them to get back to the clear, basic message. 
                “I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you… By this gospel you are saved…  What I received, I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).  
                 Whatever else we need to sort out, our primary message must always be about the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. 
                That is the only part that has any real power.
                “Thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:57)

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