“We are now in a position to emphasize. . .”

It’s week 41 of E. Stanley Jones’ devotional The Word Became Flesh.  For 280 days, 280 pages, Jones has been criticizing preachers who reduce the words of Christ to a moral philosophy.  Jones calls this tendency “the Word become word.”

“I see the point of my failure.  I screw myself up mentally to believe when I should be letting go and trusting and appropriating.”

Re-framing the Gospel so that it is more mentally palatable is not the goal of preaching.

“You do everything, but only after you have accepted what God has done.”

So for Jones, first a person accepts Christ’s offer of the fullness of life, then Christ makes his power available to that person, and that power enables the person to lead a moral life.

“Not my responsibility, but my response to His ability.”

This is faith as a trust response.  It is a personal experience that inspires a way of behaving in community.

“I shall be in a state of Yesness to Him.”

The sermon is an opportunity to share the story of what happened to you when you said Yes.