[#] nutter cheap gelato dessert

OK – this is part 7 of 7, and of course if you have not read the original nutter post, well, you must be new around these here parts.

So my point in the nutter series, I think, was to answer the question "How do you create good will for Jesus?" My first point was that you can't do it if you're not actually referring to Jesus about whom Peter said on Pentecost, "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."

My second point was that you cannot let the culture dictate the terms of engagement regarding the Gospel. If the culture says to you, "I'm not going to listen until you are willing to treat me as an equal truth claim," you should not change the Gospel to make it more nicey-nice for the unsaved; if the culture says, "NYAH NYAH NYAH! I'm putting my fingers in my ears!" you are not empowered to turn the proverbial amp up to proverbial 11.

My last point in this nutter series is this: if being a nutter for Jesus is not these things, what is it? You know, in writing this series I reflected on Hewitt's book the Embarrassed Believer, which I have now also read, and there's something important that Hewitt says plainly: Christians are somewhat cowed when it comes to advancing their faith.

And he's right – but the problem is that he doesn’t really know why he's right. He has identified the symptom – which is a Christian witness which walks around like Schleprock from Pebbles and BamBam – but he doesn’t really know what a decent Christian witness would look like.

So here's what I think it looks like, and you can take your shots at it as you see fit:

the cornerstone of that witness is the Gospel (cf. Acts 2, 1Cor 15, Gal 1-3, Romans 1:16)

the framing and sheetrock of that witness is the personal reformation the Gospel calls us to (cf. Acts 2, Romans 8, James 1&2)

the business of that witness is the love of Christ, but the love of Christ is not the same love the culture will demand you show it (cf. 2Cor 5 & 6, Eph 5, 1John 3)

In that way, I am a nutter for Christ. My expectation in being a nutter for Christ is that if He is lifted up, all people will be drawn to Him. If you don't like me, chin up: I didn't ask you to like me. There's really not much there to like anyway.

oh yeah – the rest of the series is here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 [7]