For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” ~Romans 1:16-17 (ESV)
One of the nice things about social media is that you are able to follow and stay in touch with family, friends, the news, interests, and even sales. The last point is why I follow the CEO of Concordia Publishing House, Bruce Kintz. While my newsfeed on my Facebook account can sometimes become flooded with pictures of new book releases and sales, he occasionally posts some non-product related materials that catch my interest.
Just the other day, he mentioned how Amazon had denied a CPH advertising piece “due to Christian Content.” The email he had received for it read: “Hello Concordia Pub House, Thank you for submitting you ad. Unfortunately, we are unable to approve your ad for the following reason(s): 1. Your book addresses Christianity.” He also mentioned how ads are denied that contain things like pornography, 900 numbers, and racism. I guess Christianity can be added to that list of horrible things.
It is increasingly difficult to be a Christian in a world that is becoming more non-Christian. Our faith is increasingly being labeled as intolerant, moronic, hateful, closeminded, old fashioned, etc. It is starting to be viewed as a negative thing and even included on ad ban lists with pornography, 900 numbers, and racism! It is in times like these that Paul’s words in Romans become even more true. He writes, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
The Gospel message that is deemed as hateful is actually the world’s greatest message of love. The message that is deemed closeminded is actually a message that is for all people. The message that is labeled as old fashioned is actually the thing that truly helps people to live in a modern and changing world. While the world may belittle our faith and oppose us for it, it is a message that we cannot be ashamed about. Why? It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. It is the message that saves and gives life!
We cannot and should not be ashamed about this Gospel message and the things that may follow with it. As the world becomes more non-Christian, and darker in sin, it gives us a greater opportunity to witness as Christians. As the world becomes darker, the light of Christ and His saving Gospel message become that much brighter!
~Pastor Nick Kooi
(Originally published in Emmaus Footprints, Vol. XVIII, Number 11, June 2017)