A salesman, so the story goes, reminded a group of retailers it pays to advertise with the following illustration. “When a hen lays an egg, she spreads the news far and wide. It’s as if she’s saying, ‘Cackle! Cackle! Cackle! I’ve laid a wonderful egg.’ But when a duck lays an egg, she keeps it a secret and doesn’t make a sound.” The salesman then stressed, “People don’t buy duck eggs. They buy chicken eggs! Use your imagination and you can almost hear the hen saying, ‘Look – look – look – look – AN EGG! Look – look – look – look – AN EGG!’ Say it really, really fast and you’ll hear yourself cackle!” My aim in this little piece is to urge you to be a “cackling Christian!” Don’t be shy about your faith in Jesus Christ! Make some noise and go public! Christians truly have something to cackle about. That something is the gospel of Christ which, in the timeless words of the apostle Paul in Romans 1:16 is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” Paul began that verse by saying, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” Two verses earlier (verse 14) he declared himself to be a “debtor” to people who were unsaved from sin. In the English Standard Version of that verse Paul’s keen sense of obligation and motivation to preach Christ are crystal clear –“I am under obligation” to preach the gospel to lost people. Verse 15 reveals that although he feels obligated, it is not a grudging debt he owes but a sweet one he is “ready” and even “eager” (ESV) to pay, saying that “as much as is in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel.” Paul was not a “closet Christian,” not a silent saint who kept the gospel the “best kept secret in town.” And it is clear there were many other early Christians who felt the same obligation and motivation he did. First century Christians saturated their world with the gospel. In Acts 5:41-42, even when punished for preaching Jesus, they “rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for His name. It’s deep roots and is cialis prescription resistant to snow and wind harm. Go to buy cialis an online herbal store right now launched to serve their Native indian fellows. You may choose your preferred form, based on how you like tadalafil cheapest online to swallow – either capsule or pill forms of the supplements. These buy levitra are self operable but need practice. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” When “scattered” due to ferocious persecution, Acts 8:4 reports they just kept cackling about Christ and “went everyhwere preaching the world.” Later in Acts 17:6 they were given an unintentional compliment by opponents who accused, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” They kept cackling about Christ until thirty years after the church was born in Acts 2 the apostle Paul wrote that the gospel “was preached to every creature under heaven” (Colossians 1:23) and that there were even “saints … who are of Casesar’s household” in Rome (Phillippians 4:22). Cackling Christians they were, for sure!
Terry Burress reminds us the contemporary church needs to do more cackling about Christ. A few years back he wrote in the Magnolia Messenger: “If we are not taking the gospel to the whole world, I think it is simply because we’re trying to do it in three hours a week, while the devil works 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” Touche. The devil has a message too. He says the wages of sin is a good time, not death. And he uses thousands of slick and sophisticated but sinful and perverted “preachers” who cackle once a day, every day, all day long! The Lord needs cackling Christians who are unashamed of the gospel. Christian friend, do you ever cackle about Christ? Well, do you? Just came by to ask.
– Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN