on being preachy

In all honesty, I'm a bit at a loss for content on this blog. I don't live or teach in Nigeria anymore, I don't feel like my day-to-day life is all that interesting, and I don't know how well my friends and loved ones would like it if I started writing about them. Also, I don't have a cute kid to write about, or the adventures of being married or owning a house to draw on, like some of my other blogging friends.

What I do have though, is a big God, who condescended to save tiny insignificant me. And if my relationship to Him and with Him is all I can think to blog about, well then: That's all there was to write about in the first place.

I worry some about getting a bit preachy. Then I worried more about the connotations of being preachy. Then I worried less, because I figured as long as I'm preaching the right thing, I can be okay with being preachy. Then I worried some more because holy interwebs, Batman: am I preaching the right thing?

So I pulled out the dusty old Bible concordance biblegateway.com and searched the term preach. (Sometimes, in my head, I imagine that this blog is my tiny pulpit and these posts are my tiny sermons. So it makes sense in my head to go to biblegateway.com for these things.)

Here's what I found (emphasis mine):

• 2 Corinthians 4:5 "But what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servant for Jesus' sake."
• 1 Corinthians 1:18, 23 "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God...but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles."
• 1 Corinthians 15:1, 12-14 "Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand... ¹² But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."
• Philippians 1:15-17 "It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love...The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely...But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice."

I preach a gospel of grace, to myself as much as to you. I preach Christ, God incarnate, being crucified and raised from the dead. Whether I preach Him to boost readership, whether I preach Him to remind myself of his grace, whether I preach Him to reflect glory and honor back to Him, I preach Him.

Christ.

Alone.