Trick or treat....

1 Thes. 2:1-6 You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. [2] We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. [3] For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. [4] On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. [5] You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. [6] We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.

Tricking people has been a hot topic in the faith community I am part of. We are desperate to reach out to our friends and see them come to Jesus. But we are aware of some of the failures of our past, aware that in our good intentions we seem to have promised our friends one thing and then presented them with another - that a friendly social event suddenly, it seems to them, turns into a Gospel service. And our friends feel tricked, and we feel we've let them down, and we become reluctant to share with them again, and anyway it would be harder because their 'defences' are raised and their hearts are hardened.... our motives may be pure, but our methods have made that purity murky.

We need to seek God's counsel to be more open with our friends, to be able to be upfront and non-aggressive at the same time. Witness is never easy. It's a challenge, one we need to rise to, but then everything which comes with a reward is a challenge....