Are you bored? Do you find some things to be boring and others to be fascinating? Do you think that these are inherent properties in the things you observe, or does your response depend on you? There is a difference between saying, ‘this is boring’, and saying, ‘I’m bored’. The first is a judgment and the second is an admission that the problem may be you even if you don’t see it that way. What is your view of reality? Do you understand that every time you open your eyes you see something that I made and every person you meet is created in my image?

Do you ever act in such a way that doesn’t reflect your true feelings? If your boss wants to tell you about his vacation and it is something you have no interest in, do you tell him he is boring and walk away? In that case your true feelings would not align with your best interests. You know very well that your future depends on your boss having a favorable impression of you. And aren’t you suppressing your true feelings to be more gracious? Is this an acknowledgment that you true feelings are ungracious? Can you extend this principle beyond your boss?

If the church were a business, what product would it be selling? The forgiveness of sins? Businesses need customers. Is there enough demand for this to keep the church in business? Have you found that believers, who are already forgiven, take sin seriously, and unbelievers, who are not, do not? So you have something they need and they don’t know it. How do you go about giving something to someone who doesn’t want it? Better advertising and marketing? You have the message of life. How can you present it so that it resonates with your audience to satisfy a need they are aware of?

The last promise of the Old Testament was that I would send Elijah, so when a prophet appeared it made sense for the people to ask John the Baptist if he was Elijah. He said he was not, but I said he was. Although his name was not Elijah he came to fulfill the role and this was before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. The implication was that every generation needs someone to act as Elijah and John the Baptist did this in his own time.