Many of the megachurches, featuring a "name it or claim it" or come as you are and don't worry because we will avoid confronting sin and making anyone feel bad mentality, are apparently thriving in numbers. But if those filling the sanctuary have never felt the weight of their own sin and repented for such, they are just as lost as those who have never stepped foot in a church. It is time we stop deceiving ourselves and scrutinize what is being preached and what is being sought after, souls or numbers and money.

Paul cared only about souls and staying true to the pure gospel message. He never claimed a message of immediate gratification of earthly luxuries and pleasures. Instead, he spoke of gratification which was based upon joy, not circumstances, and which would one day culminate in heaven. Read a little of what Paul suffered for maintaining the purity of his message in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28, "Are they ministers of Christ?-I speak as a fool- I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness-besides the other things, what come upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches." If that wasn't enough we read Paul pleading for God to remove the thorn from his flesh in 2 Corinthians 12:7-8, then the response of both the Lord and Paul in 12:9-10, "And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

May we, like Paul, uncompromisingly, and despite the earthly consequences present the gospel message to a world in desperate need of it.