sad but true

     "The world is rarely neutral toward the gospel.  Like the evil spirits cast out by Jesus, the powers and principalities of our world recognize that Jesus is a threat...  They may evade his clams by rejecting him; there is constant evidence of that rejection.  Their more effective strategy, however, is to enlist the Christian community in various forms of gospel reduction, by subtle or more direct means persuading us that there are good reasons to domesticate the gospel, tame Christ, and make him and his kingdom fit into our patterns and plans.  What Satan could not tempt Jesus to do in the desert, the church has constantly done as it has allowed the gospel to be 'conformed to this world' (Rom. 12:2)." - Darrell L. Guder