BAD ADVERTISING

Hello!

How are you? I hope all is well with you. 

I read Brooke St James' "Back to the Beach" and I want to share something I learned from it. A family went out to eat and they met a member of their Church. They greeted him and in his reply to their greeting, he immediately began to go on and on about the many things that were wrong with him. He stayed talking to them for a while and the entire time was spent complaining. When he left, the father of the family looked to his family and said "it makes me sad to see a Christian man out in the world, selling God short like that." 

When I read those words, it felt like cold water was splashed on me. But this man didn't stop there, he went on to say "...when you so readily complain about it, you are basically telling the world that the God you serve isn't doing a good job of taking care of you." When I read that, the thought that came to me was "bad advertising". 

So let's talk about advertising for a bit. Advertising is the process of creating awareness of a product or service usually to make it appeal to the audience and entice them to patronize. The intention behind advertising is never to make the product or service unappealing to audience, a situation where an advert causes the audience to distrust its object is bad advertising. 

When Jesus tells us in Acts 1:8 that we shall be His witnesses, He basically told us to go and advertise Him to the world. Our job description as His adverts is to make Him appealing to all who come in contact with us so that they can make the decision to 'patronize' Him –to form a relationship with Him. So when people see us, they should see all the many reasons why they should confess their sins and receive Jesus into their heart. 

The question I asked myself when I read that portion of the book was "how many times have I made Jesus unappealing to people with my behavior?" Sometimes it seems like I live my life forgetting that I'm an advert for Jesus. And that's a terrible thing to be doing! 

Reading that book taught me that I must be careful about how I advertise Jesus, even on the days I don't think anyone will notice me, there may be someone watching to see Jesus in me and if I decide to 'lose guard', I can make the Jesus unappealing to them, ever heard the statement "if na the Christianity be dis, I no go do am"? May that never be said of how we live our lives!

Sometimes it isn't even something that is done publicly, you may think you'd get away with sin because it was done privately so there was no one to advertise Jesus to, but the spirit of the sin doesn't remain in private, the aura of sinfulness will follow you around in your public interactions! And it will influence people even without your knowledge. 

There's a song in the Baptist Hymnal that says "Let others see Jesus in you" and that really is the sum of what I'm saying today: when people see you they should see all the reasons they should follow Jesus. The word 'Christian' itself connotes a state of Christlikeness meaning you reflect what God would do. So when people hear you speak, see your actions, your reactions to situations of life, your disposition, your preferences, the way you handle responsibility, your submission –to Christ and authority, your life generally, they should be able to see clearly the difference that Christ has made in you life, if there is no difference between your life as a Christian and that of an unbeliever then there's a problem and what you are doing is bad advertising. 

It's a lesson I'm always having to remind myself of because sometimes I catch myself doing things that do not portray Jesus as He should be portrayed. I pray that our lives properly advertise Jesus to all we come in contact with. 

See you next week, and in the comments. 

Love,

Achenyo. 

PS. Happy Good Friday and Easter in advance, let this be a time of renewed commitment to God and not merely a time to eat and be merry. Advertise Jesus with the way you celebrate Easter this year.

PSS. Advertise the blog to your friends and family ☺️.