Blogger: in expounding God's Word today, there is a tendency to preach the Scriptures from within. If you have believers in your group who all know the Lord, that is perfectly fine. Even they, however, may still need to be better equipped for the daily struggle - they must know how to defend from attacks. This works hand in hand with putting on 'the whole armour of God' as described in Ephesians 6.
Those attacks may often be evidenced without any malice - it is frequently just down to the lack of understanding of friends, workmates etc. But if you cannot reach the mildly curious or non-aggressive unbelievers - how will you possibly cope when you are face to face with an embittered and/or aggressive atheist?
How do you reach these dear lost souls if you are insufficiently prepared to explain your faith? Constant bombardment with Scriptures is wholly inappropriate- and yet, it is a knee-jerk reaction by many.
Preaching to mixed congregations needs to be from the outside of the Bible and moving inwards - we will rarely make our case well by attempting to start with the Bible and work outwards.
Please meditate on this thought - especially those of you who preach The Word.
