Devotion: "It's all about Christ" I Corinthians 1:17

For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. - I Corinthians 1:17

I wanted to share this verse.  I just finished responding to a friend of mine on facebook about the validity of the gospel.  He was born and raised a Baptist and then left the church because he was offended by something that happened in the church and went across the street to the Episcopal church.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that one denomination is better than the other.  That's why I'm sharing this verse.  He's now an Episcopal minister who believes that if you're good to others and take care of them, that constitutes a relationship with God.  I praise God for the people out there that take care of the homeless and poor and widowed and fatherless.  We have our nursing home ministry that I love, plus the Patch Club and music ministries at church and other things we do at church.  If we had more hours in the day, I would do more, but it's all worthless if I'm doing it in vain, if I'm not doing it as a natural out-pouring of what Christ did for me.  My Episcopal friend chastised me for witnessing to a Muslim man in the nursing home, saying that we don't have the magic key to heaven.  My response to him was, yes, we do have the magic key to heaven.  It's non-denominational.  It's not what we can do, but what Christ did and does and it says so in the Bible.  He's an Episcopal minister, who I'm assuming had some training in the Bible.  If you only pick and choose what you want to believe in the Bible, than that nullifies the whole Bible.  What may sound good to one person may not sound good to another.  That sets us up for all sorts of false teaching.  I'm sad that my friend has fallen so far away from what he once believed, or at least professed what he believed.  But I just want to say that it's not about what my church believes or the groups I go to or the ministries I'm involved in, it's all about Christ.  If I don't believe that first, His death was for nothing.