This was illustrated to me by my kids and I am sure they did not even realize the significance of what they were doing. I came home and my two youngest children were watching the old "Tom and Jerry" cartoons. My first thought? Nothing has changed, they like the same cartoons I did as a kid. However, there was a major difference in how they were watching them. We recently got a Wii (a Nintendo game system) for the kids. Not only can you play video games on it but you can also go on the internet. They had gone to "YouTube" and were watching the "Tom and Jerry" cartoons on the internet... through the Wii... and on our living room television. Nothing has changed and everything has changed.
So what's the point? God told us in His Word, "there is nothing new under the sun." (Eccl. 1:9) He also tells us that Jesus never changes. He is the same today, yesterday and forever. But life changes. People change. We are a work in progress and if we are to effectively reach the people around us, we must be willing to step out and take a risk. Present the Truth of God in a fresh new way. Even God changed the way He dealt with humans from the law of the Old Testament to the new covenant of the New Testament. The message never changes, the method for communicating it must change, just like my kids watching Tom and Jerry. It's the same stuff I grew up on but if they had to watch it on TV on Saturday morning for 30 minutes, how "old school" would that be.
SCRIPTURE READING
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, 2 Corinthians 3:7-18, Hebrews 8, Hebrews 13:7-8
BOTTOM LINE
We don't change the MESSAGE, but we must change the METHOD.