Flavour of the Month

I often joke that Facebook is my current "Flavour of the Month.” It is the "new thing" that many are delving into and I don't want to miss the boat on the "in thing.”
I sometimes tend to be that way about a lot of things. I am what many call an "early adopter.” I am willing to give something a try because it seems appealing and works toward the greater good.
I think that I am becoming a little more guarded in my old age, because I am finding that I am less and less that way when it comes to things of the faith. A new book or a new method of worship has often been something that I have embraced. Let's try things a new way, because it can't hurt anything if it is to the glory of God and it just may bring someone to Christ! That is still true in my heart in many ways, but the Lord has cautioned me in being such an early adopter.
The Bible cautions us in these last days that Satan will try to lure us away from the Truth. First Timothy 4:1 says, "The Spirit speaketh expressly that, in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits."
Also 2 Peter 2:1 says"There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who secretly shall bring in destructive heresies" Along with that Matthew 7:15 says: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
We have to be so careful when embracing new methods too quickly. Are we actually embracing false teaching? No, we are to test the spirits. John has outlined in 1:1-6 :
"Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already. Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."
New things can be good but I don't think we really need a gimmick to sell Jesus. New programs or worship styles may be appealing and draw a few more people into our midst but we must not do so by compromising or watering down the Gospel to make it more palatable. Conviction of sin is necessary to ignite the process of salvation. In order to be saved we need to believe that we need to be saved. Without conviction of sin, we have nothing that we feel we need saving from, right?