Remember in one of my previous blogs, I told you how in Matthew how Jesus called the Pharisees and Sadducee's out and called them Hypocrites, well that's what I was being, a hypocrite, and I realized that I was guilty of watering down the Gospel when talking to people for fear of hurting their feelings or fear of them walking away and not listening, and we as a church cannot allow that kind of mentality to be what drives our evangelistic efforts. Acts 4:29 (NIV) says "Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness." Consider their threats, I believe this statement refers to the threats that the world makes when the Word of God is preached and gets under their skin. They throw everything at us and at the kingdom of God. A good example of this is the recent Brutal attack on the Catholic Church in Baghdad Iraq that killed more than 50 people by an Al-Qaeda group known as the Islamic state of Iraq. Who also came out and declared on the Internet that all Christians are "legitimate targets" and should be killed. This group came out and said that "the killing sword will not be lifted from the necks" of Christians until it's demands for the release of 2 Egyptian women, who they claim are being held against their will after converting to Islam,are met. This is the type of persecution you would expect to find in the Roman Times maybe, but today in 2010 we experience probably more THREATS like this because of being Christian than ever before, and do you know why? It's because we do not speak with BOLDNESS when we talk to people about Christ for fear of upsetting them or them losing interest. We have become so worried about what people will think when we speak or react when we mention the word Jesus that we walk on eggshell's around the lost and we sugar coat our words.We are afraid to call SIN exactly what it is ,which is SIN. We tell people well it's OK we understand, we know how you feel and it will be OK. Why don't you come visit the church, and you don't have to worry. A lot of Church's are even so afraid of offending people that they keep time constraints on how long the preacher can preach and even try to tell the preacher what's appropriate to preach. Well I am sorry but Jesus never worried about how he was going to make someone feel when it came to the Gospel. He spoke with Boldness and Conviction, and we should too.
Romans 1:18-32 talks about how those who once knew God have turned away and in Verses 28:32 it says "And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong. They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. Although they know full well God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die —they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them. " (HCSB). If you read the verses before these it also talks of sexual immorality, but yet we as a church are afraid to mention the word's Homosexuality, because we might have someone in the congregation who is friends with someone like that or dare I say might even be living in that condition themselves. Well Brother's and Sister's our POLITICAL CORRECTNESS or our feelings of NOT WANTING TO ROCK THE BOAT have led us into a generation where God has taken a backseat to Sin. That's right, We have allowed Satan to not only infiltrate our schools, our communities, our government, but worse of all OUR CHURCHES. We live in a time where there are Churches that not only preach that the homosexual community is a sickness but they are also allowing their so called men of God to perform Gay Marriage.We are afraid to tell a couple that might be living together that they are living in Sin, we are afraid to tell someone who is beating a child or that child's mother that they are not doing right in the sight of God and they are going to face judgment for their sins if they don't repent and give their life to Christ. We are afraid that when the boss walks up and says so Roy, how was the weekend we tell them oh it was nothing big when in reality we should be instantly telling them how wonderful our time with the brethren was because the spirit of God was with us in our worship service. WE ARE ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL and DON'T EVEN REALIZE IT. WHY? Because we have became numb to the world around us and have accepted the actions of those who partake in the world's pleasure's.
I realized that's what was happening in my life and I have had to ask for God's forgiveness because I realized I was as guilty, if not more so than anyone else. I had sat back and let Sin sit down right beside me in the spiritual realm, and was to afraid to say anything, but ya know what Brother's and Sister's, no more! James 5:12 Above all, my brothers, do not swear-not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned. I don't know about you but the last thing I want is to be condemned. So from this day forward I will not let Sin enter into my home, my workplace, OR my Church and sit idly by and do nothing. I shall call upon the name of the lord and he shall save me Acts 2:21. And because he has saved me I shall Speak Loudly and Boldly and not be afraid of what man may do to me Hebrews 13:6.
I pray this blog has reached to those who needed it and I pray that we might regain our Boldness in the church and out of the church, so that we might affect this world for Christ in what time we have left here before his return. God Bless all who read this and may he lead you into a deeper walk with him daily through his son Jesus.
In Christ's Love,
Bill Roy
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