Josh 1:7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
If Christians today are lacking in any one thing I think that it is courage. We find ourselves surrounded by a lost and very confused world and we sit timidly among them and say nothing. We are afraid to offend even the offensive. We are certainly in the later days that the Bible speaks of and it is imperative that we face these days with courage. Now is a time for boldness. We must be bold in our testimony. It is great to witness to others by our lifestyle and let others see that we are different but lifestyle testimony is not enough. We must be bold and tell them Who makes the difference in our lives. For too long we have had a passive ministry. We live and let live or more likely we live and let die. Certainly everyone has the opportunity to learn about Jesus and to study a Bible and learn about His salvation. That is passive. We are taught throughout the Bible that we must be more aggressive. When I say aggressive I don't mean pushy or annoying but at least we need to be verbal. I once heard a story about a very shy Christian man who worked for a very worldly and crude businessman. This businessman would curse and yell at his employees on a daily basis. Once when this man was cursing and chewing out his staff the shy little man found the courage to say, "Mr. Smith, If you just knew Jesus you would be a lot happier and the rest of us would too." The boss was surprised and actually became speechless because he knew how shy this man was. He thought long and hard that night about what was said and he went to the midweek service where the shy man attended church. They were having Bible study and prayer meeting and that night he asked Jesus to save him. His life did turn around and things did get better for him and all those around him because the shy little man had the courage to be a little more aggressive in his ministry. Courage also should make us be bold in our convictions. We need to stand up for the Bible and stand on God's Word. We need to apply it and we need to share it. It seems today that when one stands up for what is right and stands against sin he is called hateful. We all should hate sin, and speak against it. We do this because we hate sin and because we love the sinner enough to know that sin is destructive to them. We certainly do not hate the sinner because we have all sinned but we must be courageous in speaking out against the destructiveness of sin.
Let's strive to be more courageous, by being bold in our testimony, aggressive in our ministry and strong in our convictions.
If Christians today are lacking in any one thing I think that it is courage. We find ourselves surrounded by a lost and very confused world and we sit timidly among them and say nothing. We are afraid to offend even the offensive. We are certainly in the later days that the Bible speaks of and it is imperative that we face these days with courage. Now is a time for boldness. We must be bold in our testimony. It is great to witness to others by our lifestyle and let others see that we are different but lifestyle testimony is not enough. We must be bold and tell them Who makes the difference in our lives. For too long we have had a passive ministry. We live and let live or more likely we live and let die. Certainly everyone has the opportunity to learn about Jesus and to study a Bible and learn about His salvation. That is passive. We are taught throughout the Bible that we must be more aggressive. When I say aggressive I don't mean pushy or annoying but at least we need to be verbal. I once heard a story about a very shy Christian man who worked for a very worldly and crude businessman. This businessman would curse and yell at his employees on a daily basis. Once when this man was cursing and chewing out his staff the shy little man found the courage to say, "Mr. Smith, If you just knew Jesus you would be a lot happier and the rest of us would too." The boss was surprised and actually became speechless because he knew how shy this man was. He thought long and hard that night about what was said and he went to the midweek service where the shy man attended church. They were having Bible study and prayer meeting and that night he asked Jesus to save him. His life did turn around and things did get better for him and all those around him because the shy little man had the courage to be a little more aggressive in his ministry. Courage also should make us be bold in our convictions. We need to stand up for the Bible and stand on God's Word. We need to apply it and we need to share it. It seems today that when one stands up for what is right and stands against sin he is called hateful. We all should hate sin, and speak against it. We do this because we hate sin and because we love the sinner enough to know that sin is destructive to them. We certainly do not hate the sinner because we have all sinned but we must be courageous in speaking out against the destructiveness of sin.
Let's strive to be more courageous, by being bold in our testimony, aggressive in our ministry and strong in our convictions.
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