Do Not Be Silent

Our Great Lord, how awesome are you. We praise you with all of who we are, but we find ourselves wanting to praise you further. With what else are we to praise you? We praise you with all of us, with our bodies, with our voices, let us praise you with our lives. We wish to praise you all the day long and never grow weary but this is such a difficult thing to do. Give us strength as we run the good race of the faith, and may we have the endurance of the Spirit to complete the race you have set before us. In Jesus name, Amen.

There have been many times that I have given up pursuing someone who I never thought was going to come to Christ. I have attempted to lead people to Christ who just argued, reviled, and threw insults at me. I say to myself "they are not the chosen people of God" in anger. God says to me "who are you, O man, to choose who is mine and who isn't?" Who are we to say "I will tell this person about God because they seem nice, but not this person because they might hurt me"? God has chosen and we do not know who he has chosen. We have been called to tell people about Christ, it is God's choice who comes, but we must do our part.

There are, my friends, times to back down from telling people the gospel. Some people will do nothing but ignore you, do not waste your time on them unless they choose to listen. Show joy, love, and patience towards them. Some people will get very angry with you for believing something so against what they believe. In this situation, you can either move on, or continue, depending upon the moving of the Spirit within you. If you quit talking to them about the gospel out of fear, you have done the wrong thing. We are called to not be fearful of those who can only destroy the body on earth, we should be fearing him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. The only time, my brothers and sisters, you should quit talking to someone about the gospel is because God has clearly told you to. If God has not clearly told you to quit talking to someone about him, then continue in whatever way is most appropriate to that person.

Pastors often talk about not doing anything till God tells you to do it, well I'm telling you to do everything the Bible commands, including the great commission, until God tells you to stop. I'm telling you to pursue evangelism, teaching, missions, and any other Christian activity you can until God puts a clear calling on your life for something more specific. There will never be a time when you get to heaven and God is angry that you have told so many people the gospel.

Do not give up on sharing the gospel because of fear of what man will say or do. Continue speaking and do not be silent until God has prompted you to let go of what you are currently doing. You may even be persecuted by Christians for pursuing someone who doesn't want to be pursued, well those Christians need to have a self-examination to see if they are really in the faith. Do not be hateful when you share the faith, but in love and patience, tell them the truth without tolerance of views opposing the truth.

Move whenever you get the opportunity and don't sit down till God says you can take a break. Be blessed brothers and sisters.

"Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." - Acts 18:9-10