Are You Sure You Are Not Ashamed of Jesus?
Act 4:29
Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word
Eze 33:8
When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.
Most Christians would claim that they are not ashamed of Jesus yet they remain silent when people bash Him. If they are among non-believers when something happens in which they see the hand of God, they will not speak out and give God the glory. Again when among a crowd of non-believers such as at work or some public gathering they will not speak of Jesus for fear of offending. They tip toe around non-believers so as not to be considered fanatics. They claim that they don’t want to push their religion on others. Or maybe the Holy Spirit is leading them to speak to an individual but they don’t because they feel embarrassed and do not want to be rejected by the person.
In Ezekiel 33:8 above God says that if you do not warn the wicked as He tells you to and the wicked dies in their wickedness then He is going to hold you responsible for their blood.
Wow! This is serious business.
There are all kinds of reasons, some of which I am guilty of myself, but this is a serious matter in God’s eyes. Telling people of Jesus and making disciples of them is the reason the church exists. It was Jesus’ last command to us before He left. Mat. 28:19. If you are a Christian that falls into the above category and it’s a state that you are living in continually and not just an occasional lapse I would encourage you to examine yourself and make sure that you really have given your life to Jesus and are a child of God. Jesus said in Mark 8:38
“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
Now, if after your self-examination you find that you are a child of His, then maybe you are not growing. You have lost the excitement and the wonder of having the God of the universe living within you. You don’t have supernatural experiences in your life. You may have salvation but you certainly are not experiencing the abundant life.
The country singer Garth Brooks sang a song called The River that I really love. One of the verses goes like this:
“Too many times we stand aside
And let the waters slip away
‘Til what we put off ’til tomorrow
Has now become today
So don’t you sit upon the shoreline
And say you’re satisfied
Choose to chance the rapids
And dare to dance the tide…”
You see miracles don’t happen on the sidelines, they happen in the heat of the battle. You must be spiritually engaged if you want to live a supernatural and abundant life. God does not ask you to do easy things, He asks you to do the impossible. Impossible in your own strength that is.
If speaking out about Jesus makes you uncomfortable, do it anyway that’s how we grow. Study the scriptures daily and start a prayer life. In my own experience I have found that a good way to start a prayer life is to first choose a daily bible reading plan, (there are many online) and start following it.
After you have read your selection for the day, think about it. Ask God about what you just read. Ask Him what he wants you to get from it and to guide your thoughts. Now start asking yourself questions about it, who, what, when, where and why. Spend some moments in deep thought over it. Then close by asking God to continue speaking to you about it as you go about your daily activities. Ask Him to provide opportunities for you to apply any truths you have learned.
This is how I started praying to experience growth and transformation. You will find that the more you get into God’s Word the more you will understand God’s love and the more you understand God’s love the more your life changes without you even realizing it and the more at peace you will become. His peace and joy begins to spread throughout your innermost being. Also as you keep studying, learning and changing you realize how little you know and it keeps you humble. You begin to find out what abundant living is all about.
As your faith and walk with the Lord grows it will become easier to speak with others about it and you begin to develop the boldness that the verses at the beginning spoke about.
As you invest in the lives of others you will begin to experience true happiness. You begin to meet people where they are at, way down in the trenches and the spiritual battle gets intense and there is not much that you can do so you begin to rely on the Holy Spirit more and more, then, the miracles will happen as the Holy Spirit is allowed to do His job. That’s when you are really living. This is a journey that’s never complete and will never be until Jesus comes but our job is to keep pressing forward as Paul says in Phil 3:14
“I keep pursuing the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.”
Isn’t it awesome?
In His Service
Frank Vernon
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