How does one live as the New Testament calls us to? If you are one who watches Joel Osteen or most mega church pastors, you would probably come to the conclusion that we are to live prosperously and have a joy that comes from wealth, success, personal empowerness……and Jesus if you can fit Him in. But is that the same message that the Gospels and Epistles preach? I don’t think so.
If we step back and look at the church of the New Testament, wealth and happiness from material things is the last thing that we would find written about. All of the disciples but John were martyred for spreading the Good News of Jesus, and even John was put on an island by himself in exile. Paul was beaten, imprisoned, and eventually martyred for his belief and Stephen was stoned for proclaiming the Truth. These men gave EVERYTHING to help spread the Gospel because they knew that we are called to suffer for the message of Christ as He did for us. But yet, sometimes as Christians we get this feeling of entitlement, that we deserve to be wealthy, successful, and stress free. We lose the focus of our Great Commission and fill ourselves up of pride and before you know it we have forgotten who our Lord Jesus really is.
The Spiritual Warfare that is fought in America is different than the type that is waged in the bush of Africa or the jungle of Indonesia. If we were put in a room and had to choose between Jesus or a tree that we believed made it rain as our God, we would easily pick Jesus. But what Satan does is he puts us in a room with Jesus and starts filling it with worldly treasures. He puts new cars, clothes, wealth, and power in the room. He takes our attention off our Lord and before long Jesus leaves and we don’t even notice that he left.
More often than not we get so caught up in our own lives that we don’t even notice that Jesus has left the room. And because of that we don’t spread the Good News because of that fear of losing what we have accumulated or the fear it might be awkward. The comedian Penn Jillette from Penn and Teller, who is an atheist, said this about evangelism:
“If you believe that there's a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell for not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward, and atheists who think that people shouldn't proselytize -- 'Just leave me alone, keep your religion to yourself. How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? If I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn't believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there's a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”
Isn’t it amazing how God can use an atheist to preach to us about evangelism. Lets get up, put aside all pride and prejudices, and start spreading the Good News today. Go out and live the life of a NT disciple and lay it all on the line for Christ. We are all guilty of allowing pride to get in the way of our Calling, but lets start a sharing revolution and reach God’s children for Him.
For God’s Glory,
Lance
3 comments:
Great post, Lance! Thanks for sharing!
Refreshing Lance! If you keep preaching/writing like that, you won't win any popularity contest in the modern church or with most Christians today; however, your popularity in heaven will increase and your reputation in hell will also. Who cares who is impressed with us here. Lets be feared in Hell! Whatever your doing, keep doing it. Fear God and not man. There is no in between. "Balance" when used as a term to meaning: to stay relevant and in touch with the world in order to reach the world, is nothing more than a keyword for compromise. Unity without the cross (sacrifice) is worthless. The cross is THE central teaching of the gospel. Love you bro...God Bless!
Great post Lance.
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