B is for Boldness

B is for Boldness
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

The world hates Christians. There are places in this world where Christianity is a death sentence. Christians have died for their faith since the very beginning. Before Saul was Paul he got permission to drag Christians from their homes and throw them in jail. Then he met Jesus and his whole world changed.

There was an active conspiracy to destroy Christians, apostles especially. Like Paul, when he was still Saul, there were Jews who went from town to town, stirring up trouble for Christians. Paul had to sneak out of town on more than one occasion. But nothing, not threats of stoning, not being jailed, not being whipped, nothing stopped him from telling the good news of salvation to everyone he met.

Now that, is being bold.

Here in America few of us face being stoned for our faith, but we do face ridicule. Confess faith in Jesus and there are those who automatically deduct 20 points from your IQ. How can we possibly believe in an invisible God? Miracles are called myths and the Bible is taught as an historical document. Jesus, they say was fabricated by Paul in his letters to the early church.

The World is backwards and upside down. It cannot understand an upright God. The things of God are spiritually discerned. Without the spirit there simply is no understanding the things of God. When we gave our hearts to Jesus as our savior we accepted the spirit into our hearts. When we met Jesus our whole world was changed. And like Paul we face a world that is out to destroy the message that we have to tell.

And like Paul we must tell it for it is a message that the world desperately needs. We must be bold, like Paul, ready to tell everyone that we meet about Jesus. He faced stones, we face laughter, but like Paul we do not face this world alone. God is with us, the Spirit is in us, and Jesus died rather than live without us. How can we remain silent?

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God, for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Romans 1:16

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But it sure is worth it.
Wendy