When is it Time to Speak Up?
“And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere…”
Lately I have been noticing something rather interesting. Although my daily routine and activities have me generally in the company of confessing Christians, I seldom hear anyone giving glory to God, or praising the Lord Jesus, or speaking of the leading of the Holy Spirit. You might be thinking or saying, “If you weren’t in church, what did you expect?” But that’s just my point. If we are citizens of the kingdom of God, if this world is not our home, if we truly are foreigners and aliens waiting for the second coming of Christ, why are we so reticent about giving the Lord his due any time we have the opportunity? It appears, from the sheer lack of spiritual testimony, that we are more comfortable in the world than demonstrating conformity with the kingdom of God.
If we are new creatures in Christ, if we have been translated from darkness into his marvelous light, if we have been made to sit with Christ in heavenly places, why does our conversation and behavior tend to reflect more the values of the world than the kingdom of God? I realize these questions sound rather rhetorical, but I truly want us to think them through in all seriousness. If the witness of Jesus Christ is only to be heard within the confines of a church building, how will the unchurched hear of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? Or for that matter, where will they hear of all the ways that the Lord involves himself in our lives?
I want to attempt answering these questions from some of my own thoughts. Undoubtedly the Scriptures encourage us to make the greatness and goodness of God known throughout the earth. It is also readily apparent that the witness of the average Christian has been silenced in the marketplace. We, the body of Christ, have allowed this to happen. Ungodly people have basically harnessed us by convincing us that so-called religious speech is only appropriate in the context of religious meetings. Case-in-point, years ago my wife and I were involved in a civic movement to curtail the erecting of wind turbines in our neighborhood. We held meetings in private homes and one night I suggested, after briefly sharing a Scripture, that we should pray for God’s wisdom and blessing in our endeavor. There were maybe 15 to 20 people present in the meeting. One person, an avowed atheist, spoke up declaring how offended they would be if such a thing were to happen. No one else opened their mouth. My request was quickly forgotten and the meeting proceeded as normal. Question, how can one ungodly person completely bury what was surely the Lord’s encouragement? Why didn’t someone else in that room defend my thought? Is it because the world has convinced the church of some mystical rule about keeping its business inside the four walls we call a church building?
Some might attribute this sorry response of the “church” to a grossly misunderstood concept of Thomas Jefferson writing in personal correspondence about the separation of church and state. Jefferson was concerned with keeping the state out of the church’s business. He didn’t want a state church, such as they were leaving behind in Great Britain. The separation clause which made it into our Constitution has been falsely interpreted so as to isolate the church from all state workings. Consequently, most people tend to follow the erroneous interpretation with respect to how the church operates and relates to the state.
The Bible is full of accounts where people are sharing testimonies of God’s awesome activities in their lives. When Jesus ministered to the Samaritan woman at the well, her response was to broadcast it to her whole town resulting in their coming out to meet Jesus for themselves. So receptive were they that Jesus ended up spending several days in their village.
After the disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit, as we read in Acts 2, Peter preached of the saving grace of Christ and about 3000 were added to the church.
There are many reasons why we might witness to the wonderful deeds of God. We might want to share an answer to prayer wherein we show how the Lord addressed some specific concern. God’s Providence in our lives provides myriad examples of his incredible mercy and grace in a very personal way. Testifying to revelation in the Word is terrific encouragement for so many people. Just in the normal flow of general conversation there arises ample opportunity to recognize and set forth the input and influence of Almighty God. Why does it seem almost embarrassing to bring God into our typical social gatherings?
When I think about how curtailed our Christian witness is today, how seldom the things of God are brought into various social constructs, I have to wonder about the relationship most Christians really have with the Lord. If you don’t have a life in the Word of God, if you aren’t serious about your prayer life, if you’re not in fellowship with other believers, then you probably don’t have a viable relationship with the Lord. Reading , studying, and meditating on the Word of God, being dedicated to and consistent in prayer, and availing oneself of Christian fellowship are basic essentials for maintaining our relationship with the Lord. Could the absence of this kind of spiritual activity be another reason why there is such an absence of spiritual testimony in our everyday lives?
In the eighteenth century, theology was the common topic of discussion among those conversing in small social gatherings. Knowing that this is no longer true, we are compelled to ask why. My research indicates that Americans in general no longer subscribe to a truly biblical worldview. Generally speaking, a biblical worldview is a way of understanding and interpreting the world based on the teachings of the Bible. It would include such beliefs as the Bible seen as God’s revealed truth, a belief in biblical absolutes, the sovereignty of God, man being made in the image of God, salvation only through Jesus Christ, and God’s purposes being fulfilled through time. This of course is just a skeleton depiction, but you can see the place and imperativeness of total belief in and acceptance of the Bible as absolute truth.
When we remove the touchstone of absolute truth, we are adrift on the sea without an anchor. We have reverted to the days of the Judges when everyone did that which was right in his own eyes. This is tantamount to ignoring the will of the Father, and Jesus referred to this as lawlessness. In Matthew 7:23 Jesus said, “But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”
Maybe it’s time for those of us who claim the name of Christ to reevaluate our faithfulness to all that means. Do we have a witness? Is it substantially based in the Word, prayer, and Christian fellowship? Are we willing to be Jesus’ witnesses unto the ends of the earth?
