i think one of the reasons why we sometimes shy away from hard conversations
whether publicly about things that are happening culturally or privately within our own churches
or within our own homes i think one of the reasons why sometimes we shy away from hard conversations
is because sometimes we have more of the fear of man than we have of the fear of god
and we are so afraid of other people disapproving of us and we're so afraid of other people speaking
against us that we have stopped being people who are speaking out of conviction
and we have stopped being people who have we we've become people who are
no longer saying what god has called us to say and no longer do what god has called us to do but are
learning and copying and pasting based on what the world prefers so of course we don't want to have
hard conversations if we're afraid of displeasing people more than we're afraid of displeasing god
and this is a verse a simple verse during jesus's time on earth that really stood out to me recently
we know um from jesus's life there were people who believed in jesus that he was who he said he was
and they wanted to live like jesus and love like jesus and there were people who didn't believe
jesus was who he said he was so they had no care to exemplify his life but then there was a third
group of people who did believe that jesus was who he said he was but didn't want people to know it
in john 12 42 it says yet many leaders secretly believed in him but would not declare their faith
because the pharisees continued their threats to expel all his followers from the synagogue
here's why they loved to please men more than they desired to glorify god come on and when i'm
thinking about representing jesus and seeing souls saved within my lifetime i'm thinking am i someone
who knows jesus and knows what he can do and knows the truth about who he is and knows his love but i
am so afraid of those in the synagogues expelling me i am so afraid of culture canceling me i am so
afraid of other people not liking what i'm saying that i'm not going to say the truth at all there
were people who believed that jesus could save lives but they were so afraid of not pleasing men
that they didn't even say that the one who could save lives could save other people
that there was truth for everyone that there was hope for everyone they knew the truth there was
this third group of people that said i know the truth but i'd rather not say it because
i'm so afraid of what man can do to me and that is my prayer for myself and for all of us and
everyone watching that we would be people that have the fear of god more than the fear of man
and that we would not keep the hope of jesus and and the healing of jesus and the truth
of jesus to ourselves in fear of what man can do to us because what can man do to us
when we have given our lives to jesus and we're filled with the holy spirit what can man do to us
we do not want to stop speaking with conviction because we're afraid of men i think that's why we
shy away from hard conversations sometimes because we're more afraid of people than we are of god
it's interesting to me i've noticed that there are people who shy away from certain conversations but
then they go all in on other conversations and it's it's almost representative of the charge
that was laid against that church in revelation 3 and 15 where it said i know your deeds that you
are neither cold nor hot i wish you were either one or the other so because you are lukewarm
i am about to spit you out of my mouth what does it mean to be lukewarm it means that i have a
little bit of passion here i have no passion there and what happens is we don't actually live out the
full counsel of god's word god is calling for us to live out the full counsel of his word and
i think uh where we have faltered and it's been interesting that since i work in tech you know 80
of people in tech are either atheist or agnostic and so you know to be a person of faith in the
tech sector is like to be a unicorn basically uh but even they look at the church and they're like
that just doesn't seem right they don't even believe or follow in anything that we do and and
just with their own carnal knowledge they look at us and they're like that just doesn't seem right
um and so i think god is just calling us to a higher standard because
because i don't think we have to shy away from any conversation i mean if you can't have
the tough conversations with the church then where are you going you know we carry the answers we do
have the answer the answer is in jesus and he gives us the wisdom and the love and and the
strategy to do whatever we need to accomplish here on earth but we cannot do it in our own strength
we cannot do it with our degrees with our with our own ways we have to submit to the word of god and
like you said the the whole truth all of it god is full of mercy and judgment is coming you know
he he loves us and and but he stands for truth and mercy all the time and if we would be consistent
like the wor like the word of god is consistent then then the world will really get a chance to
know who jesus is we don't get the chance to pick and choose you know what we like the most
or what we stand for the we stand for the truth and you have to stand for truth no matter what
and i think that sometimes the struggle is not even just that we have the answers but how to
articulate the answers to the culture that we are in and so because we have a lot of you know the
way that some of the things that we read from a biblical age in their times it was modern to them
so they could be talking about sheep and donkeys and they understood it because that was modern
life and then we come into our culture and to how to articulate that is where sometimes it becomes
a roadblock because now you know the tough question is coming and we're just like hey just
read the scripture and they're like but sheep and donkeys i have not seen the sheep ever
so i do believe that even as believers as a body to not be spiritually lazy because there
are certain mysteries that is locked up in god one of my favorite scriptures is when the bible says
that it is the glory of god to conceal a matter and it's the glory of kings to search it out and
i think that even as believers we have to get to that place of what are some of the questions
that i also i'm finding it hard to articulate to the culture that i'm in and seeking the lord for
wisdom on how to say it in a manner that brings transformation in the lives of people and so i
also think that go even the searching and again it really just ties into humility to say lord
i don't know how to answer this right now and i need your wisdom because i believe that
every expression of god will draw people to him and the wisdom of god will also draw people to him
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