History reveals that we are here on the earth and in this life for a purpose far beyond ourselves. While certain people are thrust into the limelight, for God's purposes, all those who know Jesus Christ have a call to be His ambassadors in a world that desperately needs to hear the truth about God and His offer of forgiveness and life. In order to accomplish that purpose, to rise above the temptation to give up or to give in to the pressures of our society to water down the truth or to deny that what God says in His Word is true, we must persevere and proclaim God's truth with the unending conviction that it is a matter of life and death ... because it is!
The Apostle Paul spoke the following words to the elders at Ephesus, found in Acts 20:24-31: "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace. Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!"
Where are the watchmen today? I just saw a commercial on television from "values.com." It showed a buddhist monk, a priest and representatives of several other religions all together saying we need to love one another. A local newspaper promoted the latest in Interfaith Unity by listing the world's five great religions as Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. A popular mega-church declared that we need to build bridges between Muslims and Christians, emphasizing what we have in common rather than what divides us. Meanwhile, pastors and churches play politics, caring more about what people think than what God thinks.
The days are here that Paul spoke about to Timothy: "The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (II Timothy 4:3-4). Can you not see it?! It has been said that those who stand for nothing will fall for anything. It has been left to us by Jesus Christ, the Head of His Church, to defend the truth. With Jude I can say, "Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord" (Jude 3-4).
Those who change the grace of God into a license for immorality DENY the sovereignty of our Lord Jesus Christ and His truth. Those in the church who would declare the teachings of Islam or any other religion to be taught or accepted as equal to the teachings of the Bible are false teachers. Those who declare that all men will be saved, regardless of their belief or faith in Jesus Christ are false teachers. God has placed me here ... and if you are a disciple of Jesus, YOU... to stand firm, to believe the truth, to defend the truth and to proclaim the truth. Only ONE message, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, brings deliverance from the wrath of God. WE are here to proclaim that message and to make disciples - whether one, two, twenty, one hundred or a thousand.
This is OUR time - God has ordained it to be so. We must not shrink back, for our destiny is as certain as God's promise. "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand!" (Ephesians 6:10-13).
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