When you are with your friends, do you bring up discussions about Jesus and His word? If your friends are believers, this task is extremely easy. What about when you are out of your comfort zone where you are with unbelievers that are acquaintances, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, sporting events, or strangers? Do you bring up Jesus or are you ashamed to mention the gospel? Are you afraid the conversations will not go well, or do you fear your reputation will be shattered because of your beliefs? Or do you feel like others will make fun of you or feel that you will experience some type of an offense – 1 Peter 4:16? Even though you may feel God tugging on your heart through His Holy Spirit to mention Jesus, do you move forward with witnessing or reject the holy spirit’s calling? Whether you feel the holy spirit or not, if you call yourself a Christian and child of God, Jesus tells us to spread the gospel to all the world and to every living creature – Mark 16:15. If we resist to spread His good news in our encounters with non-believers, we are in violation of God’s word. This means we are deemed as only hearers of the word instead of doers of the word and cannot call ourselves Christians since we are spiritually dead. We are counted as faithless cowards heading for hell – Revelation 21:8. Many may say, ‘I am not good at witnessing and therefore do not do it.’ We are not expected to be good at what Jesus commanded on the first or second try, but practice makes perfect. We must continue at it by not giving up. In doing so, we will not only be a witness to others but also to ourselves as we read in 1 Timothy 4:15-16, “Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” We will eventually get better at witnessing to others where it will become natural or second nature as a living Christian should be. God promises us His blessings as we faithfully obey His words and commandments as stated in Deuteronomy 28:1-2, “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God.” If we do NOT obey His words, then we are storing up curses for ourselves as we read in Deuteronomy 28:15, “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all His commandments and His statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” The world wants to eliminate Jesus and God’s word along with His commandments from all government, public, private organizations, and institutions. Our current culture would rather make fun of Jesus then to reveal the truth. The world also wants to mislead many away from the truth by way of false teachers and lies. The world does not want you to witness to others the truth about Jesus. Why is this? It is because Satan, the adversary, is against everything God stands for and just happens to be the god of this world – 2 Corinthians 4:4.
We are hypocrites when we profess to follow Jesus with our lips while our actions imitate the actions of this world. Jesus tells us how much He hates it when we are lukewarm hypocrites as we read in Revelation 3:15-16, “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” Jesus also said we cannot serve two masters as stated in Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” We cannot have fellowship with both God and this world as we read in 1 Corinthians 10:21, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” As true Christians that carry out the Father’s will, our citizenship is not of this world but is in heaven – Philippians 3:20. If we are only hearers of the word, God tells us that we are unrighteous. We must become doers of His word and His will for us to be justified – Romans 1:16-17, Romans 2:13. The apostle Paul tells us that being only hearers of the word is like having faith without works which is dead and useless. We are justified by our works and by being doers of the word, and not by faith alone as stated in James 2:14-26, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”
Attending Church on Sundays alone is not enough fellowship and worship for God per week as a professing Christian through Jesus. How can you have an intimate relationship with Jesus one day a week for only a couple of hours at most while serving the world six days a week? We are liars if we say we have fellowship with the Lord but walk in the darkness of this world as stated in 1 John 1:5-7, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Do you stand up for the gospel when you hear others blaspheme it? Are you ashamed to pray in public places, read the bible at work, or read on a plane or subway (train)? As Christians, we all have a calling to serve the body of Christ through our spiritual gifts to help further His kingdom by being a witness to others. As Christ suffered for us, we are called to serve Him without being ashamed of the gospel as we read in 2 Timothy 1:8-12, “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.” Jesus gave us very harsh words of warning in multiple locations of the scriptures to NOT be ashamed of Him. If we are ashamed of Him, then He too will be ashamed of us in heaven as He proclaimed in Matthew 10:32-33, “So everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven.” Jesus also calls the ones that are only hearers of the word wicked and lawlessness that will NOT experience heaven as He stated in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’ ” Being doers of the word is like someone who builds his house upon a rocky foundation. Hearers of the word alone is like the one that builds his house on sinking sand as we read in Luke 6:46-49, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
The bible tells us that our lives on earth are nothing compared to eternity – 1 Peter 1:23-25. Why do we put so much hope and care into the things of this world when these no way compares to eternity in the next life? Our lives are like a vapor of smoke that quickly disappears as stated in James 4:13-15, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist (vapor) that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ ” If we are wrapped up in the cares of this world then we will be ashamed of Jesus and His kingdom and will lose our lives in eternal condemnation. We will end up forfeiting our souls as we read in Mark 8:34-38, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Jesus tells us the parable of sowing seeds and that we should be like the seeds that were sown on good ground as He states in Mark 4:14-20, “The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
We must remain righteous and live each day by faith in Jesus as we read in Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ ” We are to pray without ceasing and continue daily in fellowship and worship to God through Christ Jesus. Being doers of the word daily by NOT being ashamed so that we can run this race with endurance that God has set before us through Christ Jesus – Hebrews 12:1-2. We need to let Him use us for His purpose, praise, honor, and glory! Look up for your redemption (Rapture) is near! – Luke 21:28.
Do you know where you will spend eternity after you die on earth? Will Jesus be your Lord and Savior or your eternal judge – John 3:15-21, Romans 2:16, 2 Timothy 4:1? Jesus says He is the narrow gate to heaven where it is difficult to find and only a few will enter by it where many will enter the easy, wide and broad gate that leads to Hell and destruction – Matthew 7:13-14. Will you experience the second eternal death (spiritual death) – Revelation 2:11, Revelation 20:6, Revelation 21:8? Do you know for sure that you are written in the eternal Lamb’s Book of Life – Revelation 3:5, Revelation 20:12-15? The place called Hell is NOT a myth and is very real and an extremely scary place – Watch this Video!
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