A Faithful Messenger
And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.” - (1 Kings 17:1)
Elijah had a message that wasn’t an easy one to deliver:Go tell Ahab it isn’t going to rain for a long time. Go tell Ahab there’s going to be a drought. Yet Elijah faithfully delivered the message that God had given to him.
In the same way, God has given us a message that isn’t the easiest one to deliver. The fact that we Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He is the only way to God isn’t a popular thing to say in our culture today. But we’re only the messengers. And it’s our job to declare the whole counsel of God.
Now, we should deliver the message with as much compassion and grace as we can. Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” But the truth is that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). People will take it out on the messenger.
A lot of people say they want tolerance, but what they really want is acceptance and approval. I think Christians are very tolerant people. I may not agree with someone, but I won’t try to censor them or silence them. Yet there are people who would say to Christians, “You can’t have that view. You can’t express that view.” They not only want to silence us, but they also want us to say that we tolerate what they believe and that we accept and approve of it.
This fight will come to every doorstep of every believer in some way, shape, or form. The question is, are we going to stand on the Word of God or on the shifting sands of culture?
Copyright © 2016 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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