How many times have you invited someone to church? Its kinda what Christians do. You meet someone who is not a Christian and maybe you say ” you should come to my church on Sunday,” or ” you have to hear my pastor,” but perhaps you don’t say anything. Given most reliable stats, you don’t say anything.

I suppose asking someone to come to church is better than not saying anything at all, maybe. If the whole thing is a cop-out then perhaps we need to search our own hearts? Sharing your faith is something that should come naturally. Can I ask you, when was the last time you meaningfully shared your faith with anyone? Now, I don’t ask this question to put a snare on anyone. If the stats are correct, then 92% of us never share our faith. I want to suggest that this is a tragedy.

In the day and age that we live in it has become increasingly difficult for people to share their faiths. I want to suggest that this is not simply because of the shallowness of what currently passes for Christianity, although that certainly plays a part. Neither is it simply that the generation we now live in has been preceded by more than one generation of cheap grace conversions but of course that also plays into it. No, we are now living in a society where one of the high crimes is to offend someone. This is a generation that is hyper sensitive to being offended. They would rather surround themselves by like-minded shallow people and create an echo-chamber where no difficult different idea has to be dealt with.

Society has new rules and new ways of dealing with anyone who steps outside of social norms. Let’s say you had some legitimate concerns about illegal immigration. To voice them is to be punished with the new whip. It used to be the cat of nine tails now it is the label. Voice a concern about a politically incorrect subject and you are branded a racist or a bigot. Voice a concern about gay marriage and you are branded a hater. So, in any number of subjects you can be shut down simply by being branded, pigeon-holed and at the very least, ignored. Now why would the enemy of our souls seek to create a society that is hyper sensitive to being offended?

Gal 5:11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased.

You see, the cross, the central tenet of our faith, is an offense to those who are perishing. When shared and preached by the power of the Holy Spirit the fundamental aspect of who we are in Jesus and what is required of men by God becomes utterly unacceptable to men. Now we live in a day and age where offending someone is rising to the level of criminality. We are only a few steps away from the central truth of Christianity being criminalized. That central truth that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but through Him.

If you cannot share your faith now, in any meaningful way, if the best that you can do is say to someone that they should come to your church next Sunday, then can you see the trouble that you are in? If you cannot do it now, when the only ramification is an offense to someone, how will you be able to share your faith when it will be against the law? By overly relying on the one man system in our churches, where only a few get to exercise their gifts, we have effectively starved the Body of Christ of edification. We are a mal-nourished group of people barely able to share even the most basic aspects of our faith, but rather all we can do is feebly point towards someone else and hope they tell them the truth.

When we encounter someone and the Holy Spirit creates an opening for us to share the Gospel, it should be our  our life-blood, our passion, to take that opportunity and share whatever the Lord lays on our heart to share. Not passively hand them off to someone else with a feeble invite that they may not even take you up on. The world has a phrase” Carpe diem,” seize the day. We, as Spirit filled Christians, must seize our moments. I believe we shall give an account to the Lord for the moments He created. Now every tear will be wiped away from our eyes no doubt, but how much better to hear these words ” well done good and faithful servant.?

Five months ago we rescued a two month old male Labrador. At the age of seven months Jack walks without a leash. He heels, he sits, he comes, he drops things from his mouth when told to. He is the envy of the other dogs that see him each day because he is not shackled to his leash. He runs ahead of me, or lingers behind, he runs the fields and the tree line. He loves to run in the tall grass and I love to watch him zig zag through the grass. He runs into the forest chasing rabbits and chases squirrels up trees. Even in full flight of rabbits he will cut short the chase when commanded.

Now to get to the point we are at now took discipline and consistency. There was a sternness to my voice when needed and punishment too when required. Yet, now that Jack and I have the right relationship, now that he understands his need to submit, his need for obedience, his brokenness so to speak, it is Jack that reaps the rewards. I would say that he has more freedom than any other dog in the neighborhood.

You know, this has been my experience with the Lord. I am sure some will object to the master/dog analogy but for me it really fits. As a young man and a young Christian ( came to the Lord at 27) I was very headstrong, rebellious and undisciplined. I marvel at the patience of my Master, my trainer. I too experienced discipline and I would say that it came mostly in the Lord allowing me to suffer the consequences of my actions. If He had shielded me from them I doubt I would have ever learned a thing.

Another aspect of my dog is that he always keeps me in his line of sight. He could be fifty yards away but as long as he can see me, as long as he knows I am there, he is at rest in his activities. He can be dashing around the tall grass and suddenly his head will come up, see where I am, and then he his back to his activities. His world revolves around his proximity to his master and all is right with his world as long as he can me and is close to me.

Now, consider the un-disciplined dog. He walks with his leash and is always straining against it. He never gets to run, he never gets to explore, his master cannot trust him and always has to keep him on a tight leash. The disobedient dog will never experience freedom. The unruly dog is forever confined. He is constantly being choked as he pulls against his leash. Can I suggest that this is the experience of the immature saint, the saint who would not yield to discipline, who would not be mastered, whose will is forever clashing with the will of the Master.

To be free in the Lord Jesus is to be obedient. The broken-hearted and the contrite saint is the free saint. We have been called to freedom. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Gal 5:1) For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives (Heb 12:6) Will you be free? Then will you bow the knee? It is in the bowing of the knee, the yielding of the spirit and the obedience to His word and voice that throws of the shackles of sin and produces a peace that surpasses understanding. And that peace comes from trust and faith in Jesus, not only as our Saviour which He most certainly is, but above all our Lord and Master in whom we follow and obey all the days of our lives.

Before I encountered God in new birth I felt zero worth and this was the root cause of all of my problems in life, be it anger or alcohol or drugs and so on. Without any details, I was robbed of any worth as a kid. I set of down that typical destructive path. My brother ended up in prison, in and out for many years, my sister fought her own demons and died last year ( not before finding God, praise Him)

Encountering God in the new birth,there sprung forth life. Yet every life needs the light to grow, nothing grows in the darkness. And so I have had at least two significant encounters with the inspiration of Calvary after the new birth which has significantly changed the actual wiring in my head. You see, to know what Jesus did is revelation through His word but to truly understand it requires inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

To inspire someone causes them to grow because of what you have imparted. Have you been ” inspired,” by the Holy Spirit, has there been an impartation? How will you know? How would you not know? It changes everything. If you have never experienced this then I urge you to seek and to plunge the depths of Calvary, consider the cost, consider the anguish and the agony of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What kind of love is this??? Something above and beyond our wildest imaginations. Can it be grasped?

Yes, it is a work, it is the work of the Holy Spirit and it is found by those who diligently seek it out. If you are looking, He will find you, He will reveal to you, He will inspire you and impart to you the depths of His love as seen on that old Rugged cross so despised by the world. And you will finally see your true worth as all the lies of this old world fall away like scales from your eyes. Your worth is founded upon His love!

This poem is for all the folks who have suffered loss and know what it means to hang in there. To overcomers and those who endure the darkest nights, God takes special delight in turning their ashes into something incredibly rich and deep and profoundly beautiful. When we can comfort others with the comfort that we ourselves have been comforted with then we become lighthouses in the darkness. Remember there is a direct correlation between the depths of suffering and the heights of glory. Don’t be told otherwise.

Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. (Isa 32:1-4)

When Christ rules in the heart of a man or in the Body of believers then righteousness flows like a mighty river. When Jesus has His place among us then and only then are we salt and light to the world. In a dark world which grows darker by the day, the Lord has called forth such a people. Not a people who are corrupted by the things of this world, not a people who are compromised by the cultures in which they live, but a people who dwell in the Kingdom of God here and now and who worship that Kingdom’s King, Jesus.

Then we shall be a hiding place from the wind and a refuge from the calamitous storm that is slowly but surely engulfing the whole world. God has His people and He is calling on them in this day, the day before He returns, to come out of the world and be found in Him. When we are found in Him, when we have separated ourselves from the compromised then we become as a river in a dry and thirsty land. We become the shadow of the Rock, which is Christ, for those who are caught in the unrelenting demands of a Babylon.

When the Lord rules and reigns in our hearts we will have eyes to see what is truly unfolding around us. We will see with Spirit’s eye the schemes of the enemy and the snares and the traps of religion. We will hear what the Spirit is saying to the Body of Christ, we will hear and we will know. And when we hear and when we see we will have tongues to speak plainly of what we have seen and what we have heard. Without the Lord ruling and reigning in our hearts we are as blind men stumbling around. We are no better than those who hunger and thirst in a dry and weary land. It is our calling to be like the moon. The moon is a dead object that primarily lights up a dark work by reflecting the light from the sun. The moon, by its position affects the cycle of life and the tides rise and fall because of it.

Are we having this kind of effect on the world? Do we, by being dead to ourselves, reflect the light of His glory into the darkness of our surroundings? Is there a spiritual gravitational force around us that pulls others towards Jesus? This is our calling brothers and sisters. This is the purpose of the Body of Christ and all the more so as we see those days approaching. Let Him rule and reign in your life today and lean not upon your own understanding and He will open your eyes and your ears and He will direct your mouth to speak to a dying world that stand on the precipice of judgement. Let all this be done for His glory.