Skip to main content

YOUR FAITH: HIDDEN OR SHOWING?

All those who have put their faith in the Lord Jesus are children of God, irrespective of where they worship. An active faith in Christ is a result of accepting the free gift of eternal life through the sufferings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.
However, there are different ways believers chose to walk before God. More importantly, Jesus told us how to walk before Him. He left nothing our personal prejudice.
In Matthew 10 where Jesus focused on soul winning and presenting the gospel to our lost world.
Starting from verses 32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn
“‘a man against his father,
    a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36     a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it."
Here he was beyond being misunderstood in laying it out clearly.
It wasn't going to be all sensitive and touchy, it wasn't going to be a pity-party. The new believer was going to encounter rejection, persecution and desdain starting from home, your very own family. Then they were going to be publicly shamed, humiliated and denounced by many close friends and family. All this for Christ sake.
He made no instructions or implications that they should compromise, be friendly and win the acceptance, praise of men to avoid persecution or rejection.
There are some people who brag about keeping their faith buried and hidden. Jesusis the answer to all the ills and despair of this world.
Why hide him?
There are two examples in the book of John we will look at that reveal the truth we are trying to reveal.
John 3 begins with the famous visitation to Jesus, by a pharisee named Nicodemus. This man had some deep thought about Jesus. He was convinced contrary to popular opinion among his fellow-pharisees, that Jesus was from God.
He wanted to have a chat with Jesus but COULD NOT COME TO HIM BY DAY. Shame, disdain and ridicule made him come in secretly.
So he came in the shadows. He had alifetime once-in-a-life-time talk with Jesus. He has never been so swept off his feet! Jesus was breathtaking! His lips were so gracious, his words so piercing, the truth so urgently and period so eternal.
Although this was to be the most significant moment of his entire life, he could have opened up about the meeting.
At the end, he alone was blessed.
Then the second story in John 4. Jesus and his disciples had had a busy evangelistic day. They've travelled the dusty hills of Judea and Samaria and were returning home to Capernaum.
Arriving at the junction leading to Samaria, Jesus sent the 12 into the city to get some food. For they were exhausted and fatigued.
However, He had an encounter with a Samaritan woman who came to fetch water.
As His words pierce through her filthy life and her racial prejudices shattered. As a result, being a Jew or a Samaritan had little bearing anymore.
Now look at what she did with a new found faith.
John 4:28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him...39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers."
Wow!
This woman found a new life, an encounter with Jesus, her heart changed. Although she was not a noble woman, yet her testimony was so compelling that a whole city came forward to receive Christ..
Obviously Nicodemus influenced nobody but himself. Whereas the promiscuous woman sharing her faith changed hundreds and thousands.
Will you keep hiding your faith? Or will you share it? Jesus promised that those who are ashamed of him today, he too will be ashamed of them before the Father and His holy angels.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REPOSITIONING CAN MAKE YOU MORE EFFECTIVE

  B Y    D A V I D     M C Q U E L Hello Everyone!   It has been a long while. The year 2022 has finally passed. And we are still here. God is to be glorified. We absolutely give God thanks.   I tried to review the year, looking backwards at my pleasure and displeasure with the year. I also did try to see where I failed, underperformed or missed the mark both set by God or by my heart. I always like to do an honest self-appraisal. I bear in mind that either lavishing praises on myself or ignoring things that should be fixed are not to my advantage. Transparency may hurt but I stand to gain first before someone else.   Here are a few things that I came to a conclusion on: 1.       I need to make certain necessary adjustments or changes or repositioning either on my character, my commitment, my determination or my effort. This is non-negotiable. I cannot continue to do things the way I did and expect a different result. I am impressed by European football. If there is s
Post a Comment
Read more

THE RICH FAMILY IN OUR CHURCH

I'll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was like to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money. By 1946, my older sisters were married, and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter, the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially. When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. Then we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that month's electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us baby sat fo
Post a Comment
Read more

FIVE YEARS ON...

B Y   D A V I D    M c Q U E L HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL   But for us at the World Missions Centre, Abidjan, it is an even bigger day. Today is the 5 th anniversary of the launch of the World Missions Africa Blog.   When we launched on January 1, 2017, we had only on our hearts a message to share about the love of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and on our minds anxiety and questions if anyone at all will read the message we blog.   Here was our first blog post published on January 3, 2017: “Welcome to our blog. World Missions, Africa is making every effort to bring the love of Christ to all humanity. Primarily, we focus on  Africa  now in our physical activities. But with the online community, our efforts extends to the ends of the earth. Jesus died for all humanity. Every race, every ethnic group, every people, male or female, bound or free, the gospel of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ is free to all. Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the go
Post a Comment
Read more