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God did not give us a spirit of timidity . . . do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord . . .
--2 Timothy 1:7 & 8
The Embarrassed Believer
On February
12, 1997, twelve Egyptian Christians were gunned down by terrorists not
far from Cairo because they were Christians. One month later thirteen others
were murdered in a different city. Doug Cousino's first-hand account in
our Sunday services of his experience in another Arab country confirmed
what we have heard from other sources. In the Islamic world, Christians
who practice their faith do so with real life peril at hand.
Americans know nothing of this kind of danger. Nonetheless, we commonly find ourselves in social environments of cynicism and contempt towards the committed practice of the Christian faith and the teachings of the Bible. The assumption by many seems to be that religious conviction and stupidity go hand in hand. It's a yahoo thing. For Christians in the free world, this is an age of mockery.
Not that anything is new under the sun. Why would the Apostle Paul have addressed this issue so directly if it were? Jesus himself stated repeatedly that anyone openly identified as his disciple would face at least the specter of shame in the eyes of the world.
My friends, in a society where people hate to be embarrassed, if we as believers are to have any chance of being the kind of salt and light we are called to be, then we are going to have to get over our fear of embarrassment. There are good reasons why we can get over it. For one, the number of those who are hostile to the faith is not only overestimated, so is the security of their unbelief. The cynic elite are seriously lacking in social and personal solutions in a world where evil is strong. Our Creator has planted innate desires in the heart of mankind which long for satisfaction and instinctively recognize real answers. We are also blessed with the resources of numerous articulate and scholarly champions of belief and testimony to its power. We are on the winning side. The hand wringing can cease. Embarrassment at belief is largely self-inflicted.
"Do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord."
-- Steve Wilson, Pastor
For more information, contact
Evangel Baptist Church, Dr.
Steve Wilson, Pastor
1114 College Avenue, Houghton, MI 49931
906/482-6626, evangel@up.net
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