The first month of pastoral ministry has been exciting and eye-opening. I love teaching the Word of God, and He has blessed me with a congregation that “hungers and thirsts for the Word” (Matthew 5:6). We started our journey with a discussion of salvation and the fact that God so loved us that He gave us His only Son. We are to take that gift and spread it throughout our communities and the world.
The second week of my pastoral duties saw Charlie Kirk martyred, and I felt the need to deviate from the planned message. The Word God put on my heart was that times are difficult, and it is not going to get easier. Christ told us that the world would hate us because of Him, but that it hated Him first, and that we would be persecuted for His name (John 15:18-19). Not a message of sunshine and rainbows, but a message of truth. The world seems to hate truth at this time. Charlie was killed for speaking God’s truth. The youngsters in Minnesota and Nashville were killed by evil because of God’s truth. This world loves evil and calls evil good and good evil. Make no mistake, the persecution of Christians that has been going on for years in Africa, the Middle East, and Indonesia has come to the shores of the United States. This is an open war on Christianity. But, as Christians, we are to take every thought captive and tell the world of God’s love and warn of the consequences of sin. We are the Ezekiel watchmen on the wall. Not all will choose to come, but we are commanded to tell them.
This brought our church to a three-week discussion of keeping our spiritual lamps full (Matthew 25:1-13) and the real battle we fight. The battle against darkness waged against principalities and dark authorities. Thankfully, God has provided supernatural weapons (2 Corinthians 10:3-6) and His armor to protect us (Ephesians 6:10-18). This is also where Christ’s admonition to “Take heed that no one deceives you” (Matthew 24:4) comes into play. We must stand fast on God’s Word with our feet firmly planted in the “preparation of the Gospel of Truth” (Ephesians 6:15). We are commanded to “Be strong and very courageous” (Joshua 1:9). God would only give us this command if He was assured we have all we need to stand against this dark enemy.
Next, our congregation is moving into a discussion of what the follower of Christ looks like when they have stepped into their salvation, told others of His love, entered the battle against evil, and kept their spiritual lamps full. The full-lamp Christian will not look like anything this world wants to design. The left, the “progressive church,” and the governmental culture want to pigeonhole us as weak, bigoted, ineffective, and cult followers. They have not seen, nor are they prepared for the Christian that Christ is seeking when He returns (Luke 18:8). Christ is returning as the warrior for His bride and we must be ready.
Matthew, Chapter 5, takes a walk through what a full-lamp, faith-filled Christian will look like. We will be blessed, not because of what we did, but because of what Christ did for us. We will be poor in spirit, recognizing that we have nothing to offer God, emptied of self, and mourning over how truly penitent we need to be. That is not weakness; that is a self-actualization of what we need to be for God to pour His full blessing on us. We will be meek. This is not milk-toast huddled in the corner. This is a fully prepared warrior who recognizes from whence his strength comes. A strength that remains humbly sheathed until God releases it, and then there is no stopping that force. E=mc2 will not be able to calculate the full fury of God’s released warriors.
The social media progressives, witches, uneducated, and under-informed want to paint Christians as bigots because we don’t “love everyone” like Christ did. Dare we remind them that, while Christ loved everyone like His Father, neither He nor His Father accepted their sin. Therefore, we will love them but not accept their sin. Scripture tells us that liars, homosexuals, drunkards, fornicators, idolaters, and extortioners will not enter His Kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Revelation 21:8). The bold and courageous Christian will tell the liars, fornicators, homosexuals, and criminals that they are headed to hell unless they change directions. Unashamedly, we will defend God’s laws and the laws of the country God has given us unless those laws go against God’s law. We will stand fast and tell everyone about God’s love.
When the culture tries to shame us for not following their evil and torturous path, we will tell them of God’s love and use the shield of faith to extinguish their barbs and arrows. When they misidentify anyone claiming a denominational label as an indication of Christianity, we will point out that merely saying one is a Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, or other does not make that person a Christian. It is not that simple to walk with God. In fact, it requires picking up your own cross, dying to self, and walking a path that others think as folly. It requires that you pick up the free gift of salvation, profess Christ as your Lord, and then walk in that love, producing the fruit of the Spirit as you go.
This walk as a follower of Christ is not easy. It is a commitment, but one with eternal benefits. Pain, suffering, and joy are all available, together. This mixture creates a tough, dedicated warrior who will not fit the labels that culture wants to give. We are not bigots because we point people to the Love of God. We are not haters because we love the LGBTQ person enough to tell them of Christ’s death on the cross for their sin. We are not racists because we hold all people groups accountable to the civil law already on the books. The label of racists might be the most ignorant of all. A quick look at Christian churches around the world, and especially in the U.S.A., will show that we accept and invite all. But the walk comes with a price and a dedication to something other than evil, personal sin, and hedonistic pleasure. Are you ready for this exciting life? You are invited and will be welcomed.