[Don't] Keep Your Mouth Shut

We were sitting at the dinner table, eating our dinner. Our conversation had being going well up until that point. And then I saw the tears in my wife's eyes.
We had been talking about being evangelistic. I asked my tender-hearted wife why she was crying. Then she made a statement that knocked the wind out of me.

"If someone came up to me and said, 'Jesus loves you,' you know what my first thought would be? They aren't a member of the church of Christ."

Wow. Let that sink in. She's right, isn't she. To add some credibility to this, my wife didn't grow up "in the church," either. She knows. And deep down in your heart you know, too.

Throughout the ages, Satan has been crafty. While we rail against "political correctness" in the church, and pride ourselves in being "incorrect" politically because of our stand for the truth, have we missed something just as serious?

When I was growing up, I was told not to be "showy" with my religion. After all, that's what charismatic, denominational people do. Passages like Matthew 6:2-18 and Matthew 23:5, as well as Jesus' parable about the pharisee and tax collector in Luke 18:9-14 as "proof" of this concept. A good Christian isn't ostentatious, and doesn't make a scene in order to be seen. No one wants to be thought of as being a hypocrite, like the ones we read about in the scriptures. But when preached and taught, it all comes across (whether it was intended this way or not) as one clear command: Keep your mouth shut about God.

And so to a certain extent, I have. You probably have, too.

So, when I see a yard sign, or a cross on the side of the road, or a bumper sticker of a fish, or a person wearing a shirt with the phrase "Jesus Loves You," do you know what I think? They probably aren't a member of the church of Christ. And I'm usually right.

Tell me, in all that time, who has been winning? God, or Satan?

In our attempt to keep from being associated with charismatic denominations, or to be "respectful," or whatever it might be, thus keeping our lips tightly closed in public, who has been winning? In waiting for the "right time" to talk about Jesus to someone, how often did it ever come?

There is such a thing as being so afraid of losing that you don't take the first step toward winning. How can we be more evangelistic if we are afraid of being perceived as being evangelistic? Sometimes we're so afraid of looking like the enemy that we end up looking more and more like him every day.

Here's my challenge to you: Tell someone, some random person, each day this week to remember that Jesus loves them. Say it. They may look at you weird. They may think strange things about you (which you would never know anyway).

Or it may just be what they needed to hear.

How will you know unless you try?

~ Daniel

"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" - Romans 10:14, ESV