Taking A Stand for God.

(Rev 3:14-16) “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

The scripture that was read speaks directly to the issue of wishy-washy christians. Jesus is telling John to tell the people of Laodicea that He is aware of their works, as He has been keeping his eye on them, as well as the other churches. And that they were neither hot nor cold. Or, to put it another way, they were neither excited nor blasé about the church. And because of this, He wanted them to be one way or another, and is about to, as He said “spew you out of my mouth.”

But in addition to studying scripture, a lot of people are rather wishy-washy when it comes to dealing with God, with Jesus and with their stance on being a Christian. They are what we call, “middle-of-the-road” Christians.

These are the people who have no definitive stance on what their lives should be as Christians, or the Bible. They are okay with whatever the other person has to say. They don’t argue a point, even if they know the point is wrong, because somewhere in the back of their mind, they are afraid that maybe, the thought is right.

One of the problems that a lot of Christians have, when it comes to discussing theology and scripture, is that there is so much room for interpretation. Five different people can read the same exact scripture and come up with five different meanings behind the scripture. Which in turns creates some interesting situations when people are coming together and trying to study the Word of God leading to misinterpretation of what Jesus really meant.

This is dangerous ground for a lot of Christians, because it leaves them open to some really weird interpretations of scripture. Because, let’s face it, no matter how nice we try to be, no matter how “politically correct” we may wish to be, some people are just wrong. Dead wrong. They are wrong about their views on scripture; they quote things in a manner that is totally opposite to the flow of scripture.

And if you challenge them, they may end it with, “well, that’s my opinion” or “your opinion” it may come to the point that they don’t want to know so they say, “Lets agree to disagree!” meaning, “I find you offensive.”

Jesus is showing that it is important to take a stand, to be on one side of the fence, to be consistent in your faith. Jesus seems to be telling us that taking a laissez-faire attitude towards the church and towards Him is not sufficient. This will cause Jesus to spit you out of his mouth.

My experience of people in a lot of churches is that they want to be popular and want to be liked, especially in the ministry. They figure that it is easier to get programs done and accomplished if their congregations have good feelings (emotional based faith) towards us.

We figure that in order to be the most effective, we must ensure that we don’t offend people to “keep the balance”, lest our ministry be negatively affected, in other words having that balance of unity to love in such a way as to not offend.

Whilst on some levels it would be easier if all people concerned did have
positive views towards us as ministers, it is not practical. We cannot please all the people all of the time, and more often than not, we can’t please some people at all. There are people who will just never have a good view of us; maybe because of the way we dress, the way we talk, even the way we eat. There will always be someone who will have something against us.

(2nd Timothy, 4:2-5) “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out
of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

So there you go, we have to do things in the likeness of Jesus and be obedient taking a stand. I, personally, would rather not have their blood on my hands.

This is what the bible says in (2 Tim.3:12.) “And indeed, all who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

Sometimes, we just have to tell people that they are wrong, and sometimes we have to tell people that they are right. The majority opinion is not always the correct opinion. But if we take the “middle of the road”, “I wanna make everyone happy, and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings”, then we are being not only a wishy-washy Christian, but we are being wishy-washy preachers as well.

And how can we preach the gospel if we are afraid to take a stand on the
critical issues of the time. After all, taking the example of Jesus and his ministry, we will find that he never shied away from a stance he was taking. He never ran from a confrontation or an argument. Instead, he stood firm and proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom of God, the message of repentance, of believe and confess and, as a result, he ended up being crucified for us.

So the issue comes that we must be about the Father’s work. We must be willing to do what the Lord has called us to do, despite what other people may say or think. We must be willing to take a stance on issues regardless of whether it is popular or politically correct, and do not worry if in case people get offended. They are not offended at you, it’s the word that offends them and they cannot accept the truth.

(Romans 1:18.) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

(Romans 1:21,22.) For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks but they became futile in there speculations and in there foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise they became fools.

Dr. King once quoted a philosopher who said, “A man who will stand for
nothing will fall for anything.” In today’s climate of political correctness, the Christian who wants everyone to feel good and doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, would rather be “middle of the road” than to be single-minded in their Christian walk.

I hope that this will encourage you and open your eyes to the important realization of why we need to take a stand for the sake of Jesus and that this is the meaning of what it is to be a Christian.

We all have troubles in our spiritual walk; we all face temptations and often fail.

A simple prayer.

“Jesus, my heart sings to You, my Lord. You are love and You are peace. I’ll never forget seeing Your arms open for me.

Thank you for holding me Lord. I can’t express how I feel about You, I cry when I try, but you know my heart. Thank you Lord Jesus for being so good, true and righteous. I love you Lord Jesus. Help us to always look up to You in everything we do.

Thank you Jesus. All the praise and glory to You, forever and ever, amen.”

(Proverbs 3:5-8.) “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.

There is hope even in the worse situations, and there is a Friend who is ready and willing to help. The Lord never wants to see anyone lost, He will go to great lengths to bring the destitute and wounded to Him. But He has called His people to do His bidding, to be His servants, putting Him before themselves.

I challenge you to walk forward with new determination to make a difference in these last days.

By Miguel Hayworth