Hello, and welcome to Enbolden, Living a Bold Christian Life. I'm Chris Shutter, an ordinary Christian, living with and learning about an extraordinary God. Now more than ever, we need to be resolute in Christ. Please join me over the next few weeks as we look at ways to lead an uncompromising Christian life.
Today's resolute verse comes from Hebrews 10, 33 to 35. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution. At other times, you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You were suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
So do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded. And this quote from Ron Rhodes in his book, Five Minute Apologetics for Today. Our country has become a virtual cafeteria of different religions, cults, and non-Christian worldviews that are all vying for supremacy on America's religious landscape.
Our country is also currently confronted by many tough domestic and global issues. We need Christian wisdom and biblical discernment as never before. That phone call that Drury Knight will never be forgotten, at least by me. And I wasn't even the person in trouble.
I wasn't the one who desperately needed to hear the right words to save a life. But I was in need of knowing the right words to say. And because I didn't have the wisdom, the strength of faith I have now, I must take part of the blame for ending a life that night. My friend's voice was filled with desperation.
She was pregnant. She was also just 19, a college student far from home. A woman who was having a fair with a married man who had also gotten another woman pregnant. I had counseled her before, over and over, trying to get her to stop seeing this man.
He was slimy and untrustworthy. But of course, he was also different with her, a genuine prince apparently. And so a life of unwonted, unprepared motherhood was staring at her in the face. And what would she tell her parents?
How could she show her face? My immediate response? You must get abortion and abortion, of course. This young woman who dreamed of being married one day and having many children was looking for a way to erase her mistakes, to reboot her dream of becoming a nurse first, then having a family.
And I helped her take what seemed to be the easiest path. We both washed our hands of it all and moved forward with both of our lives. But I for one have never forgotten what I did. And I doubt she has either.
I wasn't a Christian at the time, but I was a member of the human race. A person that valued fairness and justice. A person who for the most part thought she was, quote, a good person. I had no one in my life telling me any different and showing me a different way.
And it wasn't until I drew closer to Jesus that I realized how far from the truth I was really living. The problem was I then swung a little too far in the other direction. I took up the mantle of truth and forgot about the royal commandment to love one another. And I think sometimes when we Christians get ourselves mired in political and social issues, we can forget about that place of balance that God seeks for us.
We can forget about what we are really needing to accomplish in God's name. In the United States, the Republican or conservative or right-leaning parties are automatically associated with Christians. And yes, there are many of the same values involved. But to assign our faith to one political party's platform is a mistake in so many ways.
For one, it politicizes the message of Jesus. For another, it assumes that all party stances are within the biblical realm. It also assumes there aren't people in other parties that profess their Christian faith. And so when we may come up personally against a faith or biblical or moral issue, we might pull back from our commission of helping others out of a sin-filled life because we don't want to be labeled a, quote, right-winger, a bigot, or a nutjob, or any other derogatory political statements.
To be fair, too many of our churches have either abdicated their responsibility to teach their flock about so many hot-button issues such as homosexuality and abortion and how to respond correctly. While others have so politicized their churches, you can't tell the difference on a Sunday between a patriot rally and a sermon. A new friend of mine told me how she was visiting various churches trying to find a new church home. One visit took place on the 4th of July, for those of you outside of the United States, it's the U.S.
Day of Independence. As she stood at the beginning of worship, she noticed all the songs were patriotic ones. And when the U.S. flag was marched in by worshipers, she got up to leave.
At the door, the pastor stopped her and asked, why are you leaving? And her response was, I came to worship God, not the United States. Now lest you think she doesn't love her country, she does. She loves her country, but her love of God doesn't have anything to do with her country.
And so like the women in my Bible study groups, we ask questions that our churches fail to address or in the way they need to be addressed. In our group, we feel safe to dig deep into what the Bible truly says about homosexuality, trans-generism, abortion, and more. But we aren't theologians. That's why we go to church.
To hear the word of God taught to us in ways we can turn around and use them out in the world. It's sad to be honest to hear Christians desperate for knowledge and yet left unfet weak after weak. One of the ladies in my study group recently had a profound breakthrough related to this topic. She is very sweet and prides herself on creating good relationships.
But she realizes her desire to not rock any boat has also been excused for not speaking the truth plus love when it is needed most. She says, I realize that in the past I had the excuse of being naive as to the expectation of what God wants from me. But I can't use that excuse anymore. I know he wants me to contend for the faith.
I know what is truly at stake. But now I'm struggling to see what that looks like for me. I'm not going to take every major issue facing our world today because I'm not a theologian with lots of important degrees to back up my words. But I will direct you to the steps you might take to be better prepared when your friend tells you their daughter wants to start hormone treatments to become a man.
Or when your co-worker tells you that having a nice house in a nice neighborhood is white privilege and you should be ashamed. We also need to be prepared to step back and know when a political issue maybe doesn't have any biblical connection at all and just must be looked at from a good citizen point of view. Because yes, not everything we deal with in us is a faith hill to die on. But how we deal with those issues is.
You'll remember at the beginning of this I referenced the book The Five Minute Apologetics for Today. It was written in 2010, but you'll find most of the issues we face currently. It's a great easy read for giving us biblical perspectives. In addition, here are four steps that were recently explained in my current Bible study on Jude.
It's a great study to really see what a very short letter how it applies to our life today. As background Jude, who's Jesus's brother, was writing to a church that was infiltrated by false teachers. Teachers who were leading lives and encouraging believers to give themselves over to sexual immorality, pride, and even more. Towards the end of his letter, before he tells the believers how to actually confront the false teachers, he gives them these four pieces of advice.
1. Build up your knowledge and confidence in the word. Learn about and study the Bible, God's character, His promises, and the judgment to come. Be immersed by also finding a good biblical teaching church.
Not one that just tells you some good stories each week. Join Bible studies and hint hint, do the work. Reference Jude 20 in Ephesians 2-19. 2.
Pray not in the flesh, but in the spirit. Go to the Holy Spirit and ask for help in what to pray. By doing so, you show your dependence on God. Ask for help in knowing what issues you should be concerned about, and which you should just leave alone.
Read over Romans 8, 26-27 for that. 3. Keep yourself in the love of God. In other words, fight to resist your own passions and doctrine that may keep you separated from God.
Lean into God for His promises and His direction. You can reference Jude 21 and John 15-9. 4. Stay in the hope of the mercy that is waiting for you.
As Jackie Hill Perry, who did the Jude study I'm doing, says about this, we've been saved from God's wrath for God. The knowledge and hope of what is to come when Jesus returns should feel like a protection. We have something better in store for us than any man's approval. We need to keep our sights on this so that the persecution we might face doesn't silence us.
Look up Hebrews 11, 25-26 for more on that. On a final note, I want to encourage you to do a study on Revelation. It helps to do it with others. Don't just read it.
It's really confusing. And it really, really helps to have other people to throw ideas and concerns and questions off of. A good study with people you trust will reveal to you what so many of our churches seem to fail to remind us each and every week that judgment is coming to all. We have a greater commission than just being nice Christians.
We are commissioned to help God save souls. We might want to start in our own households. Have an awesome day. I'd love to hear from you and find out more about how you are living out your bold Christian life.
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