Truth Demands Confrontation

By: American Decency Staff

Sometimes it’s very painful to stay informed AND to take action.

I like to feel safe and secure in my little “bubble,” then I read and find out a wide variety of troubling things that are going on in our country:  terrorism, the Benghazis coverup, IRS fraud, racial profiling, etc. and I have a deep realization that threats exist both near and not so near.

On a more trivial level, yet nonetheless troubling, as it does impact my desire to think that all is nice and good, I like baseball and follow the Detroit Tigers.  But, then I read about “star” pitcher Justin Verlander and his fling Kate Upton and their nude pictures. It disgusts me and baseball loses its innocence in my eyes.

People mostly prefer sheltering themselves.  My dad used to say of my mother, “Your mom likes to think that life is a bowl full of cherries.  It’s not.” 

Look at this in a spiritual light. Here are some thoughts about being in the world, but not of it from a pastor/author from the late 19^th century – the late, great J.C. Ryle.

The Mindset of a Pilgrim

“A holy man will follow after spiritual mindedness. He will endeavor to set his affections entirely on the things above, and to hold things on earth with a very loose hand. He will not neglect the business of this life now; but the first place in his mind and thoughts will be given to the life to come. He will aim to live like one whose treasure is in heaven, and to pass through this world like a stranger and pilgrim traveling to his home…

Here are a few of my take aways.

1.    A holy man will seek to be spiritual – seeking to set his priorities in accord with God and His Kingdom principles.

2.    A Christian man is to staunchly remember that he is a pilgrim on this earth – a stranger in a foreign land.

3.    However, at the same time, he is not to neglect the business of this present life. 

4.    He will be in the world but not of it. 

Clearly, Ryle’s emphasis is upon being spiritually minded yet with a caution not to neglect the business of this life now. 

You have also heard the comment regarding certain individuals, “They are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.”

There is a place for taking care of business – of knowing and doing:

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer stated it this way:

Truth demands confrontation.  And now we must ask where we as evangelicals have been in the battle for truth and morality in our culture.  Have we as evangelicals been on the front lines contending for the faith and confronting the moral breakdown over the last forty to sixty years?  Have we even been aware that there is a battle going on – not just a heavenly battle, but a life-and-death struggle over what will happen to men and women and children in both this life and the next?  If the truth of the Christian faith is in fact truth, then it stands in antithesis to the ideas and the immorality of our age, and it must be practiced both in teaching and practical action.  Truth demands confrontation. It must be loving confrontation but there must be confrontation nonetheless.

[Taken from The Great Evangelical Disaster]

I say all of that to say this:  Truth demands confrontation!  Get truth.  There is a battle going on, and not just in the heavenlies, but a life-and-death struggle over what will happen to men and women and children in both this life and the next!

GET INFORMED.

Who am I you might ask?  I’m just a mere man who has learned to fight the fight of faith with my wife of 44 years, and still going strong by His grace.  Here, though, is some counsel that I have learned and place before you.  May God use it in someone’s life today.

Pray. Learn to pray. Learn to take time to pray and set aside a time to seek His face.

Read.  Spend time with God in His word.  If you are just beginning, I suggest short books of the New Testament that have short chapters of doctrine followed by hard hit practical.  I suggest Paul’s letters: Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Romans, etc. 

Make it your life and your lifestyle.  Study God’s word.  Let it come into your heart, mind and spirit and affect your thinking, life, and actions.

Read another devotional like:  C.H. Spurgeon- Morning by Morning and/or Evening by Evening, or Oswald Chambers – My Utmost for His Highest, or F.B. Meyer – Our Daily Walk.

Pray as you finish your time of devotion.  Ask God to open your heart and mind to what He would have you be and what He would have you do. 

No matter your age or stage God is wanting to make you into His person.   There is a spiritual war and you and I are in it, whether we recognize it or not.  He wants to prepare us for His service. 

Oswald Chambers says it this way: 

And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God.

Are you saying, “But I can’t be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances; I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn’t come yet, but when it does, of course I will be ready”? No, you will not. If you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions, when you get involved in God’s work, you will not only be useless yourself but also a hindrance to those around you.

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photo credit: Anne Worner via photopin cc

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