“A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s Truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.” ~John Calvin
In the front of my Bible I have a quote I once heard that reads, “People try to bury the Bible but it only rises up to outlive its pallbearers.” The Bible and God Himself throughout time have withstood many attacks. Each time they both rise to out live and out last their attackers.
Although the Bible and God don’t need us to help them stand we definitely need to speak up when the attacks are happening. To remain silent as John Calvin pointed out would make us a coward if we chose to remain unspoken. The purpose of speaking up is more for us than anything. It strengthens our spiritual growth and commitment to God. In order to be able to recognize God’s truth so we can speak up we need to know what His truth is in the first place.
We are way to vulnerable when it comes to believing everything we hear. We need to listen and go to God’s word for the truth. If we find a difference between what we are hearing and what God says we need to speak up. To assault God’s truth is to show aggression to the one we love, our Lord and Savior. To turn a deaf ear to what is being said is like turning a deaf ear to God.
We don’t need to start a rally on national television. It may or may not require shouting out loud at a town hall meeting but it requires speaking up and breaking the silence. Unfortunately we often feel safety in our stillness. We nobly turn over the responsibility to someone else who could say it better so we don’t have to.
We seem to follow what Abraham Lincoln once said, “Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.” If we know God’s truth as we should then we will never truly play the part of the fool. Satan and his attackers will try to get us to believe that but here again is where we need to stand up.
On the internet people will flock to a particular website that let’s them know if something they got in an email or heard elsewhere is true or not. They will go there in a heartbeat trusting what it tells them but how often do we flock to the Bible to search out God’s truth. Searching the Bible for God’s truth helps us to search our hearts for any lies that Satan may have planted deep within.
Frequently we hear someone quote something from the Bible, “Well the Bible says this or that.” When this happens we need to find it in the Bible and read it for ourselves. Not to prove anyone wrong but to know for ourselves the truth in God’s word. If what is quoted is wrong or twisted then stand up for it the next time the subject comes up, don’t remain silent. The job doesn’t belong to someone else.
To twist the truth of God’s word to fit our lives is an attack on God’s truth. We are the ones that need to be twisted to fit God’s truth not the other way around. We need to know it, live by, and stand up for it as Christ stood up for us. All it took as a kid was someone calling us a coward to get us to do something to prove them wrong. What is it going to take to get us to stand up and speak out for God’s truth?
What’s it going to take! We come equipped according to 2 Timothy 1:7-8 (NKJV), “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.” What’s it going to take!
© 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing
In the front of my Bible I have a quote I once heard that reads, “People try to bury the Bible but it only rises up to outlive its pallbearers.” The Bible and God Himself throughout time have withstood many attacks. Each time they both rise to out live and out last their attackers.
Although the Bible and God don’t need us to help them stand we definitely need to speak up when the attacks are happening. To remain silent as John Calvin pointed out would make us a coward if we chose to remain unspoken. The purpose of speaking up is more for us than anything. It strengthens our spiritual growth and commitment to God. In order to be able to recognize God’s truth so we can speak up we need to know what His truth is in the first place.
We are way to vulnerable when it comes to believing everything we hear. We need to listen and go to God’s word for the truth. If we find a difference between what we are hearing and what God says we need to speak up. To assault God’s truth is to show aggression to the one we love, our Lord and Savior. To turn a deaf ear to what is being said is like turning a deaf ear to God.
We don’t need to start a rally on national television. It may or may not require shouting out loud at a town hall meeting but it requires speaking up and breaking the silence. Unfortunately we often feel safety in our stillness. We nobly turn over the responsibility to someone else who could say it better so we don’t have to.
We seem to follow what Abraham Lincoln once said, “Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.” If we know God’s truth as we should then we will never truly play the part of the fool. Satan and his attackers will try to get us to believe that but here again is where we need to stand up.
On the internet people will flock to a particular website that let’s them know if something they got in an email or heard elsewhere is true or not. They will go there in a heartbeat trusting what it tells them but how often do we flock to the Bible to search out God’s truth. Searching the Bible for God’s truth helps us to search our hearts for any lies that Satan may have planted deep within.
Frequently we hear someone quote something from the Bible, “Well the Bible says this or that.” When this happens we need to find it in the Bible and read it for ourselves. Not to prove anyone wrong but to know for ourselves the truth in God’s word. If what is quoted is wrong or twisted then stand up for it the next time the subject comes up, don’t remain silent. The job doesn’t belong to someone else.
To twist the truth of God’s word to fit our lives is an attack on God’s truth. We are the ones that need to be twisted to fit God’s truth not the other way around. We need to know it, live by, and stand up for it as Christ stood up for us. All it took as a kid was someone calling us a coward to get us to do something to prove them wrong. What is it going to take to get us to stand up and speak out for God’s truth?
What’s it going to take! We come equipped according to 2 Timothy 1:7-8 (NKJV), “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.” What’s it going to take!
© 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing
5 comments:
. . .we often feel safety in our stillness.
Guilty. This quote encourages me to think about the place the Word has in my life. Do I exalt it as I should?
Thank you, Karen, for your honest observations. This is a difficult topic for many of us, not so much because we don't believe it, but because we are concerned about offending others. I think there is a time and a place for silence, but only if that silence opens the door to those who are seeking. We must speak, each in our own way with our own personality and the circumstances in which God has placed us. Have a blessed Tuesday, Nina @ mamas*little*treasures
Thanks for the great reminder in 2 Timothy 1:7-8. God does equip us for each and every purpose that He has set before us. I also like how you said: "The job doesn’t belong to someone else." Our task from heaven is uniquely our own. Thanks for your inspiring words today!
Denise Hughes :)
The Lincoln quote still lingers for me here . . .
Many Christians have definitely made fools of themselves for simple lack of Biblical literacy. The key here is not to defend the Master without the Truth, but to become thoroughly familiar with the Truth. That makes the journey far more personal than public.
I like your take on Calvin's words.
~esthermay
Thank you so much for sharing in IOW today. I esp. like the verse you ended your post with. So appropriate with this quote. THANK YOU!
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