Courageous Christianity

[Chad]

Courageous Christianity
David Jeremiah


They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:31


[TABLE="class: box1"]
[TR]
[TD]Recommended Reading
Acts 4:23-31 [/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

In his book, Courageous Christianity, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote about living for Christ in a hostile society. "Why do I preach the Gospel when people do not want to hear and I face many hardships and discomforts in doing so?" he asked. "I will tell you why. Take this world of ours. We have already had two world wars, and look at the present international situation. What is the matter with this world? What is the matter with men and women? Is there nothing that can put things right? I say that only one thing can even touch the problems of the human race -- it is this Gospel." 1

From the beginning of the biblical story, God's people have courageously relayed His message to the world. Jonah to Nineveh. Daniel to Babylon. Isaiah to Judah. Peter to the Jews. Paul to the Gentiles. The Gospel is the only hope. Some will oppose it, but many will hear, believe, and be saved if we are courageously Christian.

Boldness enables Christians to forsake all rather than Christ, and to prefer to offend all rather than to offend Him.
Jonathan Edwards

Read-thru-the-Bible
Psalms 51:1 -- 57:11

 

[Michelle71]

Funny, was reading recently about what Peter and John said to those who told them not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.

Act 4:18 And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
Act 4:19 But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
Act 4:20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
Act 4:21 So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done.
Act 4:22 For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.
Act 4:23 And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.

Sometimes what the Lord calls one to do will look like heresy in the eyes of another. Goes back to the same mammon Jesus talked about.

Mat 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

G3126
μαμμωνᾶς
mammōnas
mam-mo-nas'
Of Chaldee origin (confidence, that is, figuratively wealth, personified); mammonas, that is, avarice (deified): - mammon.

Most look at mammon as money, greed, power etc. Which it does include those things, but is there more to it? Maybe that passage has been glossed over by many
because they say in their own hearts that they do not have a problem with the holding of physical money in esteem, nor the lust for power. But what of the drive and
need of humans to be accepted among a group, and then follow that group's "laws" spoken and unspoken even though that is not really what the Lord would have
them do. Could that be part of mammon as well?