To the brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ our Lord: May the peace of Christ be in you and with you always.
I am writing you today because there is a problem. We are all being lied to. Our culture, the powers that be, the rulers and authorities in this land have been working for decades to silence us. They have told us that we must keep our faith to ourselves.
That it is not welcome in the public square, politics, work and school. We are told that faith/religion is only to be a part of your life in your house of worship or for practicing privately in your own home. This is a lie!
Jesus said to his followers in Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV). “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
We can’t and won’t do what Jesus commands if we listen to the lie we are being told. Our faith must be practiced and shared with others every day of our lives and in every place we go. Faith is not something private, but is meant to be shared publicly. It is a blessing from God that is to have an effect on the culture we live in.
This leads us to the next lie we are told by the “woke” culture we now live in. The big lie the “woke” push is that nobody can change. They deal in the business of shame and disgrace. They look for ways to ruin people and create divides along with silencing truth.
Recognize how many people in recent years have been attacked for something they said or did decades earlier in their lives. This is no way for people to treat each other.
People can and do change because God invites us to change. He invites us to live a new life and he will forgive us of the sins of the past.
Here is an example from John 8. Jesus tells the woman caught in adultery to “… go and leave your life of sin.” Clearly there is a way of life that is better than the way she was living. She could leave her sins in the past and have a future free from shame and guilt. Why was this the case?
John 3:17 (NIV) explains, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Jesus sets people free from the shame and guilt of sin. We need to let people know that there is freedom and there is hope.
Brothers and sisters, we can’t do this if we remain silent. We need to rise up and speak God’s truth to a broken and tortured world. It is time for us to speak truth in the public square, exercise our faith in politics, and pray without ceasing at our work and in our schools!