The Voice of One

It's been an interesting week focused on being the mouth of God. I am convicted, and troubled, and unsure of even how to do what we are supposed to...

Speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15)...

Truth is easy, it's that love part mixed with truth that causes problems. People don't want to hear truth sometimes. It's too painful, too real, too raw....

On Wednesday I received a message that a troubled young man I knew had died of a drug overdose. I began to consider my own guilt and disobedience in the matter. This was a teenager caught in a destructive lifestyle that I spent some time around about a year ago. He expressed interest in coming to church with me, and on the one Sunday it was to happen, he didn't show. I began to get busy with other ministries, with believers, and quit taking time to talk with him. A couple months before I left, he contacted me wanting to get together...I never followed up. Now, I repeatedly warned him of the dangers of his recreational drug use. But you know what I never did...?

I never called him out for the expressly forbidden sins he was committing in other areas of his life. As I realized what had happened last week, I was overwhelmed with sadness. I began to track the time, and wonder if he was standing in judgment before God, if he already had, what had happened, what God had said, how he had responded.

Did I miss the opportunity to be the voice that spoke truth in his life?

I was afraid to offend...afraid to bruise feelings...afraid to alienate someone. The reality is that alienation from myself is of no concern, when he had chosen to alienate himself from the source of all life.

I failed...

I am absolutely positive that on the day that I stand before God, I will have to answer questions about why...

And I realize that my singular voice was one of many warning him of the realities of his decisions. The loss of a 20 year old with a lot of amazing qualities is a tragedy regardless of anything else. I am saddened that the evils of the world have taken another young life. I am burdened at the hanging question of his spiritual state...something which I could have addressed. This is a regret that I will not forget.

I had another chance this week to be obedient in speaking truth. Second chance to speak conviction over a  church for being "stiff-necked" and "lukewarm"....yeah, God told me to say those things. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to say things that are offensive! I want people to LIKE me....but loving God is much more important than liking me. So I prayed, got nauseated, and spoke the truth....

Perhaps it falls on deaf ears, but I am left this week considering our responsibility to other people. I have often said that truth is not the fun policy, but it is the best policy. I hate lies and untruths of any form, and yet when it comes to reacting this way in Christian relationships, I tend to shy away from the burden of saying the hard things. It is easy when it comes from me...but how do I tell someone they are wrong based on what "God said"...? It is this fear that keeps us from giving people the opportunity to reject God.

And never question the fact that the GOSPEL IS OFFENSIVE. People have to be presented with the truth, and given the option to reject everything about it. Not a watered down, culturally friendly, socially forgiving Gospel...but the real Gospel, that demands qadosh....holiness...set apartness....

I beg you to take away from my stories this week a reality that does not go away. Sometimes we have to say things to other people that they are not going to like. Sometimes they are not only going to reject God, but reject us....

He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me (Luke 10:16)....

If someone doesn't want to hear from Jesus, then they most certainly are not going to want to hear from you....but when God is calling us to be obedient to speak the truth, we must set our own feelings aside, learn to love the person, and speak the truth He has called us to speak...it is not an easy task, and probably one of the hardest we face as a believer. But it is worth the momentary discomfort in a relationship to avoid the question I am asking right now about a lost young man....

Could the truth I avoided speaking have made a difference in his eternity?