"Are You Ashamed of the Gospel?" - Daily Word #4

seekgod (49)in #christian-trail • 7 years ago (edited)

30331-shame-guilt-woman-pointingfingers-sad.1200w.tn.jpg
Source

It's not an easy answer.

When things are going well and when we don't face any sort of persecution, then I guess we could say "I'm not afraid, bring it on". But when the reverse happens, we might not be so sure what our response would be.

Paul wrote in Philippians 1...

For I fully expect and hope that I will NEVER BE ashamed, but that I will continue to BE BOLD for Christ...

Many years ago, when I was a young Believer... my immediate family and larger extended family began to mock and made fun of me. I was called... "Pastor"... "Holy-Man"... etc. Those were trying times, as I was scared to stand up for my Faith.

You see, we were all brought up to follow the traditions like Ancestral Worship and Idol Worship. Truth, no one knew any better. They all just followed what their elders as them to do, as a sign of Respect.

And so I sometimes buckled in due to the pressure I was faced by all sides. Even my mother came up to me and said, whatever you do, DO NOT GET BAPTISED!!

Then one fine day, I decided to stop all my excuses and I was ready to Stand Up for my Faith.

I told my mum, dad about WHY I no longer want to do ALL that they asked me to do. I then reassured them of my LOVE I had for the family and that I will always be Me.

I realized when I did that, two things happened!

My family began to respect my new found beliefs -- which actually shocked me!
The New Standard of Declaring that I am a Born Again Christian proved that I needed to CHANGE all of my Old Ways/Habits.

Paul later said...

And I trust that my life will bring HONOR to Christ...

And overtime as I showed my Parents more RESPECT, and began to Change all of my BAD ways... it brought HONOR to my parents -- because I began to first choose to HONOR Christ in Every Area of my life!