2 Timothy 4:1-6 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

It is said that the "hardest country in the world to be a Christian in is the United States". On the surface that sounds like a pretty trite statement as one could easily point to countries such as China, North Korea, Vietnam and so on where our brothers and sisters are under heavy persecution and face death for their beliefs. Not to belittle the sacrifices our brothers and sisters are making but now I understand that statement.

When one scans the pages of history one can see that the periods of the most significant growth of the church were when the church was under the heaviest persecution. This is something the church in the United States, and the western church as a whole has yet to experience. In contrast the church in the United States has been lulled into complacency. We are distracted by the things of the world. Whether it be material items, comfort, our jobs or whatever, the pressure of direct persecution does not exist...yet.

We go through our lives daily going to work, pursuing our hobbies, wondering who will get voted off American Idol this week, maybe attending church, pushing to get ahead in the daily rat race and forgetting the significance of the sacrifice Christ made and the wonderful gift we have in Him.

I know this as it was a reflection of my own life to a degree, and I would daresay if you took an honest look at your own life you would say the same. Think back to that season in your life when you first got saved. Do you remember the zeal you had? Do you remember how you wanted to share your new found faith with everyone you came across?

Do you remember when that zeal may have begun to fade due to the daily pressures of life? At some point life overcame the action of your faith. At some point all the false premises and doctrines being thrust upon society began to lull you back to sleep. At some point the sugar coated sermons you did hear when you attended church began to implant the feeling that being radical for Christ was ridiculous and you don't want to offend people as that will not show them love and bring them to Christ but rather offend them and chase them away. At some point all the talk of "Your best life now" and being purpose driven may have convinced you that merely walking the walk (in whatever form may suit you) was good enough.

LIES!!! ALL LIES!!! All tools of satan to strip the power of believers away. Satan can't defeat the church but he can attempt to make it ineffectual in it's primary purpose...that purpose...

Mat 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Our primary purpose as the body of Christ is to proclaim the Gospel. Scripture points out clearly that the preaching of the Gospel is offensive to those who are in the world, it's foolishness to those who are perishing. In the age of political correctness those who hate the Gospel browbeat those who believe the Gospel into not preaching it for fear of being "haters", "intolerant" and lately, "extremists".

Instead the church has succumbed to the teaching that "you have a God shaped whole in your heart" and so on. This "gushy" Gospel has done nothing more than create a generation of false converts who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof because they lack something...a true repentant heart. They have one foot planted in the world. They profess they are blood bought but willingly are a part of the world and willingly succumb to fleshly desires. Yes they may ask for forgiveness...but it's forgiveness for something they willingly did and although a professing "christian", continue to willingly do.

It would be as if you were having an affair on your wife, went home with your girlfriend on your arm and expressed your sorrow for your actions, apologized and asked for her forgiveness. Would she forgive you? I would daresay not as you are professing one thing, but acting out another. Much the same for the church today caught up in the daily trappings of a safe and materialistic society.

How many worry more about their 401K than how God sees their daily walk? How many worry more about obtaining the newest techno gadget than sharing their faith? How many continue doing things in secret that they know is wrong in God's eyes? In general these are signs of an unrepentant life.

For those who are sold out to Christ the challenges of reaching out to these "christians" can be more difficult than the lost. The members of churchianity know the lingo, may have the answers to difficult questions, but lack faith and true repentance. This breeds a sort of arrogance as they too think they are "good people" when Scripture clearly says there are none good, no not one. As a result they are offended greatly when confronted with thier favorite sins. In contrast, we are all wretched and every last one of us deserves to recieve God's wrath and spend an eternity in the Lake of Fire.

So what was this lesson I learned? This past weekend the Lord allowed me to attend the "Ambassador's Academy" which is a ministry of Living Waters and Way of the Master. The Academy is an intense four day training academy designed to build up evangelists and train them to follow the Way of the Master and preach the Gospel the way Christ did.

During the final two days of the conference the attendees and mentors hit the streets in three diverse locations in southern California to distribute tracts, witness one on one, and conduct Stoplight and Open-Air Preaching. Throughout that period you experience many emotions personally and many reactions to the message you are giving. The reactions range from scorn, hatred and rejection to an appearance of repentance as the Holy Spirit convicts them of the truth in the message.

What I learned is that when you are doing as God commanded and are out boldly proclaiming the Gospel to seek the lost a side effect I experienced was a revitalization of that zeal for the things of God. The world and all that it entails fades away. Whether you are being heckled or jeered at is irrelevant, it's not you they are rejecting, it's Christ. But when you are thundering away, open-air preaching and preaching repentance and the Gospel not knowing if anyone is even listening you can have faith because the Bible says that God's Word never returns void...someone who needed to hear it, did.

Beyond that, when you are sharing the Gospel with someone and you see the change in their contenance due to them coming under conviction of the Holy Spirit I would hope it would affect you as it did me. When that person came under conviction the reality of the importance of boldly preaching the Gospel hits home...you realize the gravity of it all...but more so than ever before. Reading about it is one thing, watching a video about it is the same...but NOTHING compares to living it out as God commands.

Saving faith to me has a duality about it. Boldly proclaiming the Gospel and living out the commandment of Christ preserves your faith and allows you to spread a message that saves at the same time. I would like to add a caution to this. The only motive you should have when deciding to boldly proclaim the Gospel is that you desire to be obediant to God. For me, that decision, following that call, caused a revitalization in me from which sprung forth many things I had not anticipated one of which was saving faith.

Tags: evangelism | faith | false convert | judgment | preaching | salvation | soundly saved | true and false conversion | witnessing