By Evangelist John “BJ” Hall
Matthew 10:27 (NASB) " What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.”
As I have looked back over more than 47 years of ministry, I realize that many who go to church faithfully are living secret lives. They are keeping their Christianity a secret. Many of their friends don’t know they are Christians or even that they go to church. Many “Christians” are afraid of what their friends will think of them.
The public climate in America today has become more and more hostile toward Christians sharing their faith. But this is nothing new! Jesus said in Mark 13:12-13 (NASB) "And brother will deliver brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. 13 "And you will be hated by all on account of My name, …..”
We should not be frightened by the present judgement of the lost world. All they can do is kill the body. God protects the soul. Martin Luther caught this truth when he wrote:
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still;
His kingdom is forever.
I have often heard the question, “Would you die for Christ?” A more important question is, “Will you LIVE for Christ?” Would you stop living secret lives? The fact is, if we don’t take a stand now we can and WILL lose our right to take a stand in the future.
Those who oppose Christian values are not afraid to take a stand. They get out the crowds and march in the streets. They stick their vile message in our faces on the television and in the news.
When are we going to take stand for all that is good in Christ? We have been taught the truth of the Gospel. Yet we cloister ourselves away and only speak of these things in “safe places.” Then when we do go out into the World, we talk like them and act like them.
There should be no difference between our lives at church and our lives at home, or in the workaday world. Peter said it this way, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:” (1 Peter 2:9 KJV). We are to be different than those who do not know Him.
I love the way the Amplified Bible says it, “… [God's] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Don't be a secret disciple.