One of the articles that passed by my desk this week for my Defending the Faith Review was this one about President Elect Barack Obama's decision to ask homosexual Episcopal bishop V. Gene Robinson to pray over an inauguration event this coming week. He had asked Rick Warren, but homosexual activists felt that was a "slap in the face" because of his support of Prop 8.
Rick Warren commented, "President-elect Obama has again demonstrated his genuine commitment to bringing all Americans of goodwill together in search of common ground. I applaud his desire to be the president of every citizen." As odd as that sounds coming from a pastor, the comment that caught my attention was from the bishop himself who stated he would not use the Bible and, "I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer."
Prayer is acceptable as long as it isn't "especially Christian?" In many states prayer is palatable as long as it doesn't invoke the name of Jesus. At public events in California (and other states), you can pray in anyone's name except for Jesus. Many churches are beginning to water down their message and only speak to the "happy parts" of the Bible because some of God's Word doesn't "bring in the masses."
The word 'milquetoast' comes to mind. Actually the Lord calls it being lukewarm. As in Revelation 3:16, "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."
Are our convictions only convicting when they aren't so unacceptable? Are we afraid or are we buying into the lie that the Bible is elitist, intolerant, offensive and judgmental? After all times they are a changin' and we need to go with the flow. We can't hang on to archaic myths that tell us there is right and wrong in life.
I can understand the fear, but 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." How do we let go the fear? We start with knowing our Bibles and graduate to learning how to share it in grace with others. We gain confidence through knowledge and experience, study and practice.
Just today my pastor was talking about how many times the Lord tells us not to be afraid of doing the Christian thing, but many ask how. I have noticed that God also talks about communication hundreds of times in the Bible. I submit that's because He knew we would need to know HOW.
If we learn how to speak out in grace, even though It isn't fashionable, we can be effective. But Christian, you cannot do this by "not being especially Christian." If that is your objective, you had better hang it up right now. Many people who aren't especially Christian are already speaking up in the world today. The Lord doesn't ask us to be one more voice in the crowd. He asks us to stand up in boldness and grace and be different than the world and speak the truth.
It's 2009, let's be especially Christian this year.
JoJo Tabares holds a degree in Speech Communication, but it's her humorous approach to communication skills which has made her a highly sought-after Christian speaker and writer. Her articles appear on Crosswalk.com, Dr. Laura.com and in homeschool publications, such as Homeschool Enrichment Magazine and The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, which also endorses her Say What You Mean curricula including Say What You Mean: Defending the Faith.
This is an especially pertinent post for me. I am trying to find that line between speaking out for my faith and not harming the Lord's reputation with my words. I was my communication to be full of grace so as to draw people near me so as to be a good witness for Christ. At the same time, I believe the Christian community is on the ropes and we need to assert ourselves without being afraid to proclaim the Gospel. I am not interested in being "milquetoast" nor do I desire to be seen as unapproachable. This is a new journey for me. Thank you for your blog as I believe that prayer and these reminders will help me strike the right balance. 2009 is the year of using two ears to hear and one mouth to speak for me. My prayer for this year is to be God's mouthpiece and not mine. Amen!
This is an especially pertinent post for me. I am trying to find that line between speaking out for my faith and not harming the Lord's reputation with my words. I want my communication to be full of grace so as to draw people near me so as to be a good witness for Christ. At the same time, I believe the Christian community is on the ropes and we need to assert ourselves without being afraid to proclaim the Gospel. I am not interested in being "milquetoast" nor do I desire to be seen as unapproachable. This is a new journey for me. Thank you for your blog as I believe that prayer and these reminders will help me strike the right balance. 2009 is the year of using two ears to hear and one mouth to speak for me. My prayer for this year is to be God's mouthpiece and not mine. Amen!
This bishop is not Christian. It is not Christian to not read the BIble or pray in Christ's name. To believe there are other ways to heaven is pantheism- not Christianity.
We all need to pray for discerning spirits so we can tell which Christians are really Christians. How awful our world has become!
I hope I am becoming "more" Christian all the time!
It us not my desire to appear Christian, it is my desire to appear Christ-like. In order to do this we must first know who Jesus is. He's not a Greek with a Greek name, He's a Jew with a Jewish name Yeshua. Yeshu is my Messiah, the anointed one of God - YHVH in the flesh who came to take my sins upon His flesh and take the consequences for me. This, He does to fulfill the covenant He made with Abraham. I enter into this Abrahamic Covenant because I've received the gift of Yeshua - the gift of Salvation. BECAUSE I have receive the gift of Salvation, I now want to walk in righteousness, want to obey Him, and follow in the way He walked. Well He obeyed the Torah - HE was perfect in His obedience to the Torah. I however am human, I fail, but my desire is to obey the Torah - I do it to the best of my ability, and when I fail, that's where grace comes in.
To reject the Torah is to reject righteousness. 1 John 3:4 says... for sin is transgressing the Torah. Torah is righteousness, everything outside of Torah is sin. Galatians says Yeshua nailed the law to the cross - that "law" is not the Torah - that "law" is the natural law of sin and death - for the consequences of sin is death. Yeshua nailed that consequence to the cross - He did not nail the Torah to the cross - He did not do away with the Torah - He did not leave us to walk aimlessly on this world.
So - do I look like a Christian? No I don't. I don't keep Christmas, nor Easter, nor Valentines Day, nor any other day that was synchrotized from the pagans and "Christianized" to make it look like it is for the benefit of worshipping Yeshua. Instead, I keep the days He appointed to me - I keep the Sabbath on the 7th day, I keep Passover, I keep Shavuot, and all the other spring feasts. I keep Yom Kippur, and Yom Teruah and Sukkot - the Fall feasts. I also keep Chanukkah -because there is strong evidence that Yeshua was doing just that in John 10:22 when he was in the Temple at the Feast of Dedication - or the Festival of Lights - all English names for Chanukkah. I also keep Purim.. a I do none of these perfectly - I am new to being adopted into the House of Israel and understanding the halachah of these appointed times - but it's not the halacha that God cares about - how we celebrate is not important - THAT we celebrate/observe/keep/remember - that is what He wants from us. He never asked us to change our day of rest from the 7th day to the first day - that happened because the Gentiles who entered the Abrahamic Covenant abandoned their Jewish Brothers at the Barchkoba rebellion and then again abandoned them when the Romans persecuted the Jews. Christmas was a pagan feast that Constantine used to unify his kingdom and "Christianize" the kingdom. Easter is a pagan feast to Ashtorath - the godess of fertility - again Christianized because it is close enough to Passover that it wouldn't seem to Jewish.
I know that those who love Christ and call themselves Christians do so..and follow these holidays because the want to worship Him - but if we really Love HIM - we need to walk away from Man's ways - and learn to walk in HIS ways. WE need to understand that the Torah is HOW we Identify Him - to reject the Torah means we have no idea how to recognize Him. Yeshua did not reject His Bride, the Children of Israel - the Jews. If He did, we better watch out, He'll reject us too.. what a fickle Bridgegroom that would be. No - as followers of HIM, we have joined ourselves with the Jews as the Bride of Messiah.
So, I may not look like the rest of your responders JoJo, but please hear what I'm saying, Yeshua - my Saviour - Your Saviour - was a Jew. He was not a Greek. We need to learn from the Jews how to walk in faith, and not lean on the Greeks to teach us how to walk out our faith.
I am not ashamed of the gospel - the Gospel is written out in the very first word of the Hebrew Bible - Bresheit - Bresheit can be translated "Beginning" but a fuller understanding of this beautiful Hebrew word is "for the sake of the firstborn, a dwelling was created for his son.
I was raised by two Atheists of Jewish heritage, married a non practicing Catholic and became a non denominational Christian due, in part, to some Amway meetings and a Jehovah's Witness who came to my door. My purple crayon writes with humor and almost always a little out of the lines.
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This blog is my creative and fun way of sharing my thoughts on communication skills relating mostly to homeschooling and sharing and defending the faith. It also reveals a bit about how the Lord took this shy Agnostic girl and allowed her to find her voice and her purpose, a zany voice to the Christian community with insight as to what unbelievers need to hear about Christ Jesus.
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I'll share news items, quotes, family friendly humor, tips, trivia, and my newest feature: Question of the Week. I invite you to come share your thoughts!
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For more creative fun with JoJo you can visit www.ArtofEloquence.com
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"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." -Proverbs 25:11
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Jan. 18, 2009 - speaking with grace