Compromising. This seems
to be an issue that many of us Christians face. Well at least I did. I would
make myself feel better by rationalizing my actions in participating in sinful
acts by ranking sin. I would tell myself that participating in this sin is not
as bad as what others around me are doing and this would make me feel better. I
thought by comparing my life to others and not doing the exact things as they
were doing made me a "better" Christian. Man, talk about pride! I was
thinking to myself recently of why I did certain things in the past and I came
to one conclusion...I was ashamed of Christ! I grew up in church all my life
and I had a pretty good foundation of who Christ was, yet I was still in the
world. I guess the perfect way to describe the old me would be a "lukewarm
Christian". I knew what I was doing was wrong, yet I did them anyways.
Why? Because I wanted to feel apart. I wanted to be like everyone else! I
didn't want to be the "over spiritual" one. I was ASHAMED point blank
period.
I'm being really
transparent because I want you all to evaluate yourselves. Are you able to
standout, being unashamed of Christ? Or are you engaging in activities that you
know aren't pleasing to God because it makes you feel accepted or important?!
Luke 9:26 says “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed
of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the
holy angels”. We must not be ashamed to be bold and
profess the name of The Lord. If we are ashamed of Christ, he will be ashamed
of us. This is not the way we want our Heavenly Father to feel towards us and I
know that he doesn't want to feel this way either.
I was reading John 18 and Jesus said that Peter
would deny him 3 times and after the third time the rooster would crow. That's
exactly what happened. The question I ask you today is does your rooster crow?
Understand that every time we intentionally engage in activities that
are not pleasing to God and every time we are ashamed to speak to others about
Christ, we are depicting the scene of Peter denying Christ and the crow of the
rooster following. We have to stop being ashamed of Christ. He is probably one
of the few people in our lives who is truly unashamed of us. It's crazy how we
can be so ashamed of a person who accepts us for who we are completely, flaws and
all. When we set our minds on the bigger picture and realize that standing
for Christ outweighs anything this world can offer, the simple thought of being
ashamed of Christ will fade. I believe that there will be a silence
among the crows of roosters in our lives. WE are unashamed of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. We will profess His name!
