Preach the Gospel...

We live in a crazy upside down world. I believe the greatest evil we face today is relativism and not just relativism but an acceptance of relativism. In our world we are so afraid to offend or push people away that the answer often given is to just remain silent. I often hear people say "preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words." Reflecting on the Gospels, nowhere can I find this in the teachings of Jesus and just a little FYI, Saint Francis never actually said that. Jesus preached the truth even when it was hard and many left him because of it (ironically this is found in John 6:66). The Saints all fought the fallacies of their day and many even gave their lives rather than be silent.  It sadness me that even many well meaning Christians accept this idea that we should keep our faith to ourselves and avoid confrontation. We will accept and defend someone's "right" to preach lies but we shutter when someone corrects error and demands that truth be preached. If we allow a mind set like this to continue we will get a world like...well like our current one in which lies are held up as truth and the truth of Christ is seen as judgmental and unacceptable. We wonder how our world got to where it is today? A world where killing a baby in the womb is legal and marriage is under attack and things that were once unthinkable are now defended as tolerable. We got to this point because we stopped speaking up, we stopped demanding that lies be exposed and truth take center stage. Jesus said that he came to bring the sword (Mt 10:34) and even further he said “If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" (Lk 14: 26). Jesus is very clear that HE comes first and we must be willing to sacrifice everything for Him, even our own family. Yes we must use prudence when we preach and Jesus modeled this too. He spoke differently to women then he did to men and chose his words carefully based on who he was speaking to but this idea that we should just let alone and leave them in their error is not something I find our Lord ever doing. Jesus' example shows that we must first be people of great prayer so we are led by the Holy Spirit and then we must be people unafraid to preach his truth. I have never been one to be silent about my faith. I married a man who is the same way and we will teach our daughter to defend her faith as well. The world says to avoid talking about religion and politics but since nothing is more important than the soul my husband and I both embrace the necessity to discuss religion. Nothing is more important in life than living our the faith given by Jesus Christ. The world is dying from a lack of truth. The world is starving for Jesus and it often isn't being fed because the lies of relativism tell us to be quiet. On the judgment day I pray that I am able to look our Lord in his eyes and say I at least tried. I can't promise my efforts will lead others to him but I can rest assured knowing that I was not afraid and not silent. "But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father" Matthew 10:33

A few other verses that pertain to this topic worth quoting... 

1 Peter 3:15- always be ready to give an explantion

Jude 1:3- defend the faith that God has entrusted

Hosea 4:6- people are ruined for lack of knowledge