If you have to be very careful to not offend others when giving the gospel then you are presenting a false gospel in the flesh. We ought to be warning people in these last days to take a good look at their sinfulness and realize their need for the Savior.
Any worry about the delivery of the gospel is relying on self instead of the Holy Spirit leading.
When the Holy Spirit convicts men of sin they either become angry or ashamed, but they never go away feeling good about themselves.
If your goal is to make people like you by keeping them happy in the exchange, then they will not feel convicted nor will they see a need to be made into a new creation.
Those who make others feel comfortable no matter their life, will merely enable them to continue without any sense of shame. Without shame over sinfulness there can be no salvation.
Romans 1:15-17 "15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek. 17 For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”…"
Jeremiah 8:11-13 "…11 They dress the wounds of the daughter of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. 12 Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all, not even enough to blush. Therefore they will fall among the fallen. When I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD. 13 I will take away their harvest, declares the LORD. There will be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the tree, and even the leaf will wither. Whatever I have given them will be lost to them.”…"
Ezekiel 3:17-19 "…17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me. 18 If I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die ,’ but you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood. 19 But if you warn a wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness and his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity, but you will have saved yourself.…"
Notice that Ezekiel warned the people that they were wicked and what would happen to them if they did not repent. This is a picture of how the believers should express the gospel today to those who are perishing.
The modern gospel merely enables the unbeliever to feel loved, happy and fat no matter what they are doing, thereby keeping them stuck in their sin without hope. Their hope is in how many people they can surround themselves with who will validate them. Their hope can never be in Christ as long as they do no see their sinfulness.
When God says "urge them", it is very strong language. There is no urging when the encounters are merely happy happy praising and flattering.
2 Corinthians 5:20
"Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore (urge) you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God."
The Lord has allowed me to finish a book I have been wanting to write for some time now. The book is being published now, its in the final stages of editing. The name of my book is "Narcissism; Second Timothy Three is Here." Many of the things I write about on this blog and on Facebook are in this book. May the Lord use it to inform and help others who are targets and victims of narcissistic abuse.
"10 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.
12 One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
13 This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith,
14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.
15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed."
Here is the thing!!!!!
I don't believe the New York Times! I don't believe they have an anonymous letter from anyone. I believe they made the whole thing up all by themselves in order to cause controversy against the president.
Why would I take seriously any newspaper that would protect an anonymous letter writer.
When we were growing up we were taught to sign our names to anything we sent as a matter of personal integrity. Anyone can make up a lie about an anonymous letter without evidence.
In short: it is cowardly on the part of the anonymous writer, if there was one and even more cowardly to print something that could not be proven by anyone.
The New York times was irresponsible and in my opinion lying, perhaps even someone within their own ranks who wrote that letter.
I do not trust a newspaper that would protect a coward if indeed there even was an anonymous person.
There you have it, my opinion based on the human nature of these end times. 2 Timothy 3 raging forward.
Narcissists see "victims" as weak which is why they pretend to be the strong one when they are not strong. If they were strong they wouldn't feel the need to demean others to elevate themselves.
We are not victims even though we may be targets. To remain strong when under attack takes the Holy Spirit work in our lives. The prophets of old were as picked on as is possible to be but they continued doing what God assigned them because He was their focus.
When our focus is Christ we do not have to be controlled and manipulated by others. Anyone who will not be our friend unless they can control us is no friend at all. These people need to see our boundaries and remove themselves if they refuse to honor them. If they refuse to remove themselves then we can remove them.
Do not bother attempting to prove to a narcissist that what they believe about us is not true, they never listen and if they happen to listen they do so to have information to twist and mock.
If they will not go away, remove the narcissist trouble maker by blocking them on phones, e-mails and visits. Never be available to them to continue their nonsense. If you live in the same town and cannot get away, then consider moving to another town or another state.
Matthew 10:34-37
"“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
When we cannot leave family to follow Christ, then those family members are idols to us. Far too many people remain with family members who want nothing to do with Christ, diminishing their walk with Him.
Luke 14:33
"So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."
If anyone has placed extended family above their spouse, they have a family idol and are disobedient to the word.
Ephesians 5:31
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
If family members have heard the gospel and rejected it or have claimed to be Christian but remain superficial trouble makers, then we are commanded to move on to follow Christ without them.
Matthew 7:21-23
"21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
Bottom Line: Follow Christ even if you have to do it all alone. God will bring people to us as He sees the timing is right, we must trust Him.
