Frank DeLalla

At this morning's prayer meeting I was feeling dull. I don't know if discouraged would be the right term, but I was feeling a bit whatever about the mission. I thought about why I was there at 6:00AM in a very cold building, and asked God to help me do my job as a believer and missionary--to pray for His name to be honored (hallowed), His kingdom to be established, and His will to be accomplished.

I turned to Acts chapter 4 for some encouragement and it stirred something in me that I began to think about yesterday afternoon. I was thinking about what really hinders me from talking about Christ with friends and strangers. I came up with two shameful reasons, so here is my confession:

People pleasing keeps me silent.

Not wanting to offend someone with my outrageous beliefs is a decidedly bad reason not to talk about what Christ has accomplished on my behalf and in my soul. It raises a few questions. Who do I respect most? Myself? The person I might offend? Both are idols if I put their respect above honoring Christ.

Pride keeps me silent.

Perhaps worse than the desire to keep the conversation polite is the desire to make someone think that I'm not one of those people. Not that I fear being known as a Christian, but that someone would think I was ignorant or simple (which is how many see us). Perhaps the best word for what I fear is that someone think I'm foolish:

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is folly (often translated "foolishness") to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:22-24 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly (or foolishness) to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Many people hesitate to talk about the Gospel because they are afraid they will be stumped by a hard question, or that the person they talk to might be smarter than they on various Biblical difficulties or philosophical questions. Its great to be informed, but in bearing witness to Christ is my own reputation for having answers really what I should be concerned about? Isn't that just valuing the same thing as "those who are perishing?"

So in a sense I'm more like the Corinthians than I am like Paul. For Paul, their love of a good argument moved him to focus entirely upon the cross and rest entirely upon the power of God's Spirit so that their faith, "might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:5)."

So back to Acts 4. I found the cure for this worldly, sinful set of motivations in a powerful passage:

Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

God filled them with His Spirit and that gave them boldness. So I think I know what boldness is, but here is a solid lexical definition of what the Greek word behind it means:

Boldness: "an attitude of openness that stems from freedom and lack of fear (Friberg's Analytical Lexicon)."

Boldness is freedom. Boldness lacks fear. The Spirit of God sets you free to not care what someone thinks about you when you love them enough to tell them that Jesus is the only one who can save them from the wrath of God.  

Father, shake this place and fill me with your Holy Spirit.

Afterthought: So I finished this post the day after I started it, and had the blessing of seeing the kind of boldness I was thinking about in action in a news show. Franklin Graham told a few news folks that the country needed Jesus, plain and simple. (Hoped to get the clip, but I couldn't find it. Maybe soon.)