Most of us can remember all too clearly past encounters where we were led by the Holy Spirit to share God’s word with others. Or, at other times when someone came to us with questions about the gospel/salvation. Though we do and have done this in obedience and with our hearts aligned with God, we sometimes find ourselves suddenly bombarded with attacks, defiant arguments, and questions.
Peter advises us to be prepared – I Peter 3:15-17 – NKJV “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”
Peter uses the Greek word apologia for answer in this scripture. The word may sound like apology, but do not be fooled. What do we have to apologize for when we are sharing God’s word? Absolutely nothing! The word apologia actually means to layout a verbal defense.
There are people who do have true questions. There may be just one thing that the devil has used to put up a wall in one’s mind for years. When we give them God-given answers, it is like that wall has been knocked down and they can see the truth for the first time; like a light has been turned on. But, of course, that is not always the case. With others, as soon as you give them their first answer, they fire more at you like – ‘But why…?, What about…? Are you really saying that…?’ and so on. Those people do not really want your answers. They want to get you frustrated and side-track you. We must, at all cost, be in and leaning on the Holy Spirit to stay calm and on track.
A while back I joined a social site that I thought would be a fun place to share with and befriend other moms. Being who I am, I posted a journal on my page about taking a stand for my beliefs; namely on the churches of today preaching tolerance to the sin of homosexuality. I quoted the scripture in Leviticus 18:22.
There was an immediate barrage of hateful attacks accusing me, for one thing, of forcing my religion on them. No one was forcing them to come to my journal and read my post; they made that choice. Some said that being homosexual is as natural as breathing, and that more and more people are accepting of the homosexual lifestyle. One actually stated that the Bible is outdated and should be re-written. This went on and on for hundreds of posts. I had to delete and block some lesbians that were vulgar and abusive. They could comment without using vulgarity and hate, but they chose not to. At one point, I found myself being distracted from my main topic and had to delete some of my own responses.
There were only 3 Christian moms who stood with me to combat the evilness that was present there. (I know there were more than those 3 on the site, but they had been there longer than I, and were aware of this certain group of pagans who follow Christian posts and come out of the woodwork to bash them.) The four of us quoted scripture after scripture in response to their attacks, just as Jesus did in the wilderness when Satan tempted Him. It became quite obvious that they did not want to know the truth; it convicted them. I decided not to continue to ‘cast my pearls before swine’ and moved on to other subjects. As long as my subjects were not controversial, I never heard from them.
It was a devastating eye-opener for me to learn of these mothers that are into pagan witchcraft, atheism and a new-age Christianity and they believe anything goes; “Just leave everyone alone and we all do our own thing”. It is very scary to know that they are raising a part of our future generation.
I came to the conclusion that I did not want to be a part of that community where everyone is nice as long as you do not hold anyone accountable or try to get the truth out. I still call some of the sweet-spirited moms that I met there friends, but for the most part, I keep that place in my prayers.
