Political correctness!  Anyone else fed up with political correctness??  Political correctness is a self-imposed prison where we turn over our freedom to anyone who might be offended.  As Christians, we should never use our freedom of speech to be offensive. We should never use our words to demean or slight anyone.  In fact, the Scripture teaches us that we will have to answer to God for every careless word that comes out of our mouth (Matthew 12:36).  To go even further, the Scripture says that we should not let any word come out of our mouth except that which builds others up (Ephesians 4:29).  Aha!! Therein lies the rub for Christians.

Speak the Truth in Love…

How do I build up someone if I encourage them in behavior that will hurt them?  To build someone up means to lift them to a higher plane. We are called to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) which may not always be pleasant.  We are called to let our children know when they are being selfish. We are called to let one another know when we are holding on to grudges. The nature of Christianity is that we are encouraging people to go in the way of Christ but to point out this way, there are times when we need to discredit the way of the world.  Surely, this would not offend anyone, right?

Well, it would offend the devil.  He is trying to kill every soul, steal every innocence, break down every family, wipe out hope, increase selfishness, and promote greed.  When we start helping people see a different way, it is offensive to him and it will be offensive to anyone who is not operating in the Holy Spirit at that moment.  Do we really want to give the devil authority over our words?

It’s ok to say Merry Christmas!

This morning, I was in Walmart and I saw a friend there.  As we were leaving, he said, “I hope your family has a happy holiday.”  Then he quickly corrected himself saying, “I mean I hope you have a Merry Christmas.”  Just as he did, another lady at a different checkout turned and had a very disgusted look on her face.  She was offended because he wished me and my family a Merry Christmas. The devil hates Christmas because it exalts the Christchild.  This is why our culture under his dominion (2 Corinthians 4:4) has done everything possible to change the meaning of Christmas. The attacks have come from both sides.  The secular attack has been to make Christmas more commercial. The attack from within the church has been to discredit Christmas because Jesus wasn’t actually born in December and it is pagan-like to have a tree in your house. To get into that would require another blog 🙂  But you get my point that Christmas is offensive to powers of darkness that do not want Christ to be exalted.

When political correctness is applied to believers, it is intended to make us keep quiet about our faith and the teachings of Scripture that go against the philosophy of this age.  Yet, the Bible calls us to something very different. Jesus warned the early disciples that their culture would also try to keep them quiet, but here is what Jesus said:

Matthew 10:26-27

26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.

(NIV)

You can’t salt conversations if you are afraid to talk about Christ

One translation says that we are to shout it from the rooftops, but we can’t lose sight that our beliefs, even when said appropriately with love and not a judgmental spirit, will always be offensive to this world.  Political correctness is not something Christians should adhere to. We should use our words to salt conversations (Colossians 4:6) with love, grace, mercy, and peace, but to hold our tongue because the world will be offended would be to disobey our Lord’s commands.

Let’s look at our Verse of the Day:

Hebrews 10:35

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

(NIV)

The Contemporary English Version translates it as “Keep on being brave.”  This passage goes on to say that in our faith, we must not shrink back. This is exactly what political correctness attempts to do to the Christian.  It works to make us nervous about our faith and shrink back out of fear of criticism or hatred, but we must continue to be brave and proclaim our faith from the rooftops.

Words are powerful. 

The Bible says the power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21).  Death could care less how it snuffs life out of us as long as it does. To speak nothing of our faith is equivalent to allowing death to control our tongue.  We must speak life. Jesus spoke the words of life (John 6:68) and we are called to do the same. But this requires bravery. We will be criticized. We will be attacked.  The devil will be offended and we will be told that we need to keep our religion to ourselves. The problem with this though is that our very religion requires us to be a witness, to preach the Good News for salvation, and to teach believers how to follow the Word of God (Matthew 28:18-20).  

When we speak with bravery, the very words that come out of our own mouth will edify our spirit (Proverbs 18:19-21).  Not only does silence keep us from building others up, it keeps us from helping ourselves when we need to be reminded of God’s goodness and faithfulness.  When I say praise the Lord in church, I am giving God glory for His goodness. But if, in the grocery store, I am nervous to say this so I reduce my language to ‘that is really great,’ God is not glorified.  The event of which I am speaking gets the glory. That doesn’t help me or anyone else. But to remind myself that God is good and He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6) fills my belly and my soul with the good things of God.  

Shout it from the rooftops!

Let’s not shrink back in talking about our faith and our Lord.  Always in love, let us shout it from the rooftops.

Hey everyone, I also wanted to give you a link to a message of mine from this past Sunday.  It is a message on connecting to the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said that God seeks those who worship in spirit and truth.  If we are going to connect with God, we must know how to connect with Him on a spiritual level.  Click here for this message: Connecting with the Holy Spirit.

Also, if you are in San Antonio, I would love to invite you to a marriage seminar I will be teaching on November 9th.  It’s called “Fighting to Win.”  I will be teaching on how to use your arguments to make your marriage better.  The success or failure of every marriage hinges on how we deal with conflict.  This is a seminar that everyone should attend.  I’ll try to write about it afterwards for those who can’t make it, but it would be better in person so you can see my beautiful face 🙂  REGISTER FOR THE MARRIAGE SEMINAR

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Live Blessed and Be a Blessing!