Benjamin,
This is a note to yourself to remind you. Never forget the way you felt yesterday.
Matthew 7:15 – 20 NLT
15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. 16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.
Yesterday you decided to make this passage true in your life. You decided to stop mulling over your Christianity. You promised yourself and your LORD that you would strive to never conform your behavior to the secular world’s expectations of you.
You told yourself that you would no longer let your non-believing and agnostic friends writhe in a personal, spiritual struggle for answers to questions about eternity, all the while slowly, and sometimes quickly, veering uncontrollably down a road to hell. Before, you stood there and watched them. You claimed to love them, but you weren’t doing it. From now on you’ll share with them. You won’t hold back the answers that they really desire. If it costs you friendships, so be it.
If you’re looking back on this note years later and wondering why you didn’t resolve this before, you were afraid. You thought you didn’t know enough, or that you didn’t have the gift required to witness effectively. You thought it took WAY more knowledge of God’s Word. Now you see you have to start somewhere. Furthermore, surely by the time you read this again, you’ve acquired more knowledge and grown in this gift.
Yesterday you felt: Ashamed, extremely blessed with opportunity, hope, fear, passion, empowered, prepared, supported, loved, and responsibility.
