Have you ever faced a heated moment when you know what to say, but you shrink back because of the flack you might receive if you do? I think our world is ripe with opportunity to speak Truth & sometimes it’s easier to avoid topics than risking offense.
When I was little, we had a cool activity toy called, “Shrinky Dinks”.
Awful name, right? 🙄
They’re sheets of plastic with shapes imprinted on them to color with a marker. After coloring, you place them in an oven & they shrink to about 1/3 the size, but grow 9xs thicker than the original sheet. I haven’t thought about them in forever, but the little ornaments I made as a kid popped up from the memory banks as I read Acts 20 today.
Paul is leaving Asia knowing he’ll never see the believers again. He speaks with great urgency & right in the middle of his speech, he says something that rings like a charge into our present day:
“I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear either publicly or in your homes.
I had one message for Jews & Greeks alike-the necessity of repenting from sin & turning to God & having faith in our Lord Jesus…
My Life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus-the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God...
If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault. For I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.
So guard yourselves & God‘s people. Feed & shepherd God‘s flock… I know that false teachers, vicious wolves, will come in among you… Some will rise up & distort the truth in order to draw a following...Watch out!”
Just like Paul & those silly toys, God has imprinted His design on each of our lives, assigning us with the task of speaking one message to all! And if it gets heated, may we grow nine times thicker in our faith!
Father, our lives are worth nothing unless we finish the work You assign. May we use our platforms to feed Your flock. Guard us from preachers that distort Truth. If anyone within our realm suffers eternal death, let it not be because we shrunk back when You prompted us to speak up! If we shrink in any area, let there be less of us & more of you!
2 KINGS 17:1-18:12
ACTS 20:1-38
PSALM 148:1-14
PROVERBS 18:6-7
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