This past summer one of my Aunts, that lives in Costa Rica, was diagnosed with cancer. The family was devastated by this news and of course those of her siblings that live in the U.S.A. immediately schedule trips to visit her. After much deliberation, the doctors gave her the worse case scenario (six months) then they gave her her options. My Aunt, like so many others, chose to fight but what if the doctors never gave her that choice. What if when she was feeling sick she went to the doctors, they ran test, and when the results came in they decided not to share the bad news with her or tell her how to be healed. What if they allowed the fact that the conversation was going to be difficult and uncomfortable to convince them that she did not actually need to know the truth of her situation. Most people would think that the thought of a doctor doing anything like this is ridiculous and completely unrealistic.
This is what we do every time someone allows us to see the pain they are living in and we neglect to speak the truth of God to them and into their situation. At times our hesitation come form society constantly telling us not to force our beliefs on others. Other times it's because we have become so occupied by our lives that we can not be bothered to take the time or make the effort to reach out to the hurting. When will we learn that sharing our beliefs does not mean we are forcing them on others? We should be willing to speak truth into the lives of those around us no matter the cost.
When we become people who "attend church" rather than being the church we become truth hoarders. Truth hoarders are those who search out the truth and take their fill of truth and keep it to themselves. Rather than pouring out truth into others they become stagnant like the Dead Sea. We were meant to be overflowing with truth, overflowing means that it is pouring out of us. When we fail to do so one day we will wake up and realize that we are not just allowing others around us to die but we are slowly killing ourselves. Like the Dead Sea, nothing can thrive or even live when it remains constantly stagnant.
This is what we do every time someone allows us to see the pain they are living in and we neglect to speak the truth of God to them and into their situation. At times our hesitation come form society constantly telling us not to force our beliefs on others. Other times it's because we have become so occupied by our lives that we can not be bothered to take the time or make the effort to reach out to the hurting. When will we learn that sharing our beliefs does not mean we are forcing them on others? We should be willing to speak truth into the lives of those around us no matter the cost.
When we become people who "attend church" rather than being the church we become truth hoarders. Truth hoarders are those who search out the truth and take their fill of truth and keep it to themselves. Rather than pouring out truth into others they become stagnant like the Dead Sea. We were meant to be overflowing with truth, overflowing means that it is pouring out of us. When we fail to do so one day we will wake up and realize that we are not just allowing others around us to die but we are slowly killing ourselves. Like the Dead Sea, nothing can thrive or even live when it remains constantly stagnant.
