Bomb Threat – They Deserve to Know

Our church took the opportunity to reach out to a nearby town with food, music, games, and good ole friendship.  During the event our worship band shared some awesome worship music with the crowd that had gathered.  It was great to see Christians rubbing shoulders with those who just needed a kind word and some encouragement, and of course, the message of Christ.  I was sharing little tidbits before each song our band played and took the liberty to inject humor, but also some real truth.  As we continued through the night it was apparent that many people were searching and that searching had brought them to this event.  Before one song I shared that they needed to choose one or the other, heaven or hell, and as I was saying the word HELL, it almost got caught in my throat.  Why?  I guess I was scared to offend anyone?  Who knows?  But the hesitation really got me thinking.  There is a heaven, and there is a hell.  Why are we so hesitant to mention hell?  Is it embarrassment?  Is it “Not the cool thing to say?”  Is it not true?  Why don’t we weep for those who don’t know Christ? Maybe it’s not my personality to speak of such things!  Then I realized something.  It’s not about the messenger.  It’s about the message. When I remembered that great truth it did something awesome!  It took me out of the picture.  If I only shared some things about salvation and left other things out because of maybe shyness or embarrassment, then the message of salvation is no longer dependent on God’s message, but on the filter I have on the message through me. In other words, I have made it MY message.  I suddenly realized how dangerous that was and took my “feelings” out of the mix and made a firm commitment to share it like it is.  I served with a youth pastor a few years ago and he would not say certain things from the Bible for fear of it hurting someone’s feelings or not being cool.  His image was premiere and God’s Word was secondary.  To say the least, there was a shallowness in his life that became apparent in many areas.  His family, his relationships, his convictions, all suffered from the filter he had installed in his personal convictions.  That filter took the strong message of God’s Word and compromised it.  What a sad commentary. Has this whole thing come to this?  Picking out easy passages of the Bible to make us feel better about ourselves?  Dangerously sad…