18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people."
- Ephesians 6:10-18
Here, we are encouraged to be strong and to stand firm, but stand firm against what? The Devil? That's all well and good, but lets take a look at what that can mean.
In this news story (you did read it, right? No? Ok I'll wait) we have a priest preach against the mafia. What does the mafia do? What they always do, they start by killing an animal and leaving all or part of it's corpse at your doorstep.
Sort of like what a cat does, only without being cute and fury about it . . .
Now, this isn't some random dude saying "whoa, killing is wrong dude!". This is a man of the cloth preaching the Word of God. The mafia should know that things like "Thou Shalt not steal" and "thou shalt not commit murder" might just be somewhat opposite of the mafia's business model. Now, the Priest could easily choose the comfortable and safe route about switching his sermons to more feathery subjects and not ones that cut to the heart of what's wrong with society. However, since he is here and called to preach the Word of the Lord, that option isn't open to him. He isn't here to please mere man. And neither should we.
Of course, most of us aren't in this situation. We face such things as misspeaking, or being made fun of as "prude's" or even speaking to people who will disagree and/or ignore us (the horror!). No, seriously, what do we (especially myself) have to fear? Would we be stoned? Flogged? Tarred and Feathered?
No. Yet, some of us feel the need to avoid confrontation that may arise as opposed to speaking the Truth of Christ. Maybe that's a lot of people, perhaps you too, but I know this is something I deal with and I refuse to believe that I am the only shy/introverted/socially awkward Christian out there.
But lets take a look at another example:
http://www.catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=25927
That's right; the Komen foundation pulled the grant that it was offering up to planned parenthood. Why? Well, probably because they weren't offering the type life-saving breast-cancer screening exams that the Komen foundation would like to be available to women. The screenings are still available, it's just that planned parenthood is no longer the "middle-man" in the process. As a result? Every liberal reacted as though the only way that women can get breast-cancer screening was by way of referral from one of the biggest abortion advocates on the face of the planet. Women can still get the screenings, the only real problem is that planned parenthood lost a revenue of income. That's all. Shortly after, many liberal donors contributed almost $1 Million in combined donations (which would make you wonder why they would need Government grants with so many rich liberals around).
Should The Komen foundation go back to giving money to the pro-death organization? Certainly not! They are free to give money to whom they choose anyway. When things like this happen, we cannot afford to simply cower just because someone else may happen to be offended that we would have principles and stick with them. It is not surprising that the Komen Foundation is being attacked like it is. It is quite plain now that they have two options: Stand firm or cave in. Lets pray they stand firm and that we can get this baby-killing dragon that is planned parenthood defeated.
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Matthew 9:37-38
We need not speak of the Lord 24/7 (not that there's anything wrong with that), but there shouldn't be apprehension about speaking about the Lord or the Bible, regardless of the location or the people with whom you're speaking. For there are indeed countless opportunities to serve and to witness.
