Thought 2

(Written at 5:00 AM)
It's late, tonight. Morning has been long in coming yet I wish to think it still is night for no other reason than... it's quiet now, and I can think.

Tonight I wish to tell of an epidemic among those who claim to follow Jesus. It is the Epidemic of Silence. The irony within the name lies within its silent and unchallenged spreading through our culture undetected. This silence has made us weak, comfortable cowards.

Symptoms include a generation that watches as others profane the name of Christ, a generation that is mute while others question and challenge, a generation that is meek when courage is called for and a generation that is still as thousands live without the truth.

I ask you then, when you believed the truth, who told you to keep it secret? Because if that is your aim then your task is positively achieved. When you read the words calling you to tell, do you take them as a metaphor? Those close to you, do they hear you constantly talking of Him, see you giving everything to honor Him and watch you love them because of him? Or do they know you as a religious person who is ok to be around because you don't really talk about what you believe all that much. You want to be toleratnt so you don't challenge what others believe. You desire to be well liked by making the blind comfortable in their darkness and by your silence help them believe that darkness is all there is.

Don't be overtaken by the Silent Epidemic, read His words challenge yourself to start a conversation... if we really were to show Christ all the love he deserves then our witness and defense of his glorious name would be unmistakable, we would SHOUT the truth in love because it is, TRUE!

Acts 18:9
And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent,

Ephesians 4:25
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

2 Corinthians 4:13
Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak,

Acts 4:17-20
But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

-JL

Thought 1

I'll number my thoughts since they probably wont have formed till I start to write them down. I suppose I could tell you of many random things, of my goings and comings, clever advice on life, or even a funny story or two, but I have found nothing is worth telling if it doesn't have to do with the teller of all stories. So, I'll try to stick to that, to the one who wrote my story, who wrote each of our stories.

Today the weariness set in and in frustration when we are weak and tired it is then that rest, the very thing we need the most is hardest to find. How can we be a peace in a hurricane... how can we fight what seems inevitable? Then you hear it... the voice that is inaudible but speaking to my heart. It reminds me of Him... the one who calmed the deadly storm when no one even thought it possible, the one who walked on water and even empowered one of us to do so as well, the one who conquered sin in death and conquered death by his righteousness.

So, in light of these impossible truths, can't this God take care of weariness and strengthen my tired heart? I long for the moment when I realize my strength is not my own, for then I will not grow weary. I long for the day when my heart will never be empty because it is fully filled with his love for me and mine for him. On that day I will love no other thing and will not feel it's absence in my life, I will not feel weary when I strive alone, for I will not be alone, I will not feel empty for every vacancy will be instantaneously filled. Let that day come... it is so near at hand.