Silence doesn't Save, the Truth does....
Church where are you? Pastors, influencers, your silence is deafening and heartbreaking. No one is asking you to take a political stance. We don’t need to know your personal thoughts about the 2nd Amendment…
But, we do need you to stand firm in the Truth. We need you to shepherd, to pastor, to lead, to use your influence for Kingdom impact as darkness consumes. You are called–we are called–to be a wall of light in this dark world. We are called to expose the darkness, stand firm against it, and with the full authority of Heaven make it recede. The culture of “my truth” is not receding; in fact, the silence of the Church has emboldened it and in many cases embraced it. For what gain? To grow a larger church or to retain numbers? To avoid being defamed and labeled? At what cost? The inerrancy of the Truth? Alive and active faith? Countless souls lost because of the Church’s fear to be bold?
The Truth offends. However, it does not need to be shared in offensive ways. But, the Truth does need to be proclaimed, loudly, boldly, and often; it is our commission…
This is not about a political opinion. This is about being alert and sober minded, aware that spiritual warfare with the forces of evil is being waged against the Kingdom.
Yet, the Church was:
silent when the world declared there are more than two genders.
silent when the world demanded we affirm and validate sexual perversion in our schools.
silent as women have had to relinquish safe spaces and their God-given identity as mothers.
silent as trusted family brands openly declared war on the Truth and our children.
silent as darkness openly indoctrinates and claims the vulnerable in society: the lonely, the depressed, the anxious, the traumatized, the mentally ill, and those desperately seeking to be seen and heard.
Now, the Church is silent as the anger of the lost and broken has been radicalized and weaponized to believe Christians are fascists, the source of oppression in this world, and therefore must be destroyed.
If silence is the chosen path, then,
Covenant is just the beginning.
The enemy uses the world to fan the flames of hatred beneath the banner of love wins, inclusivity, and tolerance. A lie that makes the lost feel found, seen, and heard as it corrupts and hardens; as it lures its prey deeper into darkness and further from the Truth.
This is nothing new:
Evil prowls and lurks.
It twists and deceives.
And its aim is always to devour everything in its path.
The Church is not battling a culture war. We are engaged in the exact same spiritual warfare since the fall (Genesis 3:1-24). The serpent of evil, through cunning, convinced Eve to question what God said: “Did God actually say?” The enemy understands if the world doubts (and now too many within the Church) God’s Word, then unbelief is the outcome. God revealed the enemy’s tactic long ago. Paul reinforced the warning in 2 Corinthians 11:3. Doubting God’s Word is a virus. Easily spread because too few know the Truth as it has been removed from day to day society, too many that do know it don’t cling to it, and too many that cling to it are afraid to share it.
“But Jesus said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God
…because that is why I was sent.”
Luke 4:43
The Good News has been silenced in the workplace and in schools; it is suppressed, blocked, and silenced across media platforms. Now, in many churches, the Truth is being dismantled and progressed to conform to current trends; in others, it is being diminished by selective message preaching and watered-down, “feel good,” Gospel. The enemy knows the power of God’s Word and attacks it relentlessly; understanding that in its absence—and in the planting of the thought that it is fallible— the forces of evil can advance.
This evil devoured Audrey Hale long before it devoured and robbed the world of the goodness of Evelyn Dieckhaus, Mike Hill, Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney.
The Church must ask: how many must be devoured before we unify and stand boldly behind the full authority of God’s Word? How many must we grieve–as the world whitewashes their loss and celebrates the evil responsible–before we engage in the spiritual battle being waged around us? The Church must remember our commission. We must proclaim the Good News. We must work to have God’s Word, His goodness, welcome in the workplace and in our schools. We must stop being silent and shine the light of Jesus Christ so brightly that the darkness remembers it has been overcome and many are rescued from its grasp and brought to new life. The Church must not shrink back nor fear anything other than the Lord.
“We are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness..it is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
Matthew 5:13
The Good News teaches how to truly love others: love which is not aimed at self-fulfillment, but is self-sacrificial. God’s Word warns that standing firm in the Truth exposes us to derision, attacks, and persecution, but it also teaches that there is nothing too hard for the Lord; through Jesus Christ all things are possible; and we are more than conquerors. We must trust that God will strengthen and equip us to engage in the spiritual battles of today. If we continue to choose the path of least resistance: silence, withdrawing from culture, hiding our light under a bushel, salt without flavor, doubt what “God said,” then we have stopped truly loving. We are no longer participating in His transformative grace. At best we are a consumer, at worst we will hear the words:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father…then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Matthew 7:21-23
We have no excuse. We know the Truth. We know Jesus Christ. We have experienced saving grace and a love without blemish or limit. We can discern what the Truth is from “my truth” because God gave us His Word. And, we know His Word is inerrant, infallible, and living (it doesn’t need to bend to the world and accommodate culture).
We know there are two genders, male and female
We know God made every individual fearfully and wonderfully, without mistake
We know every individual is of equal value to, and loved by, God,
But we also know that the path is narrow: Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life…
And we know the Jesus of the Bible…
And Jesus flipped tables,
Jesus sought out the lonely and the sick to share the heart of God, His Good News, and His inerrant Truth,
He met people in their ashes, He met them in their sin and brokenness,
BUT He didn’t join them.
He didn’t validate and affirm.
He didn’t just listen silently and then chose to self-protect (despite knowing the cost).
No, Jesus loved self-sacrificially (all the way to the Cross) to set people free from every enemy stronghold, to let them see the light in the darkness, to give them the choice to believe and live. A choice to exchange their ashes for His crown.
In some cases, He rebuked the evil and cast it out miraculously.
In most cases, He invited the lost to listen to the Truth and then choose for themselves–at the cost of His life–to deny themselves and follow the will of His Father.
In all cases, everyone who encountered Jesus immediately recognized that He was set apart because of the conduct of His ways.
Many were agitated by His love, but more were forever changed by it.
Why? Because His love was perfect. He understood the penalty for not denying self and following the will of the Father is death.
Audrey Hale is dead. Eternally separated.
God takes no pleasure in her death:
“As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!
Ezekiel 33:11
And neither should we.
A young woman, twisted by evil, has been consumed and lost. The Church must rise to meet this evil and seek to change it, turn it!
We must love as Jesus loved, live as He lived, so we can be used to set the next Audrey Hale free before what possessed her is empowered to consume others.
We must rebuke evil.
We must invite the lost into our church homes, into our lives so that we can share the Good News and speak Truth into their lives.
So that they see by the conduct of our ways that we are set apart,
So that they can experience God’s love and
question the lies of this world,
feel the weight of its velvet shackles, and
recognize the darkness and depth of the pit in which they choose to live because the enemy has made it feel comfortable.
We must reclaim our saltiness, engage in the spiritual battle, and be an active part of the great commission so those that are lost have their ears and eyes opened,
their hearts softened where they can experience true love, saving grace and
The hope,
The peace,
The joy and
The freedom
That can only be found at the foot of the Cross.
Because if we choose to remain silent, Covenant will be just the beginning.
The Church must unify and hold steadfastly to the Truth.
We must embrace that proclaiming the Truth will offend, it will come at a cost,
but we are called to leave the 99 and rescue the one.
The silence of too many of our church pastors and influencers has weakened the flock and emboldened evil; allowing it to control the narrative for too long.
Silence is not deepening roots,
It is not winning hearts and minds.
It is not honoring or glorifying God.
It is not leading the Church well.
And, it rescues no one.
Silence adds grief to the unimaginable loss of Evelyn Dieckhaus, Mike Hill, Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney.
Lights lost too soon in this world.
‘Saltless-ness’ is rooted in fear of this world and aimed at self-preservation.
And, we must pray for it to be uprooted and re-directed for good.
The Church must lead by proclaiming truth boldly,
Self-sacrificially loving,
So that darkness recedes.
While still being a source of comfort for the flock and the lost because it is a necessity.
While still fervently praying for the humility to submit to the authority of God.
While remembering that we must love our enemies and pray for those that persecute us,
But steadfastly refusing to take any part in the unfruitful works of darkness.
Although some evil cannot be stopped on this side of Heaven, the Church must remember our inheritance of unfading, imperishable hope. As we rest in the truth that Evelyn Dieckhaus, Mike Hill, Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney are with Jesus and find comfort in this Truth. We must also–while evil celebrates a temporary win–seek God wholeheartedly to equip and embolden our words. To be given a willingness to preach the Kingdom with all openness and unhindered from fear so that another lost individual is turned from their evil way and wickedness is not allowed to run amuck.
It's time to expose the enemy.
It's time to abhor and overcome evil, by holding fast to what is good,
It is time to put on the full armor of God and bear the image of Christ without fear of anything other than God.
it is time to speak.
Because the Love of Jesus,
And God’s Truth boldly proclaimed by a united Church
is the only way to set people free.
”I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
John 10:11-15