STANDING UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE

Phil Ryken
Here is a juicy paragraph from Charles Spurgeon ("The Dying Thief in a New Light") that couldn't find its way into last week's sermon but was too good not to share:

"I believe that many Christian people get into a deal of trouble through not being honest in their convictions. For instance, if a man goes into a workshop, or a soldier into a barrack-room, and if he does nto fly his flag from the first, it will be very difficult from him to run it up aftewards. But if he immediately and boldly lets them know, 'I am a Christian man, and there are certain things that I cannot do to please you, and certain other things that I cannot help doing, though they displease you'--when that is clearly understood, after a while the singularity of the thing will be gone, and the man will be let alone; but if he is a little sneaky, and thinks that he is going to please the world and please Christ too, he is in for a rough time, let him depend upon it. His life will be that of a toad under a harrow, or a fox in a dog-kennel, if he tries the way of compromise. That will never do. Come out. Show your colors. Let it be known who you are, and what you are; and although your course will not be smooth, it will certainly be not half so rough as if you tried to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds--a very difficult piece of business that."