This is True No Matter What Your Faith

faith and belief

I had lofty goals when I began writing and publishing my blog three years ago. I would tell as many people as possible about how I confessed my sins to the Lord. I wrote articles about my sins to friends and people I didn’t even know. I told stories about my journey as a Christian.

Nothing too fancy I don’t think. Just everyday issues, that as a Christian, I faced in the workplace or just generally out in the world. I did these things as a witness, to testify to how my life had changed for the better. The lofty goal part was to bring more people to God. Lord knows our world needs better and less evil, which translates to more God and less Satan.

Instead, I found that social media is a brutal place for the faithful.

There is some clarification needed when I talk about social media. Many of us do profess our faith from our personal accounts on social media. This is good because it shows our friends and relatives that we are Christians (or your faith & religion).

We all have our tight little circles, and we comment and “like” each other’s posts. It’s all good, mostly safe, and it’s very rare to hear a disparaging word. It’s when we move outside the little box that we see and hear from the enormous social media community, Known as: “the world”.

Some social media sites allow you to “promote” an article or your post. For very few bucks you can reach thousands of people. This was wonderful news to me because that was my goal. I would witness as many people as possible. This would put my message out “in the world” But I was a bit naive.

First of all, if anything about faith is mentioned in the title, the article will only be read by people of faith. Everyone else will either scroll right on by or based on the title, make derogatory, sometimes filthy remarks about me, Christians or any other religions, or even worse about God.

It’s no wonder that many Christians make little, timid, or no attempt to reach out or talk about their faith in “the world”.

The Lord has led me to post around 80 faith-based articles so far. My previous article was written simply about preparing for hard times. I also read it in church as a devotional. However, since it had the word “Christians” in the title, and it was posted “in the world” the article attracted the most hatred towards God I have seen to date. I try to have a conversation with all those who comment, even the hateful, but some are just too vile. (And vile is putting it mildly).

I talk about it because this is part of my journey, and it is most likely the same journey of anyone who professes to be a Christian and professes it out in “the world”. Jesus told his disciples that he was sending them as lambs into a pack of wolves.

I’ll admit it, that’s about what it feels like right now at the moment of this writing. It’s one of those times when I wonder, “why the heck am I putting myself through this?” And it makes me understand why Christians sometimes “hide out” in church.

Why Am I Writing About This?

One of the more civil commenters on the article about being prepared, “Bob” asked me:

“Am I wrong, but it seems to me that evangelical Christians don’t care that we are destroying our planet?

He continued: it doesn’t matter to you people because you believe heaven is coming to those who (believe) and the health of this world doesn’t matter to you.”

How would you respond to that? Well, I thought about this a minute (actually probably 3 or 4 minutes) which is a lifetime on the internet before responding to Bob this way:

I think there is some truth to what you are saying, “Bob”. I don’t know if I’ll say this right, but I get the feeling there are some Christians that are tired and seem to have given up and believe the world (man) is far too gone to worry about anymore. Christians also feel under attack like never before and are just ready to move on. Christians are certainly not perfect and they still make mistakes and sin. I disagree wholeheartedly with that way of thinking because God named the man as the caretaker of the earth, animals, and all his creations.

(Now that’s not worded exactly as I would have liked, but it’s the best I could do at the moment.)

You see, Bob unknowingly struck a nerve with me. Although he was talking about the environment, his last statement: “like it doesn’t matter because Heaven is coming to those who (believe) and the health of the world doesn’t matter” Well honestly, that was pretty much how I was feeling.

I think I was about ready to “hide out in church”. I was sick of hearing criticism and verbal abuse. It would be glorious to just attend church every time the doors opened, read and study the Bible, listen to sermons, leave the hateful sinful world outside, and just enjoy the rest of my life. This would be my “mike drop” moment.

But Then I think Of The Apostle Paul

Why did I suddenly think of Paul out of the clear blue? At the times when I am disgusted, tired, and want to give up, The Holy Spirit shows up.

Paul wrote most of the New Testament with words breathed by God. From these words was written that he worked harder and served more prison sentences than anyone else for his faith.

He was beaten times without a number. He faced death again and again. He was beaten the regulation thirty-nine stripes by the Jews five times. He was beaten with rods three times, and stoned once. During his evangelical travels, he was shipwrecked three times and spent twenty-four hours in the open sea.

He was in constant danger from rivers, floods, bandits, pagans, and even his own countrymen. Paul experienced: exhaustion, pain, long vigils, hunger, and thirst, starvation, cold, and lack of clothing.”

He endured all these things defending his faith and spreading the gospel.

So, when I am called a fool for believing a mythical book such as the Bible, I need to remember it’s just words attacking me, not 37 lashes. When I am being told Christians are liars, and hypocrites, and should all be eradicated, I am not actually being beaten with wooden rods, it’s just words.

And even when a man who professed to be God wrote to me and threatened me, at least he didn’t mention any stones would be involved.

I’m not ready to live in a small box and hide away inside the church just yet.


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