Take the Sock Out!

An anonymous wag grabbed my ears with this statement: “Commitment means following through. The kamikaze pilot who flew 50 missions was involved but never committed.” Could that be the case with many contemporary Christians today – involved with Jesus and the gospel and the church, but not really very committed? Of course I generalize, but who can successfully argue against the evidence that not everybody calling Jesus Lord really follows Him as Lord?  Think especially on the Christian's responsibility to evangelize the lost. When we  read about the early church on the pages of the book of ACTS, one fact virtually leaps off the page – early Christians were committed to telling others the gospel they had been told! And that in spite of powerful and relentless foes determined to stop their preaching about Jesus, or make them pay a price for not stopping. So it is we read in Acts 8:4 that persecuted Christians from Jerusalem were “scattered” and yet “went everywhere preaching the word.” The mentality that compelled them is summed up in words from Acts 5:20 where the apostles, in prison for preaching Christ, were let out of the prison by an angel of the Lord who told them, “Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life” [that is, the Christian way of life). GO – STAND –SPEAK – that was their practice. Today we largely do evangelism very differently (if we do it at all) and not nearly as effectively as they did. Rather than GO and STAND and SPEAK, most Christians “come, sit, and listen.” And instead of being about it daily as the early church was (Acts 5:42), many are content with once a week on Sunday for an hour, if that often. If you are NOT a silent saint please ignore these words. But if you have been baptized into Christ and claim to be a disciple of Jesus, but are uninvolved in somehow trying to seek and save the lost as well as support others who do, the unvarnished truth is you are involved with Jesus but not committed to Him. After all, it was Jesus who taught the church to be in the going and gospel preaching business (Matthew 28:18-20). Consider these words from a Christian who was both involved with and committed to Jesus – “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (apostle Paul, Romans 1:14-16).

 Are you ready to preach, or are you reluctant? Are you trying to go, stand and speak, or are you content to come, sit, and listen? John Gipson wrote an article about evangelism entitled,  “PUT A SOCK IN IT!” It began, “Where did that expression come from? According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, before the days of volume controls on audio equipment, balled-up socks were indispensable for music lovers. Placed in the horn or resonance box, a woolen sock reduced the noise” (church bulletin article, Little Rock, Arkansas, 2/10/2000). Too many Christians have “put a sock in it” when it comes to talking the gospel with others. Has our culture intimidated you into being a silent saint? The devil’s crowd is out, loud, proud and promoting all kinds of sin. God help His church “take the sock out of it” and ring out the gospel. 

  by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN