We Are Ashamed of Jesus

I like people to like me. I want people to think I'm a good guy. I try not to offend people or be rude to people (at least outside my family, but that's for another day). I'm not sure I would have said this about myself a few years ago, but the truth is, I'm a people pleaser. If you don't like me and you tell me, it really bothers me.

Being a people pleaser isn't all bad. But a negative thing I've noticed in relationship to my people pleasing ways is that it affects the way I approach people when talking to them about Jesus. Being afraid to offend people, people pleasers like me (and I know there are more of you out there) we get apologetic when we start talking to people about Christ.

We don't need to apologize or worry about being offensive when talking to them about Christ. We are bringing them the only hope for eternal salvation, not sharing our flu germs with them. Why do we get so worried about upsetting people when it comes to evangelizing? The reality is that too often we're more concerned with the good opinion of man than we are with God's opinion. We are ashamed of Jesus.

I have realized that I need to be asking God for boldness and stop worrying about offending people. If I saw a guy drowning I wouldn't be worried about offending him before jumping in to save him. If I saw a house on fire I wouldn't meekly knock on the front door, afraid I would upset anyone to let them know that their house is burning down. So why are we worried when we are bringing people the eternal, saving truth of the gospel. I think it's because we don't fear hell as much as we fear death. We don't believe in the horrors of hell as much as we do in the horrors of being burned alive or drowning. We need a holy reordering of our priorities.