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*** Originally given as a 2023 Women in Apologetics conference breakout talk. Edited for readability. Breakout notes here.
My life has not always been an easy path. There was abuse in its many forms for much of my childhood from a trusted family member at the time. My single mom, with missions in her heart, moved us around a lot- our lives were constantly uprooted and many times very unstable.
I truly believe the Lord protected my heart through much of it all and He allowed the many of the wounds that I sustained- to be covered until I had the resources and maturity to wrestle them out later in my life.
My one consistent anchor, however, was my faith. Even though I didn’t have the technical understanding yet, I knew with a child-like faith that He was my rock and He was my stability in spite of all of the chaos and brokenness that frequently surrounded me.
As I was thinking about the topic of secular culture and how we live faithfully within it I was drawn to the story of the greengrocer which is relayed in the book Live Not by Lies and written by Czech playwright, Vaclav Havel, who wrote in his essay “The Power of the Powerless”
“This man, the greengrocer, posts a sign in his shop bearing the well-known slogan from the Communist Manifesto, stating “Workers of the world, unite!” He doesn’t believe in it. But he hangs it in his shop as a signal of his own conformity. He just wants to be left alone. His action is not meaningless though: the greengrocer’s act not only confirms that this is what is expected of one in a communist society but also perpetuates the belief that this is what it means to be a good citizen.
However, one day something in the greengrocer snaps and he stops putting up the slogans merely to ingratiate himself. He begins to say what he really thinks. And he finds the strength to express solidarity with those whom his conscience commands him to support. In this revolt, the greengrocer steps out of living within the lie. He rejects the ritual and breaks the rules of the game. He gives his freedom concrete significance. His revolt is an attempt to live within the truth. He has demonstrated that living a lie is…well, living a lie. He has shown everyone that it is possible to live within the truth.”
The truth will cost you something. What are you willing to pay?
This story feels very much like a parallel to our culture today. The world redefines on a regular basis what it means to be a “good citizen.” The parameters are typically in contrast to how God defines our ethics. And we have to decide if we will live within the truth- defined by the reality of God’s Word or live the lie culture parades as “authentic."
Today I want to challenge you with this- What are the convictions of your faith that you would be willing to die for today? Can you name them?
Distorting truth in the spiritual equation has always been the Enemy’s first line of attack. If Satan can get us to doubt the objective reality of God’s Word thereby getting us to act against that reality and in return reap the consequences of that violation, then we will have done most of the work for him. It started all the way back in the garden and has continued throughout history.
Today, we live in a post-truth, post-modern world where relativism is the flavor of the day. But for Christians, the demand is even higher to conform to the cultural definitions of love, acceptance, and tolerance. The definitions of these terms and many others are now victims of linguistic theft and no longer hold to their original meanings. They are loaded with landmines for those who dare to tread upon orthodox interpretation.
Our faith can no longer be an outward, converting faith unless we want to be deemed as bigoted and harmful. The world demands us to bow to every god but our own. And when we don’t- they stoke the furnace, the flames of cancel culture threatening to burn up all of our worldly success and acceptance if we don’t repent and turn their way. It is a hostile environment.
Society has declared that orthodox Christian faith is boring, antiquated, and even hateful. Instead of adapting your life to its tenants, culture has deemed that you should bend faith to fit into your life as you want to define it.
But when people grow accustomed to living in lies it deforms their way of thinking. This is why scripture reminds us to renew our minds with the Word of God.
You see- We are either participating in the furthering of the Kingdom of Truth or the Kingdom of deception. There is no middle ground.
“Neutrality is a lie from the enemy wooing us into an apathetic coma of weak convictions and even weaker souls.”
We’ve replaced edifying community with the facade of acceptance- now expressed by the number of digital likes we get from internet strangers. Deep convictions we’ve traded for virtue signaling. If the world thinks we are good people and we don’t ruffle too many feathers by going along with the status quo- like our greengrocer did, we might limit our potential suffering and let others deal with the fallout in the next generation.
When what we really need to do is to take the Apostle Paul’s words in his letter to the Philippians that to suffer for Christ is actually gain. We must prepare ourselves and our families to live with reduced expectations of what the world defines as success. Only then will we find it easier to stand for the truth.
God’s Word says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Only then you will learn to know God’s will, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” He is the author and provider of what is truly good. Do we genuinely believe that? Or have we allowed the world’s definition to seep into our understanding and muddle our ideology?
-For our truly held beliefs will always demand our action.
Elizabeth Elliot says it best, “If your faith rests in your idea of how God is supposed to answer your prayers, your idea of heaven on earth or pie in the sky or whatever, then that kind of faith is very shaky and is bound to be demolished when the storms of life hit it. But if your faith rests on the character of Him who is eternal- I AM, then that kind of faith is rugged and will endure.”
And just as rugged as the cross our Savior had to bear- our faith must also be. For if we cave and make “small” concessions moving the hard line of truth, we will not stand against the deluge of a raging and angry [consensus gentium].
The pressures of culture will threaten the temporal and unstable idols we hold so dear. Our jobs, our popularity, our friendships, our chance of “success”, even our livelihood, may all be on the line. We have to learn to be okay with that reality. Cancel culture is here to stay, at least for a while.
Very few of us will be required to die physically for God’s truth here in America. But all of us are required to daily lay down our lives in many other ways.
JM Barrie’s Peter Pan declares, “To die would be an awfully big adventure.” But theologian Kevin Vanhoozer tops it by claiming, “To die daily in service of the King of Kings is an even bigger adventure.”
Paul reminds us of this mindset. He says, “With full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Is this where we, as individuals and the church, have taken a stand?
Do we live our lives as ones who would die for the truth of the gospel?
Or Have we been silenced by the increasing pressure of the culture’s ever-fluctuating morality…
Or worse have we been numbed into apathy thinking our perceived neutrality will somehow save us?
We need to wrestle with these challenging questions on a regular basis, taking stock of where we stand.
The dominant worldview around us- secularism- is at odds with the biblical way of viewing life and all it is comprised of. As Natasha Crain reminds us in her book, Faithfully Different, “As a worldview minority, we’re surrounded by the [secular] pressure on all sides. If we don’t establish and maintain biblical clarity, we become like fruit in a pressure cooker, losing our distinctiveness from the culture around us and giving in to a collective softness in our faith.”
Like that pressurized fruit, we will be moldable, caving to whatever society demands from us, eventually losing all strength and uniqueness for our witness. We are called to be set apart and holy, binding our hearts to something ancient and enduring.
He promises to build His church and that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. This is why we need the full armor of God- we are on the offense- not hiding behind towers of fear, we are to be moving forward actively taking back that which has been stolen by the Enemy.
However, in order to do this effectively, we must believe the Word of God more than we believe anything else if we are to endure. Romans 8 in His Word asserts- “If God is for us, who can be against us? Nothing can separate us from the love of God.”
John 15 enforces that the world will hate us and yet we are continually surprised by this truth. Naturally, our desire is to reduce any conflict, when instead we would do better to sharpen our understanding of God’s truth so that we can provide a strong and consistent witness to the veracity of Christ. We must have an apologetic for our beliefs.
But Apologetics is not a shortcut for skipping the hard work. It was never intended to be an easy way out of the day-in, day-out deep dive into His presence through His in-dwelling Spirit. We are to first set aside Christ as Lord in our own hearts as 1st Peter 3 reminds us. We are to know HIS truth. We must fear Him more than we fear what the world can and will do to us. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
As Augustine said, we want to be against the world for the good of the world. We are to be unashamed to stand on His truth no matter the consequences so that His name will be glorified in a cosmic testimony drawing the lost to Him in order that they may have life and life eternal. Eternity is at stake.
Just as a parent lays out rules, boundaries, and expectations for the good of their child, traditional orthodoxy provides a place of safety for all who call on His name in order that they might find true freedom within the created reality of God’s world.
This brings to mind…
2 Corinthians-Which says, “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
But apart from orthodox Christian theology, we won’t know what our lives should look like, and without sound doctrine, we are left with mere sentiment. Lack of knowledge is akin to saying, “I love you but I don’t want to get to know you.” And to know God is to love God. He is a Creator who jealously wants all of us, every day forever and ever.
Faithfulness to the gospel is not for the faint of heart. It requires courage and boldness.
1 Corinthians 16:13 reminds us to “Be on our guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.”
The world will demand small concessions to our faith, stealing our convictions inch by inch. Before we realize it, we will have drifted far from our starting point swept up in the current of popular culture.
“It’s just a pronoun. It’s just an affirmation. It isn’t hurting anyone.” They claim. When what they really are saying is, “Who is your God?” Will our god be one of comfort and acceptance or will it be the Creator of the universe, who holds the world in His hands? It cannot be both.
It takes consistent work to oppose the drift of compromise. Diligence against the spiritual condition of sloth. Sayers poignantly states, “In the world, sloth calls itself tolerance but in hell it is called despair. It is the sin that believes nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing…lives for nothing and remains alive only because there is nothing it would die for.”
Trevin Wax adds, “The way of Christ is never easy and believers in every era are prone to forget their first love (Rev 12:4). In ours, it manifests through the pressures of a society where Christianity is not the norm and common Christian beliefs and morals no longer seem plausible. In the midst of constant flux, stability is now regarded with suspicion.”
So, how does one walk through this life knowing the reality of our situation? As parents or grandparents, how are we to equip our families to not lose heart amid this battle? What do we tell our kids when the world tells them that their Christian values are standing in the way of them having a better life?
We have to develop a skill none of us really want to learn. And that is the skill of suffering well as a Christian. We teach them that suffering is not something to be escaped from. Just as the Lord of heaven stepped down from glory and stepped into suffering for us, we must follow His footsteps all the way into eternity.
1 Peter 4 in the amplified affirms, “Therefore since Christ suffered in the flesh [and died for us], arm yourselves [like warriors] with the same purpose [being willing to suffer for doing what is right and pleasing God], because whoever has suffered in the flesh [being like-minded with Christ] is done with [intentional] sin [having stopped pleasing the world], so that he can no longer spend the rest of his natural life living for human appetites and desires, but [lives] for the will and purpose of God. For the time already past is [more than] enough for doing what the [unsaved] like to do--living [unrestrained as you have done].[the unbelievers] are resentful and surprised that you do not [think like them, value their values, and] run [hand in hand] with them into the same excesses of dissipation and immoral freedom, and they criticize and abuse and ridicule you and make fun of your values. But they will [have to] give an account to Him who is ready to judge and pass sentence on the living and the dead.”
Suffering can be a gift from God that invites us to change. It alters our own life, and in return, it encompasses the rest of our dying and broken world- reaching out to them, calling them out of darkness into an eternal hope. It tells them this is not all that there is. It shows them that there is a personal God making all things new.
Yuri Sipko, a Baptist preacher in communist Russia, said it this way, “Without being willing to suffer, even die for Christ, it’s just hypocrisy. It’s just a search for comfort. Christianity has become a secondary foundation in people’s lives, not the main foundation. You need to confess him and worship Him in such a way that people can see that this world is a lie. This is hard, but this is what reveals man as an image of God.”
We have much to learn from our predecessors who suffered for the faith. Their stories left behind for us to read, and to pass on to our families as inspiration and hope. We have their stories to guide us.
Perpetua who sang Psalms and hymns as she was led to her death, a spectacle for the Roman crowds. Felix Manz who gave praises to God and preached to the people gathered to watch him die. Walter Mill who bravely announced to his persecutors, “I will not recant the truth.”
Learning about the suffering of others allows us to discern how to suffer well in our own affliction. It bolsters our hearts and solidifies our resolve- holding onto the memory of their endurance.
We learn to make the hard choices in the peaceful seasons, shoring up our defenses before the storm, so that we know how to live well when it starts to exact a toll. It then becomes a severe mercy.
God became a tangible picture of an intangible God in the person of Christ for us so that we would know we are never alone.
1st John 1 reminds us of this truth “That which was from the beginning— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us”
Isaiah 53 paints a vivid picture of his mission, “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him”
The Romans were wickedly efficient at crucifixion. They had it down to a literal science. When they beat our Lord with the Cat-O-nine tails the ballbearings attached to the end would cause blunt trauma forcing more blood to rush to the surface of his skin. Then in the next instant, the scraps of sharpened bone- also attached to the whip- would shred his flesh that was primed for profuse bleeding. Over and over the lead, bone, and leather would do its gruesome work. That way, when it was time to nail his hands and feet to the cross he would have no energy to fight them off. And yet he prayed, “Father, forgive them.”
In this, He showed us a picture of suffering perfection- a new kind of humanity. So although we can and should look to others and learn many things, our standard is always one of Christ. The suffering servant King of the universe who stepped down from glory; who humbled Himself to the point of a cross in order that we may have life in Him.
He knew what He would have to face before he left heaven. And yet He came. His willingness to suffer for us in such a brutal and awful way was so that we might be reconciled to him everlasting.
How much less can we do in response?
Our God wants to be truly known by his people and be made known to the nations. He is a personal God. And we are to be worshippers filling the earth with His glory, making disciples of all nations. This is an exciting and inspiring mandate.
And yet many of us walk through our days with a sort of indifference towards His sacrifice. Frequently we are annoyed with our lot in life, shaking our fists at the sky demanding that the God of the cosmos make our lives more comfortable. “How dare He?!” We scream.
But if we don't understand or recognize the beautiful redemptive story laid out for His people across all of history we will waiver and stumble when we should be standing firm in faith and trusting; anchoring ourselves to Him who is the cornerstone.
David Wells in his book, God in the Whirlwind says, “When [this] redemptive narrative faded from their minds, then they ceased to be God-centered. They ceased to be God's people in their minds and in their ways, those who were living in the light of who God was and who he had called them to be.”
This is why we need to make a daily habit of reading his Word- which is His story, His character revealed. We cannot remember something we have never learned. And we cannot make known what we do not intimately know ourselves.
It is easy to forget God's objective truth in the cacophony of life's busyness. His Word gets drowned out by an enemy and a world where the loudest voice wins the argument. Remember- we do not have a passive enemy. So we must fight back with the sword of truth.
It is dangerous for us to forget the character of God, or worse- not even know Him in the first place. And so we take delight in learning about the God who wants to be in communion with His people. He is not a distant, impersonal force. Even in His splendor and glory, He comes to us, He knocks on the door of our hearts. We read our bibles to know this faithful, covenant keeper because He is worth knowing. He is worth our time to pursue. We read to remember- His faithfulness, His warnings, His love. We read to stand firm.
What we feed on we will crave. If we fill our lives with junk that’s temporarily filling but lacks nutritional value we will briefly feel satiated but we will be completely deprived of life-giving sustenance. Without discipline, very few people are actually willing to do the hard things required of an enduring Christian faith. This is not for the saving our our souls- no, that is done by Christ alone through faith alone. But to endure amongst a hostile culture, to not waiver when times are hard, or when the onslaught from the enemy is on all sides- that does require work.
In a convenient world, we must teach our children to recognize that long-term reward is the ultimate goal of faith, not temporal satisfaction that will leave them unsatisfied quicker than they realize. “Though darkness may last for the night, joy comes in the morning.”
Dwelling in the presence of God forever is the “joy set before us.” The reward of a race run well. His presence alone should be our only desire. For even eternity without Him would be devoid of meaning or reason. It is nonsensical.
James 1:12 Says, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
Yes, we teach through instruction, but our most impactful results will always be those that were lived out in our own lives as a model for others to mimic. Even if your children are older or grown, you can still have influence by the way you live faithfully. Being a good steward of your blessings, enduring hardships and trials peacefully, and blessing those who persecute you- all while you look to God as your sustainer in the good and the bad and allow His name to be glorified no matter what happens on this side of eternity.
About 8 years ago, I became seriously ill. Prior to that, I was a competitive athlete, doing all the right things with all of the professionals. Doctors were absolutely confused and baffled as to what was ailing me. Pain medications rarely worked, yet they continued to pump me full of them. Eating was impossible for a time, and all of my tests would come back inconclusive.
Life in my home had to drastically change. Homeschooling, a task I have always found deep fulfillment in, became physically taxing. My mysterious, chronic pain forced me to outsource some of the classes I desperately wanted to teach.
Specialists and doctor visits were our new normal and yet hardly any progress was made. The kids were dragged along, filling out math sheets in waiting rooms, and reading their literature books in the car ride home. They learned to play quietly and independently while I frequently napped on the couch or in a dark, quiet room. Each of them started taking on more responsibility around the home as they grew up and learned new skills.
My littlest can make the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had, and my middle daughter can make a four-course meal by dinnertime. My son, who is the biggest and strongest teen I’ve ever known- has the gentlest soul- he does anything asked of him with a graciousness that seems beyond his years.
But best of all, their empathy for those suffering around us grew. They became very aware of those in need of a helping hand or an uplifting word. My children are able to provide a genuine agape love to those hurting, demonstrating Christ to our broken world in very tangible ways because they have lived it within our home.
They have learned that suffering is an inevitable part of living on this side of eternity. But more importantly, they have learned to look for Christ in the midst of the hurting, whether the pain is physical, emotional, or cultural. He is our focus. We lift our eyes to heaven, where our help comes from.
For a time, I worried, though. I wondered how my illness would negatively affect my family. I was concerned about becoming a burden, wearing out the grace that I was sure was on its last thread. But that’s the thing about grace. It never runs out. We are promised that His mercies are new every morning!
My regular physical pain allows me to practice peace in adversity so that when cultural persecution comes- and it will come for us all, His glory- not my comfort- is now my desire.
My suffering has given me many opportunities-
-like how to respond with gentleness even when don’t feel like it
-learning to bless others in my hardship versus the alternative of hiding away and feeling sorry for myself.
-And it has allowed me to be more in tune with the pain around me, awakening my soul from apathy. Providing opportunities to point others to the gospel hope that graciously fills my life.
I do not do this perfectly, but I do get to practice this often. And hopefully, I get a little bit better each time. For I desire to be His reflection, an image bearer who faithfully stands even when the world commands me to bow.
Romans reminds us that as Christians, we will never suffer in vain. “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
In my constant discomfort, I could grow bitter and angry. But because I know the truth about my God, I know that He is still good in spite of it all and that it will not always be this way. He is making all things new. Until then, He is my comforter and my sustainer. And through my adversity, I have learned that He is worth it all. Just for Him. Not his blessings, not my comfort- Just Him.
So my prayer, a benediction, for you today is this…
May you grow in wisdom and in stature like our Lord. Through His Spirit may His overwhelming love for you be made known in a very tangible way. May you desire Him, not for His benefits or your pleasure but for His holy presence.
I pray that you will be women who are faithful in the small truths so that you will never waiver in the larger ones. May you be devoted to make disciples of all who the Lord fills your life with. I beseech you to become women of courage and boldness, gentleness and truth. I pray that you will always stay eternally minded for the glory of His name. May you forever live for an audience of One. Amen.
