Not Ashamed…
“Who do you think you are? I said angrily to the young man in front of me who happened to be my ninth grade classmate. “How dare you tell me I’m not going to heaven? I go to church every Sunday, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t swear…” and I went on arrogantly listing my many ‘godly’ attributes. The young man listened to my angry tirade reply and then said quite calmly, “I don’t care what you say Bernadine, unless you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you are not going to heaven!”
8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:8-10
The above conversation happened during recess in my ninth grade class many years ago. I wasn’t a Christian yet, that happened a year or two later. I remember it so vividly because at that time that young man was the only Christian in our ninth grade class. We (the class) had many spirited discussions and he was not afraid to stand up to any of us. He always stood his ground and let us know that being good was not enough, we had to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Luke 9:26 NIV
As a mature Christian I have had my moments where it seemed as if it was me against the world. There have been times where I had to decide whether to keep quiet or speak out and either way it wasn’t easy. Often I thought back to those moments in my ninth grade class with admiration for that young man who was so well able and ready to stand up against his peers for his beliefs. It couldn’t have been easy especially as a teenager to be different but he was. He showed by his actions and his words that he was not ashamed of the fact that he was a Christian. Also, he was ready to witness to win others to Christ and when necessary defend his faith.
Heavenly Father give us boldness to speak out when necessary to win lost souls for your kingdom but also the wisdom to know those times when you simply want us to be quiet and allow you to work in the hearts of those around us.
What an awesome example! Thanks for a great reminder of being light in the darkness!
Oh, what unrestrained love..
To have a fracture of that strength!!
great post,, very encouraging
Very inspiring, thanks for sharing my friend.
Amen. This is such an inspiration. Thanks for sharing it.
I admire young people who are that bold with their faith. I was 13 when I became a Christian but had no real “walk” with Christ until I was 23. It is encouraging to hear of kids and young people who are redeeming the time! We must ask ourselves even today, if we are redeeming the time as well.
Amen to your prayer…
What a powerful witness from your class-mate in 9th grade – and what a great example to stand up for what we believe in. I was reading John 15:18ff today – Jesus warned us that people might not like what we stand for or believe in…
Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you so much for sharing. Boldness for Christ is so beautiful. That young man more than likely planted a seed in you. We will never know how many lives we can positively impact when we speak the truth.
How encouraging and POWERFUL! It reminded me of the song “I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel”…by Janet Paschal. Very moving. I am blessed.
It can be a fine line between “standing up” and becoming adversarial. I’m still working on that…
Bernadine,
O how I wish I had that kind of boldness when I was in 9th grade. I pray now that the Lord will always enable me to stand for Him, justice, forgiveness, love.
Fantastic Post. Love you!
I wish I could say I was always that bold. I especially liked your prayer at the end. There is a fine line between reaching someone, and doing further damage to a person already hurt by Christians. I hope God gives us the wisdom to know how to handle ourselves.
This story was so inspirational!