During my training year at the Jesus Army I will have the honour of contributing to some of their blogs. Yesterday my first entry on their visionary Forward blog was published. Here’s an excerpt:

Jesus said: “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.” (Matthew 10:27). The original apostolic church in Jerusalem didn’t just experience lots of miracles and have community of goods, they were daily in the temple courts telling people “all about this new life” (Acts 5:20).

Basically, they were unable to shut up! “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.” (5:42). When they were persecuted, they prayed and were “filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” (Acts 4:31).

The apostle Paul also found it impossible to be discreet about Jesus. In Ephesus, he went to the synagogue and “spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God”. (Acts 19:8). When he was kicked out, he went to a public lecture hall and spoke there every single day. “This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.” (v. 10).

He explains the motivation for his unapologetic evangelism in his letter to the Romans: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes”(Rom 1:16).

We have received a message that is all about an eternal love that brings eternal life. How could we be ashamed of that? How could we be quiet about that?

To read the rest of the article, click here.