The Still Small Voice
How our personal story becomes evangelism through love and repentance
What is prayer? That question was asked in the children’s moment. What is prayer? The answer was a list of different ways to pray. I’d like to shift it a little and ask a different question. How do you pray?
"The Rainbow After the Storm" by Trey Ratcliff is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Most of the time, mine are silent prayers as I go about my daily life. Driving, grocery shopping, typing this post, etc. I occasionally stop a moment and shoot a brief plea up to God, but in my head, they feel more like a one-sided conversation with me talking to God. I say one-sided because I don’t hear a voice respond in my head. Sometimes I do, but it is my voice answering me with the obvious. I don’t think that’s God. I think that’s me telling myself what I already know to be true. It could be God, but that voice sounds too much like my own. The thought of God sounding like me bothers me because I think I’d be more inclined to fall victim to pride where I to believe God used my voice. I would likely think too highly of my own opinion than I should, which might already be a problem, but I’m working on it.
From the lesson, we had a good scripture in this line too. 1 Kings 19:11-12.
11And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:
12And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
1 Kings 19:11–12 (KJV 1900)
This is Elijah telling us God’s voice and presence was not “in” the things he mentioned. However, the voice Elijah did hear was the “still small voice.” That was the voice of the Lord. That wasn’t the scripture for the sermon. That was just one from the week 2 lesson that connected for me. The scripture for the sermon was from Matthew.
35Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
36Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
37Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
38“Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Matthew 9:35–38 (NASB95)
Pastor Lee asked, “How are we supposed to go out and get those laborers?” I’m not certain she meant for us to go get the laborers because we are the laborers. The harvest is those who have not heard the gospel, the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Lee brought up evangelism in her sermon and likened it to the people standing on the street corner with signs. In her mind, she said, these people are the same as fear, meaning they try to sway people with fear. She rejected that idea and instead turned to acceptance and love.
I have a problem with this approach. Specifically, I have a problem with the rejection of the message that the person on the side of the road shares, which Pastor Lee sees as trying to frighten people. If the message she refers to is one of repentance from sin because unrepentant sin condemns people to Hell, then we have an issue. Sin, repentance, and Hell are all very real things. They are all very involved in salvation and are all very important topics that should not be dismissed.
Don’t get me wrong, the message of love and salvation through Jesus is one for everyone. It is a message of hope. It is a message that no one who doesn’t want to be lost is lost. However, the healing of salvation is not a message that allows the hearer to remain in the midst of their sin willingly, and knowingly. The message of Jesus is one of repentance from that which separates us from salvation. It is a message that should move us to action on our behalf and on behalf of others. The healing of Jesus doesn’t isn’t simply accomplished because we want it to be. It is accomplished because we believe in Him, what He said, and what He did. It is the undeserved gift we obtain through faith alone in the one that is the only path to the Father.
6“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
7“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
9“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
10“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
John 15:6–10 (NASB95)
These are Jesus’ own words. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” Jesus fulfilled all the law and the prophets and lived a perfect life showing us how to live according to God’s ways. It is His example we should emulate.
At this point, one or more people reading this turn to the Love passage, trying to shift away from the idea that there is anything other than just “loving people where they are” that is required. This simply is not scriptural. However, let’s look at the Love passage first.
10Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Romans 13:10 (NASB95)
Those who have read my writing for any length of time or sit in my Sunday school class know I typically do not pull single verses of scripture out and use them to tell you, “this means this INSERT IDEA HERE.” However, this is what the proponents of the Love passage do. They point to this passage out of context, saying we are to look at other people and love them as they are. That is all the fulfillment of the law Jesus requires, they tell us. Let’s look at this one passage in context.
9For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
10Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
11Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
12The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
13Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.
14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
Romans 13:9–14 (NASB95)
Again, if you’ve read my work, you know those all caps are quoting Old Testament scripture. That’s one of the reasons I like the NASB so much. When a speaker, Paul, in this case, is quoting Old Testament scripture, it is in all caps. In this case, Paul quotes Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17, and Leviticus 19:18.
There simply is no way verse 10 means all we are to do is love people when in verse 9, Paul lists out commandments from God to Moses from the Old Testament. That is a stretch of logic I cannot make in this scripture. But what is the point of this discussion as it relates to the sermon preached yesterday?
Pastor Lee brought it back to evangelism. We are to evangelize people with the good news, the Gospel. She contends love in place of fear, but what is evangelism? She read another scripture to try and bring God’s opinion into things.
33“So I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”
34Opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality,
35but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.
Acts 10:33–35 (NASB95)
From the standpoint that Pastor Lee means that people are frightened by the prospect of having to evangelize, she is correct. As soon as you mention the idea of talking to strangers about Jesus Christ, people’s palms begin to sweat. Pastor Lee contended that the above scripture presented us with the idea that all evangelism is telling people our story. Peter is invited to come to speak to a group of Jews, and when he opens his mouth to speak, presenting our story is what is expected of us to evangelize. I don’t see that message in this passage, but the basic idea is sound.
People can connect with you and me because of who we are, the experiences we’ve gone through, and how we demonstrate the love of Jesus to them. It isn’t our words that present Jesus to these people. It is how they see Him reflected in our lives that does. They do not approach us because of fear but because they see us reflecting the love of Jesus to them. The love of our fellow Man draws them to us and makes them curious and it is the total acceptance of the idea that Jesus is for everyone makes that reflected love possible.
However, it is not the love of “keep doing what you are doing” that Jesus presents to us. It is the love of knowing that as covered in sin as I was, as dirty as my life may have appeared, as broken a person as I thought I was, I was not too big a job for Jesus to redeem through His sacrifice on the cross. It is the knowledge that His love dying on the cross to pay for my trespasses against God is what makes me acceptable to God. Jesus’ death on the cross doesn’t mean the sins I am guilty of become okay with God. That’s just not scriptural. It means that even though I committed those sins, Jesus pays for them so that I am acceptable to God. The sins are still something God finds repugnant and doesn’t want us to do. The idea that we love our neighbor as they continue to sin is false. Peter confirms that in verse thirty-five when he mentions, “…the Man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”
This brings us full circle back to the opening idea that Pastor Lee mentioned she didn’t think fear was evangelism. She’s correct. Threatening people is not what brings them to God; at least, I don’t think it is. What brings people to God is hope. Peter’s message was one of Hope but was hopeful from the standpoint that he was speaking to Jews who understood the Old Testament. Specifically, let’s look at the opening seven verses of Proverbs.
1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
2To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding,
3To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity;
4To give prudence to the naive, To the youth knowledge and discretion,
5A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,
6To understand a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles.
7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:1–7 (NASB95)
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and knowledge. This is not the same as being afraid of someone like a Halloween boogeyman or a horror movie villain. This is the reverence due to the Creator of all things from the created beings. This is understanding God made everything, including the rules we operate under, and we should respect that power. We should respect that power because He set up the rules and explained them to us in the Bible, and His explanation says there are consequences to bad choices. We should be fearful of making those bad choices and being stuck in them because scripture is clear where people stuck in those consequences will go. To see this answer in scripture, let’s go back to Peter, so we come full circle.
1This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,
2that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.
3Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,
4and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”
5For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,
6through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.
7But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
9The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
2 Peter 3:1–10 (NASB95)
Love does not let an alcoholic continue to drink. Love does not furnish an addict with another shot of heroine that will kill him. Love does not let a child do things that are known to be harmful, and Christian love does not let people continue in things we know to be disapproved of by God called sin.
This is not a fearful message. This is a message of hope. It doesn’t matter what sin it is; Jesus is there to wash it away, but we must be willing to move away from it, repent of it, or miss the point. Evangelism is indeed our individual story. It is not just saying what we’ve learned about God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus. It is living it. It shows that we believe in Jesus so much that we actually changed our lives because of it. That is the story that resonates with people, but they have to see it to believe it because anyone can say anything these days and not be speaking the truth. Actions, the fruits of our lives, are what people believe. We must tell them our story through our fruits, or they won’t listen to us at all.