by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
If you know you are speaking the truth in love, and you know God approves your message because you learned the principles you speak from God’s word, then don’t fear that people won’t approve or like you. Human approval is not the goal. God’s approval and helping broadcast His light in a dark and lost world is the goal.<\/p>\n
Jesus was perfect, but people hated Him, who did nothing wrong and said nothing wrong. You cannot please everyone. So, don’t speak to please people. We don’t set out to offend people, but truth offends without trying to. Some people will criticize even if you were Jesus Himself.<\/p>\n
Don’t be intimidated by the prospect of human disapproval. Think what the world would be like if Peter continued to say nothing, letting people continue to intimidate him. On the morning of Jesus’ kangaroo court trials, Peter was too intimidated to speak up for Jesus. On Pentecost (50 days later), he was through being intimidated. He spoke the needed truth. 3000 were saved.<\/p>\n
Respecting God over human intimidation and a desire to save souls moved Peter to speak the truth in love, with the help of the Holy Spirit. The world needed him to speak up more than it needed him to keep silent. He was still not personally approved by everyone, but God was pleased, and light was now shining where there had been only darkness.<\/p>\n
The world can sure use your light! Don’t let people intimidate you into silence! (II Timothy 1:7).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton If you know you are speaking the truth in love, and you know God approves your message because you learned the principles you speak from God’s word, then don’t fear that people won’t approve or like you. Human approval is not the goal. God’s approval and helping broadcast His light in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[572],"class_list":["post-95924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-persecution"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14844,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-wrong-with-the-baptists-methodists-etc\/","url_meta":{"origin":95924,"position":0},"title":"What is wrong with the Baptists, Methodists, etc.?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I think my main concern is: \"Is the Church of Christ the only way?\" What is wrong with the Baptists, Methodists, etc...? Am I going in the right direction to get to Heaven? I know I have a lot of doubts and questions. Answer: The question, \"Is the Church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67233,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/four-challenges-of-evangelism\/","url_meta":{"origin":95924,"position":1},"title":"Four Challenges of Evangelism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Cantrell There are countless reasons why Christians struggle with evangelism, but I believe the following four categories cover most, if not all, of those reasons. They are Care, Consciousness, Courage, and Craft. Most of the excuses we are willing to vocalize come from the last three areas. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36645,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-everything-i-do-be-done-in-plain-sight\/","url_meta":{"origin":95924,"position":2},"title":"Should everything I do be done in plain sight?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read through John recently, and John 3:20-21 stood out to me. I can't quite make sense of how to apply it. My understanding is that I should do everything in plain sight so that everyone can observe that I'm doing nothing wrong. But I'm unsure of how far\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25597,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/by-what-authority-do-you-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":95924,"position":3},"title":"By what authority do you act?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: As Christ came into the world to be our Light and remains as our Light, by which Star do you look toward? Is it created or revealed? Since you are a preacher of Christ\u2019s faithful, by what authority do you act upon if all authority comes from the Word\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15198,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-do-when-people-say-it-is-wrong-to-speak-out-against-homosexuality\/","url_meta":{"origin":95924,"position":4},"title":"What do you do when people say it is wrong to speak out against homosexuality?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Here lately the whole country seems to be quite preoccupied with the lifestyle of being a homosexual. It is all over the Internet, TV, everywhere it seems. And amazingly churches everywhere are 'jumping on the bandwagon,' so to say. So-called priests and other 'leaders' are actually embracing this lifestyle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37980,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/false-teachers-and-lying-prophets\/","url_meta":{"origin":95924,"position":5},"title":"False Teachers and Lying Prophets","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As long as God has had teachers and prophets in the world there have been those who taught falsely. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jeremiah complained about the false prophets - Jeremiah 5:30-31 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Paul had problems with teachers binding the Old Law - Acts 15:1-2 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Paul warned the Ephesian elders\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}