Rise up, Christians! Now is our time to stand!

[Diverse Melody]

Today, I came across a video that made me feel discouraged. VenomFangX, the great youtube evangelist, has shut down his youtube ministry and removed his videos. Why? Because of Muslims sending death threats. This is his goodbye video, for anyone who is interested:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7K3xJfDMs8

Watching this left me feeling that Christianity has been defeated. The atheists and Muslims and other anti-Christians have got just what they have wanted all along. But this is not the end. It is far from the end. While Venom may not post videos, there are several other Christian evangelists on youtube. I watched two videos about this and they were a great encouragement.

First, there was ShockofGod's video about how this only proves the Bible has power. Why would the atheists and Muslims care so much about the end of his youtube ministry if the Bible were not true? Why would they be so upset over a book of what they believe to be fairy tales?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pCJWEPgges

And then there was the other video I watch, which was very encouraging. Particularly this part: "As long as there are Christians out there that will take that bullet; that will show the world that no matter how much you bully us, no matter how much you threaten us, we will not back down. We will not recant our faith."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc0K-wLrMwc

This made me realize that now is the time. Christians have been quiet, soft spoken, or even silent for too long. We are not going to stay quiet any more! We are not going to give in to sin and the powers of Satan! We are not going to back down! We are going to spread the message of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! We have the truth in our hands in the form of the Bible and we have Jesus in our lives and hearts. We have to make our stand and we have to do it now! We must preach the gospel to all the corners of the earth and tell people about the good news of salvation through Jesus, our Holy Lord! What makes our message different than the lies of the world? Truth. How will we stand when we are outnumbered and the time may soon come where we will be made to be martyrs or we will be mocked and rejected for our faith? How can we stand in such a time? Because we have Jesus. The almighty God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are for us. We have God on our side.[/u][/i]

I don't know about you, but I am going to stand and proclaim the gospel of my Lord Jesus Christ to as many people as I can. I am not going to back down. I am not going to fear the power of the world nor the powers of Satan and his demons. I am going to but my trust in Jesus. I am going to put my life and all that I have in His hands. I will take that bullet. If it comes to a time where that becomes literal, then so be it. I side with God. I will serve my Creator; my God.

Who's going to make this stand with me and proclaim the salvation that comes from Jesus Christ alone?

[Gin]

I want to be like you, Cat. I want to be brave and put it all on the line for the one who did just that for me. I'll do what I can, please help me through it. None of us can do it alone.

[Diverse Melody]

This is why I have realized I have to work with this site. The reason I made it instead of having someone else make it is because it was my idea. But I know I have the gift of leadership, but never before have I really been able to use it for God. That's going to change now.

I know how hard it is to stand strong when you have no one to help you. I know what that loneliness feels like when it seems the world is out to get you because you are a Christian. I may have times where I am dragged down, but God always brings me back up. I have noticed something very important, however, in any revolution or stand. A strong leader can not only gather others to fight in the stand, but they can also encourage everyone to challenge themselves to do better and they can help keep people from falling away. The main problem in Christianity today, in my mind, is back sliding, or never really getting "started." People seem to get saved, then just leave things be, when we are supposed to be focusing our lives on God and reaching out to people in love, helping them and telling them about Jesus.

I've always had a close relationship with God, and I find my faith and love for him growing at an incredible rate. It seems it always has throughout my life, but it also continually grows at a faster and faster pace. I've always felt a calling to lead, but I never knew what. Now I know that my calling isn't to lead a church, or a petition or movement, or anything specific. My calling is to lead Christians in general. I do not have the gift for witnessing like some do, because we all have separate gifts and purposes. Mine is to encourage the believers and help them learn how to prepare themselves for the spiritual battle and draw them closer to God. But, as a Christian, it is also my duty to witness to non-believers when I can, though I don't believe that is my main purpose. Since my calling seems to be to build up those who are already Christians so they can go out and witness to people, rather than leading anything specific, I should also be able to be a translator and an author as my job/career path, if I truly am called in those things as well, as I have felt I am.

I will be ever adding to the Witnessing Ideas thread and most of my other work leading will be encouraging people both one on one and lots of people at a time through posts. However, my current goal, that I wish to be the goal of everyone else as well for the time being, is to encourage people through this thread, and advertise this site like crazy. I want to gather Christians to this forum so that I can then encourage them and speak with them more about witnessing to people ("preaching") and other random ideas such as bumping on a forum with a Bible verse.

[Siri]

You knows it that I'll stand with ya. And Ginny we are never alone, you should know that. Draw strength from the almighty and with faith you can do anything.