“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Matthew 10:16

While we are to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ as we mature in our faith in Him, to grow in agape love, in gentleness, in understanding we are to also become wiser in the Word and in how we live and work within this corrupt, fallen, sin-filled world of unbelief, mockery, and desire to nullify and void Christianity and our walk with Christ as disciples, as children of God rather than children of disobedience.

To soldier on. To be a Christian soldier marching into war, A spiritual war. A constant and real present danger in this fallen world.

A soldier needs discipline, to be well trained [in the Word, in prayer, in the ways of God and the ways of the world] honed, and strengthened to endure the battle ahead. To be ready when called into action. To follow the Head, to also lead others by example. To fight daily in the spiritual war in a strong band of brotherhood and sisterhood with fellow soldiers of Christ.

To be a light. Not to be hidden, to lie cowering in the foxhole as the battle is waged.

Salty. Flavorful. Tasty not tasteless. Of use.

Exhibiting the training in action.

Soldering onward Christian soldier as the battle rages through the ages.

Alert, aware, on guard. Knowing, and recognizing the Enemy.

Sheep in the midst of wolves, growing in wisdom while maintaining the gentleness, the way of our Lord.

It isn’t easy a lot of the time. But if we’re to truly serve, to truly be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ we must be true, unwavering, and willing to face anything the spiritual battle may thrust us into. to even die for our faith if need be.

Never forgetting for a moment the sacrifice that God made, that Jesus made to make our having eternal life possible.

Christian courage in the face of every evil advancing.

We are not alone. We have the wisest, strongest, truest perfect Leader to follow into this battle in which whatever may happen will carry us off the battlefield of this earth into His glory, into heaven.

Forever. Eternally. His.

All because we believed, we obeyed, we knew and lived the Word. We soldiered on to the end. Truly, courageously having been taught and built up in the Word of God equipping us for everything that comes our way today, and tomorrow should the Good Lord bless us with another day.

Courage with conviction.

To the end.

Ken Pullen, A CROOKED PATH, Wednesday, July 5th, 2023

Courage Is A Christian’s Only Path Forward From The Legal Hell The ‘Winsome’ Gospel Wrought

June 30, 2023

By Kyle Griswold

Reprinted from The Federalist

Christians must be ready with an unwavering answer when a lost world asks something of us we know we cannot do — no matter how big or small — and then be prepared to carry that cross.

303 Creative has finally been decided, and Christians — and all Americans — won. In a 6-3 landmark decision on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that graphic designer Lorie Smith can’t be compelled to affirm values that conflict with her deeply held religious beliefs about marriage by designing wedding websites for same-sex couples.

As we celebrate this victory — and we all should because, as the majority rightly stated, “The First Amendment’s protections belong to all, not just to speakers whose motives the government finds worthy” — it’s worth reflecting on how we got here. Smith isn’t the only one to have fought this battle, and she won’t be the last. Life-destroying left-wing lawfare came for cake artist Jack Phillips and florist Barronelle Stutzman all the same.

Of course, a major piece to the puzzle is that we live in what Aaron Renn astutely terms the “negative world.” This era of Christian living began around 2014, just after Phillips first declined to design a cake celebrating a homosexual union and just before the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision cemented Christians in what Renn called a “new low status.” In this negative world, church attendance has plunged, intolerance of traditional religious values has skyrocketed, and Christians have been dragged into court for their faithfulness — many into the court of public opinion, if not an actual courtroom.

We’d be foolish to ignore the other contributing factor, however, and it’s not one that can be wrapped up into a nice little bow called Obergefell and draped around the necks of our political foes. No, this other factor comes straight from within the church.

Go Forth and Be Charming?

It’s called “winsomeness.” Being winsome is not a novel idea, obviously, nor even a Christian one. To be winsome is to be charming, attractive, or appealing with one’s demeanor or character — an admirable goal, to be sure, and one that should apply to Christians.

But in coopting the idea into a veritable doctrine, Christian leaders morphed winsomeness from a desirable trait into a hermeneutic through which they judge all Christian conviction and conduct. Thus as America hurtled toward the negative world, and Christian leaders were suddenly faced with the prospect of a Trump presidency, winsomeness became a trump card in matters of spiritual significance. Religious and thought leaders, such as Russell Moore and David French among many others, became victims of the mind virus and infected hordes of others.

It might have started as an understandable — if short-sighted — response to Donald Trump. Just be nice. But then it spread vindictively, and with each mutation, it looked a little more like worldliness and a little less like godliness. The gist of the “winsome” ethos is that for Christians to be faithful, they must be perceived as kind and likable by the unbelieving world they hope to evangelize. And the symptoms are easy to identify. Appeasement to radicals. A tossing of other faithful Christians under the bus. Race-baiting wrapped in Christian-ese. An unwillingness to celebrate God-given victory if the “wrong” leader made it happen. Deference to tyranny. Hatred of masculinity. The list goes on.

But there’s a glaring problem with the “winsome” worldview: It ultimately measures a Christian’s fidelity to the gospel based on how he is perceived by God’s enemies — and in the process, it implies Christians who aren’t adored by their unregenerate neighbors are unloving.

So you put your obvious pronouns in your email signature because everyone else at work does it, and you don’t want to be known as “that bigot” in your office. Or you post a black box on Instagram because even though you know it serves more to divide people by the color of their skin than to unite them, it looks virtuous. Or you party at your gay friend’s wedding because even though you know that union defies God’s design for marriage, you don’t want to have an awkward conversation or risk jeopardizing a relationship. Or you say yes to a design job for a woman’s group that promotes abortions because you don’t want them to pass over you for the next opportunity.

This version of Christianity doesn’t work. What you end up with on the one hand are craven Christians who pat themselves on the back for their likeability while being largely untethered from all principles save the approval of man (which conveniently endows worldly status and prestige, such as a perch at The New York Times). On the other hand, you have steadfast believers like Smith and Phillips and Stutzman, who despite relentless persecution faithfully embody the fruits of the Spirit most difficult to cultivate: love, gentleness, kindness, and self-control.

Yet the world still hates them.

But isn’t that exactly what Jesus promised his followers would be the result of their commitment? The world hated Him, and so it will hate His disciples too. The implication is obvious: If the world doesn’t hate you, are you actually following Jesus?

A More Courageous Way

There’s a lesson to be learned from the aforementioned heroes, whose mission is not winsomeness but fidelity to the gospel of Jesus Christ. That means that when a lost soul demands Lorie Smith violate God’s divine law by approving of sexual sin, she can’t capitulate with a modest smile and an accommodating website in hopes of wooing him to Jesus. She instead prays for courage to say, No, I will not design that, and like Phillips and Stutzman continues to love her customer by the grace of God anyway.

Scripture provides inspiring examples to emulate too. It no doubt would have been easier for Daniel and his buddies to have bowed to the statue of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar at his command. After all, showing respect and submission to the king would have cemented the young men in his good graces and perhaps given them spiritual sway down the road. But Daniel’s operating principle wasn’t likeability or world-defined niceness. It was a fear of God and undivided devotion that empowered the young Jewish exile to look a fiery death squarely in the face and say with confidence I will not bow.

The winsome doctrine forfeits many of these sanctifying trials, which crop up in countless ways and serve to condition the human conscience in varying degrees. But it also creates major consequences for Christians trying to be faithful. Again, it implies their fortitude is a sign of hatred. And worse, it tilts the world a little more toward a fake gospel of tolerance and away from the true gospel — the only one with any power to save suffering people: “Repent and believe.”

The legal assaults and character assassinations won’t end with a single court victory — or two or three. Just ask Jack Phillips how the past decade has gone for him. So Christians must be ready with an unwavering answer when a lost world asks something of us we know we cannot do — no matter how big or small — and then be prepared to carry that cross.

Remember the courage of Lorie Smith, Jack Phillips, and Barronelle Stutzman, pray God gives it to you too, and start practicing it — whether the watching world interprets it as charming or not.

RELATED: 8 Fire Quotes From Gorsuch In Landmark Free Speech Case (thefederalist.com)

Kylee Griswold is the editorial director of The Federalist. She previously worked as the copy editor for the Washington Examiner magazine and as an editor and producer at National Geographic. She holds a B.S. in Communication Arts/Speech and an A.S. in Criminal Justice and writes on topics including feminism and gender issues, religion, and the media.