My heart has been heavy as of late.

The burdens of the world are weighing on my mind and heart, interrupting my sleep and clouding my emotions.

I’d venture to take a guess that you are probably in the same boat.

We can’t open an internet browser, visit social media or talk to friends or family without it entering our conversation or invading our field of view. It’s everywhere and it’s pervasive.

There is no escaping it’s insidious power.

It doesn’t matter what side of the fence you happen to sit on politically or socially or what you might think of what is happening in our nation’s capital or in your own home or place of business or your own downtown.

Maybe you have looked at the last few days as a sign of hope and positive change. Maybe you have looked at the last few days as a sign of disappointment and discouragement.

Are you glued to the television and the news, like a train wreck fully in progress, you can’t tear your gaze away from? Are you seeking out every podcast, social media news bite or clip to feed your bent of thinking, hoping for any nugget of good news, but knowing full well, there probably won’t be one to find? And every time you look it. just. gets. worse.

This has described my last handful of days. Weeks. Months.

It’s discouraging. Disheartening.

Yet, I was reminded of a very key point not too long ago while listening to a podcast from host Allie Beth Stuckey: as believers we aren’t here on earth to expect things to get better. We are here on earth to take. a. stand. We are told to bring our light into a dark world and stand up for the truth laid out in God’s word. A truth that will never disappoint. A truth that is worth fighting up. Stand up for.

Believers, it’s time to stop hiding in the dark corners, hoping that someone else will say truth for us. As long as we wait for someone else to speak out, the truth they will be speaking most likely won’t be that of the Gospel. It’s time to stop waiting for someone else to speak up and it’s time to speak out for the Truth.

Believer, it’s time to cast aside all that the world says we should be focused on and entangled in. To throw aside every weight and the sin that clings to us so closely and run straight for Christ.

It’s time to stop being defined by a number and look to being continually refined by an infinite and glorious Creator.

It’s time to stop looking for affirmation in words and catch phrases that hold no value beyond the nice sentiment that disappears as soon as it’s spoken.

It’s time to stop blindly trusting our pastors, fallible men, to lead us without error. It’s time to stop listening to the progressive narrative that says we are just fine exactly the way that we are, when truthfully we are desperately wicked and lost, without hope, without the hope and glory of Christ’s saving death and resurrection.

It’s time to start digging into our Bibles again, to look to God’s word for ultimate authority. To know the Truth of the Gospel and God’s word and be armed to speak Truth. To not be afraid to stand up for God’s word and proclaim it at every opportunity we are given. To disciple our children to be children of God; stewards of His word and lights growing up to go out into a dark and hurting world. It’s time to start in our homes for a faith revolution that only walking in step with a mighty and infinite and holy God provides.

It’s time to stop looking to our political leaders for any kind of spiritual guidance or salvation or wisdom that we can find hope and security in–no matter what side of the political fence you sit on. It’s time to stop putting so much stock and expecting our only voice of influence to come from a social media platform.

It’s time to face off with Cancel Culture and speak the word of God to those who don’t realize how very desperate they are to hear it. Even when it means that someone will “cancel” you.

Because the reality is, in this world we will have struggles. We will face persecution. We will face being cancelled for our faith and for speaking out for truth and righteousness.

But to the true and faithful Christian, the one who has put his trust in a mighty and holy Savior, our mighty Protector, none of that matters.

We have run from this “cancel culture” for so long. Terrified it would find us, like a dog with rabies. Scared of saying the wrong thing in the wrong way that will cause offence. And while I absolutely believe it is so important to speak the truth in love, we have let the “love” part take the driver’s seat and the “truth” part to drag along like a ratty blanket in need of a good washing.

It’s time to stop being scared of “cancel culture” and time to seek it out and let Truth actually have it’s day in court.

Because at the end of the day, we are responsible to answer to our Great and Holy God for how and what we took a stand for. And I guarantee you, it won’t be the number of people who followed us on social media that will define us. It will be the lives we lived and how we honored the Lord with our words and actions. It will be for how we raised our children, how we honored God in our homes and in turn in our culture.

I, like you, don’t like and quite abhor the constant upheaval that we have faced and are continuing to face each and every day. New sound bites, new bad news, new ways of attacking all that we have held dear and taken for granted are being striped away from us on a daily basis. To speak truth is to be quickly labeled hateful and intolerant. To walk as the Lord commands is to fight an upstream battle and be ridiculed along the way.

Yet, now is not the time to back down. Now is the time to stand up. To stand strong. To not let those who hate good and love evil, dictate how you live your life as scripture commands.

Believer, your life makes a difference by living in resistance to what the world calls good and right. Your life, in accordance with God’s laws and in step with His guiding hand, is a radical perversion to everything the world holds dear.

And it makes a difference.

Stand up in your home. Refuse to allow the lies of progressivism hold any sway in how you raise your children, walk out your marriage, or love your neighbors.

Stand up in your church. When leaders bring in the lies from the world that aren’t rooted in scripture, open up your Bible and learn for yourself. Don’t accept any one human’s words as ultimate authority–but only seek that from God alone.

Stand up in your workplace. For righteousness, for truth, for honor and integrity.

Know truth.

Speak truth.

Live God’s truth.

Not your truth, not the world’s truth. But God’s truth.

Believer, your life is radical in the face of a world that is lost and searching in all the wrong places.

It’s hard. You’ll be met with opposition. And it won’t be easy. But it’s necessary. It’s needed. The time for quietly sitting back is over. We are needed now more than ever. And it’s starts in your own heart, in your own home. Let it begin there and watch your world become changed. A city on a hill.

We cannot be extinguished. Even if they take away our voice. Even if they cancel us.

Because the light on the lamp stand in that city on a hill cannot be snuffed out.

Believer, it’s time to stand up.

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