Browsing Tag

Boldness

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Guest Writer: Hannah Colley…On Turning the World Upside Down

Posted on March 9, 2026

In Acts 17, we find a church that was meeting together in someone’s home in Thessalonica. when the Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus heard about it, they raided that house, dragging the Christians out to the rulers of the city, and do you know what they said about them?

“These people are turning the world upside down…they say there’s another king other than Caesar and His name is Jesus! This guy Jason was harboring them in his house!”

Talk about defying gravity!! Christians in the first century were described as people who were turning the world upside down!! They spoke about Christianity growing in a city like it was Covid-19 in 2020—a virus that had to be eradicated!

Well, what were these Christians doing that was going so powerfully, so egregiously against the grain??  Talking about Jesus. The preaching of the gospel resulted in an angry mob setting the city in an uproar. God’s powerful, living word was getting people’s attention! And I actually love how this angry mob described them. To “turn upside down” means “to stir up, excite, unsettle” (Thayer). But this shows just how powerful the devil’s message is—it’s so powerful that anyone authentically wearing the name of Christ stands out, stirs up, excites, and unsettles.  Jesus taught His followers to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) and submissive citizens (1 Peter 2:13,14). They were pursuing and teaching a life of peace, love, and submission! Even so, when the disciples preached the truth, they faced opposition, mobs, uproars, and accusations.

The early Christians turned the world upside down, not by building impressive buildings to worship in and flaunt Christianity, but by boldly speaking the name of Jesus and repeating his teachings without fear. The reason we have these examples of these brave early Christians, who were willing to give their lives for the cause of Christ, is because the Holy Spirit wants you to know that, if you’re living in His light and have a relationship with him, He will help you defy the gravity of the world and the followers of darkness.  Not only that, but your light can turn the world upside down.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Nevah…Ebbah! …The Lads Convention

Posted on April 1, 2024
  1. I feel down in front of 1000 or so people in the front of an auditorium.
  2. Hannah’s coffee lid popped off in her hand and coffee went all over an elevator full of people and all over Eliza Jane just as they were rushing to Eliza’s Bible reading.
  3. I lost my phone. In its recovery (“Recovery” is a wonderful word!), Hannah was just in time for a big security episode with non-lads Opryland guests in which EMT and screaming and cursing were all involved at 12:30 pm in the Cascades lobby. (For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness 1 Thess. 5:5….So thankful we were in the day group!)
  4. Eliza made the announcement to an elevator full of people: “I tooted. Cue (excuse) my body.” Oh dear…
  5. I fell–again–in front of 1000 people in the front of an auditorium.
  6. The Easter bunny had a big problem with tardiness this year, and children were a bit disappointed. But he worked it all out. We are not sure he is a faithful Easter bunny because he finished up his work while we were worshipping. However, to give him the benefit of the doubt, it did take us a LOOONG time to get back to the room after worship and all the eggs from the bunny were hidden when we got back.
  7. Someone got a marriage proposal onstage this year at Lads (a first!) Congratulations!
  8. Eliza announced to all the people entering an elevator: “You all be cah-ful! Dere’s tee-tee on dah flow-ah.”  (There was not. Someone’s cooler had leaked in the group just before us.)
  9. All five of my grand-children (and some very dear “other” grand-children) were in one convention and all had important events to attend. And that was the hardest part–to miss some of those events, so that I could attend others. But what a blessing!
  10. I contracted laryngitis (almost to the point of complete silence) rendering me useless to any part of the big family for crowd control.
  11. I went to the right room at the wrong time for a competition (It was mistyped on our congregation’s schedule). I  had a nice break…realized that no-one was showing up and then made a very mad, mad dash to a different room that was 19837 miles away, with 3 small children.
  12. I cried during Bartimaus and “Thank God for Kids.” Jesus Loves the Little Children.

But in the aftermath of the good storm, I rest in knowing that some 20,000 people, children and adults, have arrived back home with a greater, fuller, deeper conviction–a purpose to never be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. As Eliza Jane said, at the end of her speech…”I will not be ashamed …nevah, ebba!”

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: A Good and Defiant Heart?

Posted on November 13, 2017

Yesterday at the conclusion of a ladies seminar at which I spoke, I was in conversation with a schoolteacher. She described having been involved in a meeting prior to the school year in which she was told she was not allowed to tell the students she was a Christian. I could go on and on about how twisted this sort of gag rule is; about the absurdity of such a misapplication of the Constitution’s provision for freedom of religion; about the fact that there are other teachers in her school who wear the Islamic scarves called hijab; about the amazing boldness of the devil in our education system today.

But let me suffice it to say that, if anyone, in any place of employment says that to me, at that point I have but two choices: resign from that position or remain on in defiance of the order, come what may.

II Corinthians 6:14 says this:

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

Many have applied this teaching to the marriage of a believer to a non-believer. While I think there are marital situations to which this verse may apply, I think the verse is directly relevant to the schoolteacher’s situation. While I can be in the yoke with unbelievers (work for them and with them, live in neighborhoods with them, be in organizations with them and play sports with them), I cannot be under the power of any man or group of men who, in the exercise of that power, would force my denial of or disobedience to my King Jesus. The other force in the yoke cannot overpower my will to serve the Lord.

This teacher told me that she would be telling her students that she was a Christian. She said “ Though I may not get the chance to teach them the gospel while they are in my classroom, I want them to grow up and remember that Mrs. Jones was different in a good way…and I want them to remember that it was likely because she was a Christian.”

She understands the choices before her. First, she can keep her Christianity hidden. Or, secondly, she can quit her job and tell everyone she’s a Christian. Or she can defy the order and risk getting fired. Undercover Christianity is not an option for faithful people. So she has chosen to disobey the order and take her chances. She’s doing what Peter and John did in Acts 3-5. They were ordered to stop teaching about Jesus by those who were clearly in positions of authority over them. They did not stop teaching (option one). They did not move to some other location to do their teaching (option two). They boldly disobeyed the orders, risking, and later receiving, the punishment.

As I continue to be shocked at the intolerance toward Christianity in our governmentally controlled arenas (Which founding father would have thought?!), I’m in prayer for all of the Mrs. Joneses who are standing firm in their professions of Christianity. Some are doing it in schools, both as teachers and students. Others are doing it in governmental and judicial positions. Some are standing for God in situations of social persecution.

I find comfort in the conclusion of this discussion about unequal forces in the yoke:

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

And I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty (vs. 17,18).

May we come out and be separate, so we can be his daughters.
Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: Be Brave and Fear Him

Posted on July 13, 2017

You could name lots of enemies of a Christian’s boldness in our world today. One enemy is the overemphasis of tolerance. We’d rather be villains in almost any other category than to be labeled as intolerant or judgmental. (The most quoted and misapplied passage in this culture is Matthew 7:1.) So we stop speaking out about sin. We fear being ostracized. We fear confrontation. 

Another enemy of boldness to speak God’s truth is our busy-ness. Our schedules shout at us. Our commitments bulge in their time limitations. We simply over-commit and there is little time left to write letters to editors, show up at venues like gospel seminars or meetings that serve to inform and embolden, or take time to speak to individuals about the gospel.  We fill up our calendars and then allow them to control us. Their demands often make even the free moments of our lives full of anxiety or dread for the upcoming stress of deadlines and back-to-back responsibilities. They make us physically tired and weaken our spiritual stamina. We lose some of the will to do spiritual battle against wickedness in high places (Eph.6:12). It’s “wrestling”, as Paul put it, and we are too exhausted for that.

One more enemy is worldliness. This is a big one. We slowly become anesthetized, through entertainment choices, the news media, the public education system and governmental influences. We stop thinking very much about the societal departure from truth that is quickly becoming so complete. We start thinking like the world, instead of like the Lord. We are influenced, sometimes unknowingly, by pop culture’s psycho-babble and we become complacent—even ignorant—about the polar differences between the way God wants us to think and act and the accepted norms of society around us. 

Part of fearing him who is able to destroy body and soul in hell (Matthew 10:28) is being wise to slow anesthetization by the culture. We simply cannot go to sleep in the devil’s gentle lull of  tolerance, busy-ness and the normalization of sin. See, ironically, those who fear are the brave. It’s those people who’ve developed a healthy fear of the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell who are emboldened to stand against His lies in a culture of relativism.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: Peace and Silence… NOT the Same Thing

Posted on July 23, 2015

brigitteIf you haven’t seen the following video, you should watch. Brigitte Gabriel’s  point is well articulated and her logic is irrefutable. Radicals are the movers in society. The peaceful majority within any movement which contains a violent element quickly becomes very irrelevant.

As I think about her statements about Russia, Nazi Germany, Japan and China, I strongly agree with her logic  If the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful and opposed to terrorism, why are they (the peaceful majority) not rising up against their own people, in the name of peace, to save innocent lives?  At the very least, they should be publicly descrying the frequent ongoing attacks by Muslim terrorists around the world. But such a public outcry by peaceful Muslims is rarely occurring. In its silence, the majority has become irrelevant. The radicals…the killers…are the ones who are making a tragic difference in the world today.

Have you ever thought about the fact that the “peaceful majority” of God’s people can, with its silence, become irrelevant? I am not suggesting that we should be a violent people as we oppose sin in the world around us. I am suggesting that we must be doing spiritual battle all the time. Paul said as much in Ephesians 6:10-12.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

We must never be satisfied to be silent as the devil seeks to destroy our families and congregations. We become irrelevant to the lost people around us if we fail to stand up and be counted for truth and righteousness. It is not enough to just “think” that the world around us is becoming more vile; to be sad in our hearts that our culture is given over to immorality. We must continue to speak the world-changing message of the gospel even when it is vehemently opposed by a segment of our society. We have to continue to say that homosexuality is vile affection (Romans 1), that those who are have left their spouses for reasons other than fornication and have remarried are living in adultery (Matthew 19), that abortion is murder, that Jesus Christ is the exclusive way to the Father (John 14), that faithfulness to God involves faithfulness to His church, and that there are indeed New Testament laws (absolute requirements) regulating worship and daily living for those in that church.

Bottom line: Being peaceful and being silent are two very different things. I can believe all the right things, but become irrelevant in the battle for holiness in my community and in my congregation if I am not willing to speak truth at every opportunity to my sisters and friends. If I know truth, but I am afraid to post, speak, write, tweet, and/or text truth, then I, by default, contribute to the victories of evil. Granted, there are varying degrees of opportunity for God’s women. But all of us have some venues in which we can and should be, peacefully but vocally, standing for truth, whether in a blog or simply in a conversation with a friend who is straddling a politically correct fence.

The relative silence of 2.3 million Muslim people living in the United States when 19 radical Muslim hijackers destroyed the World Trade Center, attacked the Pentagon and took the lives of 2,996 people is still deafening.

Let us be peaceful, but let us NOT be silent.