Wow – I am amazed at how some powerful some blatant lies are, even with otherwise intelligent people\u2026 Tonight again I was astounded by an all-to-familiar deception.\u00a0<\/p>\n
3 times this week (from people who should know better), I have heard (or read) the fallacy of:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u201cPreach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I believe this is one of the most insidious lies ever to infiltrate the church\u2026<\/p>\n
Ironically, it is a quote normally (wrongly) attributed to Francis of Assisi who was – you guessed it – an avid preacher!\u00a0<\/p>\n
No matter how good our lives, they have *no* power to convert someone, lift them from depression, deliver them from demonic possession, free them from addiction or save them from condemnation.<\/p>\n
Being nice or kind may get you in the door – give you the opportunity – but without the actual Gospel (the preaching bit), it is useless: like trying to gain the attention of people inside a burning building by looking nice e outside. NO! You would yell and scream and break down doors to warn the people to *GET OUT*!\u00a0<\/p>\n
I would be dead if I had not heard the Gospel: nearly everyone I knew had a \u2018better’, \u2018cleaner\u2019, \u2019nicer\u2019 lives than mine. Buddhists, Catholics, Atheists, Hindus, Doctors, Surgeons, Police – they were \u2018good\u2019 people: some had purpose & helped \/ served others. It had *no* power in helping \/ saving me (even though some tried).<\/p>\n
But the message of the Gospel? It broke me, healed me, rescued me, freed me, delivered me, converted me, saved me – it had *real* power.<\/p>\n
I long for everyone to hear the same message that saves.<\/p>\n
When you speak the Gospel & someone is convicted \/ converted, you see an instant, real, tangible, powerful change. In that moment, it matters little how \u2018nice\u2019 or powerful your life is – it is the power of God unto salvation.<\/p>\n
Christians have the very message of life – the power of the Gospel, yet the lie \/ quotes like this encourage people to keep the message hidden and just \u2018be nicer\u2019. You will never compete with people who have to be nice to get to heaven (\/ utopia \/ nirvana \/ whatever)!<\/p>\n
Jesus continually preached, He commanded His disciples to preach, (they obeyed), early Christians immediately did the same, Paul picks up the same theme (and dedicates his life to preaching, commanding his \u2018sons\u2019 to do the same) and the early Christians did the same.<\/p>\n
All through history, Christians risked status, life & limb to\u2026PREACH the Gospel! It\u2019s the only reason any of us are saved.<\/p>\n
Sure, turn to Him to be transformed in His image (Rom 12:2),<\/em> run from temptation (2 Tim 2:22)<\/em>, live holy lives (2 Peter 3:11)<\/em>, but don\u2019t *ever*<\/span> hold back the message of the Gospel!<\/p>\n
Preaching the Gospel to someone is powerful beyond measure. If *anyone* fails to encourage you to share this power with others: avoid them at all costs. I would go as far to say rebuke them – obey Christ instead!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, preach the Gospel in season and out of season: God promises to use *every* bit of of what you do, even if you are unpolished (1 Cor 15:58).<\/p>\n
The one thing He can\u2019t use? NOTHING!\u00a0
Don\u2019t be deceived into selfishly withholding the *only* message that has the power to save!\u00a0<\/p>\nLord,\u00a0help us to see through the lies of the\u00a0enemy who wants the Gospel\u00a0silenced. May we never be allow\u00a0ourselves to be deceived because of our fears, failures or the implications for\u00a0this we love. \u00a0Give us the courage to share Your Truth with those who need it. Have Your Way in us to bring Your Life to others.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wow – I am amazed at how some powerful some blatant lies are, even with otherwise intelligent people\u2026 Tonight again I was astounded by an all-to-familiar deception.\u00a0 3 times this week (from people who should know better), I have heard (or read) the fallacy of:\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cPreach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” I believe this is one of the most insidious lies ever to infiltrate the church\u2026 Ironically, it is a quote normally (wrongly) attributed to Francis of Assisi who was – you guessed it – an avid preacher!\u00a0 No matter how good our lives, they have …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[236,18],"tags":[151,196,140],"class_list":["post-2283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-false-religion-cults","category-for-thought","tag-false-religion","tag-lifepriorities","tag-truelife"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Francis-Assisi-Preach-the-Gospel-at-all-times.-Use-words-if-necessary.jpg?fit=1082%2C1050&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pasDCW-AP","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2283"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2285,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283\/revisions\/2285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}