Awomen

1 Chronicles 16:36 (NKJV)

36 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel

From everlasting to everlasting!

And all the people said, “Amen!” and praised the Lord.

I was not going to approach this subject because I assume many of those reading this devotional are spiritually mature enough to navigate these waters. I do, however, feel this is part of a greater story to be told. This does not stop at a botched attempt to integrate the word woman into the closing of a prayer, this does not stop at the misunderstanding of the word itself, this has everything to do with where we are at as a nation and what has to be done to turn this around. We stand at a pivotal moment in time, are we going to be the light in a period of tremendous darkness or are we going to allow ourselves to be overcome?

The World Does Not Know Him

Look around at the world in which we live. It does not take too long to realize the world as a whole does not know Christ Jesus! John 1:10 (10) He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him… Should we be surprised when someone gets up and attempts to interject something like “awomen” into prayer? Absolutely not! If you do not know Jesus, how would you know how absurd this is? Are we foolish if we expect those who do not know Him to act in a Christ-like manner? Yes! I used to coach a lot. Expecting that the world that does not know Christ would know how to interact with Him, would be about as silly as bringing a player onto a team without experience and expecting that they would be able to start and produce positive results. They may know some of the basics from just seeing someone play, they may even be able to help a little. But to make a true impact on the team, they must know the game, have experience in the game, and they must understand the game and strategy. The problem is, the world around us does not know Christ, have not truly experienced Christ, and does not understand Christ at all. The question is, what part do we play as believers?

Go Into The Whole World

Mark 16:15 commands us… (15) And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature… We have to be careful when looking at this verse. We have to examine what it does not say. It does not say pastors go into all the world and preach. It does not say go preach in the local church. It does not say go preach the gospel where you feel comfortable. It says go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Why do we have a world that acts like they do not know God? Because we live in a world that does not know God!

Stand Up And Defend

We have used this verse quite a few times recently, but it very much applies here! 1 Peter 3:15 instructs… (15) But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear… See, it is not enough to simply tell someone that using the term “awomen” is foolish. We must be armed with why it is foolish. Christians should be able to defend such statements with the understanding that this is not a word that describes sex, but means “so be it” in Hebrew, that we are not slighting women through our prayerful requests. We should be able to explain why we believe what we believe. We should be able to describe the hope we have in Christ. We should be able to defend and deliver the gospel to a very lost world. Are going to stand up and defend the gospel or lazily mock the foolishness of this world? The answer will define this generation of Christians.

Closing Thoughts:

We will only lead the lost to Christ through spreading His truth, His compassion, His mercy, and His love. We cannot spread His gospel while mocking a world that does not know Him yet. Be the light, spread the light, love like Christ. Amen? Amen!

John 3:16 (NKJV)

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.