Dear brothers and sisters, let us witness. Let us testify to the truth.

But first, let us consider the cost.

To stand up and declare the truth always puts you on one side of the dispute. The whole world loves to remain in the gray spaces of indecision and 'tolerance', but those who love God will also love the truth, and those who love His truth will proclaim that truth wherever and whenever they encounter any error, even if that error may be considered small relative to other errors.

Why is this always the case? Because a pure love for truth should pursue a pure truth. This is the nature both of purity and truth, which are always absolute or not at all. Truth is purity. Purity is truth. Any pursuit of purity will always lead you into confrontation and conflict with those who make themselves comfortable with a distorted and defiled truth. Always.

Impurity always seeks to corrupt purity. Always.

This is what we mean when we talk about witnessing and testifying: being a martyr. Any person who truly witnesses also wishes to martyr themselves for the truth. A pure pursuit of a pure truth is the ambition only of a consecrated man. To witness is to consecrate oneself to the truth.

"What is a witness? One who talks? Not necessarily! The word 'witness' literally means 'martyr.' People are not made martyrs because they laid down their lives; they laid down their lives because they were already martyrs. It is to the heroic that God is calling us - not mock heroics wherein straw men are erected, and then with sound and fury are thrown down with publicity and gusto.

"The lengthening shadows and the gravity of our times should shame all such religious histrionics. This is no time for shadow boxing, for tight rope walking, or for bickering within the camp. We are called to go without the camp, bearing his reproach, to go unto all the world, not withdrawing from it. It was this conception which gave birth and purpose to the Southern Baptist Convention, and to that purpose we are consigned. It may be dangerous, but what of that?

"Christ never called us to a carefree saunter through unshadowed spaces. Christian faith depends upon strong promises, never from immunity from attack. If our witness is not opposed, it is not worth opposing."     -unknown.