Acts 9:31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
“As fears increase in the American church, we’ll have the opportunity to resurrect a holy fear of God in our midst. As we suffer under the temporal judgment of God as weary sojourners, we may just find a stronger voice to warn others to flee from the wrath to come. As we sense the nearness of the day of retribution, we may speak once again with unction and holy disquiet.”
“But over the last decades, in our efforts at evangelism and church growth in the West, the characteristic most glaringly absent has been this: the fear of God. We’ve believed the most effective witness for Christ is positive and encouraging. We’ve assumed the way to win the masses is by rebranding our churches and offering people a better life. We’ve believed our greatest apologists are successful CEOs or professional athletes. The gospel has become one-dimensional: it’s all about accessing blessing without the need to avoid judgment. Yet in the book of Acts, the early church grew and flourished as they lived in the fear of the Lord (Acts 9:31).”
“Have we really taken into account the end and outcome for our friends, relatives, neighbors, and coworkers? Is our failure to evangelize really an issue of fearing too much, or not fearing nearly enough? Do we cherish our comfort and others’ respect more than we cherish God’s glory and their deliverance? Will we love them enough to fear for them, to show them mercy and kindness by warning them and snatching them out of the fire? The consistent testimony of the New Testament is that if we have the appropriate fear for them and of God, we’ll preach the gospel. We’ll speak out and not be ashamed.”
– Elliott Clark Evangelism in Exile (2019, Page 55 &56).