For those who trust in Christ, who belong to the Father through faith in the Son and are sealed by the Spirit, we are promised many things. We’re promised access to inexplicable peace in spite of circumstances. We’re promised the inescapable presence of our God in spite of perceived loneliness. And we’re promised the incomprehensible power of God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead now living in us. These are incredible gifts from God.
But we’re also promised hardship, trials, persecution, and opposition. Speaking to his apostles, the Lord Jesus said, “in this world you will have tribulation.” and “if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”
Yet, that hatred, if we encounter it, is not to stop believers from being faithful to what we’re called to do. In the face of opposition of varying degrees of intensity, we’re still to make disciples, to evangelize the lost, to protect the truth and contend for the faith.
The question I want to explore today is, how do we fight with grace and humility without sacrificing conviction and boldness? How do we engage with other people—some believers, some unbelievers; some strangers, some family members—without being unnecessarily combative and without being unhelpfully meek?
To help us answer some of these questions, I’m excited to welcome to the podcast, Dr. Leighton Flowers. Dr. Flowers is the director of evangelism and apologetics for Texas Baptists. He’s also the creator and host of Soteriology101, which is an online ministry dedicated to challenging a particular theological understanding of Christian salvation. And so, whether it’s through evangelism, apologetics, or in-house polemics, Dr. Flowers has a lot of experience wading into controversy and engaging in disagreement, all well trying to remain pure and above reproach. And we want to pick his brain so that we can grow in that same way.
