Quentin Sipe

Conviction

July 26, 2010 at 3:12 am (Of Him)

In case you hadn’t realized,
it has somehow become uncool
to sound like you know what you’re talking about,
Or believe strongly in what you’re like saying?
Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)’s and (you what I’m saying?)’s
have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences,
Even when those sentences aren’t, like, questions? You know?

Declarative sentences – so-called
because they used to, like you know, DECLARE things to be true
as opposed to other things which were, like you know, not -
they have been infected by a totally hip
and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know?
As if I’m saying, don’t think I’m a nerd just because I’ve noticed this okay?
this is just like the word on the street, you know?
It’s like what I’ve heard,
I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions,
I’m just inviting you to join me in my own Bandwagon of uncertainty.

What has happened to our conviction?
Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?
Have they been, like, chopped down
with the rest of the rain forest? Ya Know?
Or do we have, like, nothing to say?
Has society become so filled with these conflicting feelings of nehh
That we’ve just gotten to the point where it’s just, like . . .
whatever!

And so actually our disarticulation . . . ness
is just a clever sort of . . . thing
to disguise the fact that we’ve become
the most aggressively inarticulate generation
to come along since . . .
you know, a long, long time ago!

I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you,
I challenge you: To speak with conviction.
To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks
the determination with which you believe it.
Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.

Poem by Taylor Mali

what has happened to our conviction? Where are the Steven’s of our generation? Acts 6:8 says “And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.” Then Acts 7 tells us that Steven, who stood before the most powerful court of the day in that region, points to those men and with passion says

“51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.

But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’

But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.”

So what is Conviction? What does it mean to live with conviction? Conviction by definition is “a firm belief, the quality of showing that one is firmly convinced of what one believes or says.” Do you believe in truth? Do you believe in the Way the Truth and the Life?

“So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not write, The King of the Jews, but rather, This man said, I am King of the Jews.” (JOHN 19:17-21)

But this Generation, my brethren, we have said He is king of our life, yet daily we doubt it and even reject the gospel. My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the gospel is not this cool hip thing that we can just talk about as if each passage of scripture is the newest tweet or the next facebook post! The Gospel is the truth by which we govern our lives, and we desecrate it by ignoring the Holy Spirits conviction in our lives, or make excuses not to tell others about this God, who at one time won your affection and once held you captive by His Grace! I tell you that it’s not God’s love or His truth or His grace that has changed, but we, in our hearts have set up for ourselves these illusions of grandeur that we allow to consume us. God’s grace no longer amazes us and His love is no longer a mystery to us and we have not known what it’s like to walk on water or to soar on wings as eagles.

Since Christ died for you, why do we have a hard time listening to the preaching of it on Sundays? Why do we not read our Bibles? Why do you talk of others like they are not as cool as you are, constantly cutting others down just because they can’t do something as well as you can or they look weird to you?

There is no conviction within us, no belief, no understanding of God’s truth and so we have cemented ourselves in our own misery. So I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you to live and speak with conviction! Be rooted in the truth of God and be saturated with wisdom so that as you face your “Stephen Moment” each and everyday you can, with conviction and faith, walk on the water of God and soar with wings as eagles over the temptation that so easily besets you. No longer do we have to, like, act like we know what we are talking about, ya know?
No, Because of the Cross we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and in Him is all peace, joy and love! Live like it!