We’ve all heard the phrase, “wallkin’ the walk and talkin’ the talk”.  Basically, it means if you are going to do something, don’t just talk about it, do it ! It’s about backing up what you say, not putting up a front just to impress someone or make people think you are something you’re really not. In Acts chapter 16 verses 16-31, we read a story about Paul and Silas. They encountered a slave woman in the city of Phillipi who was vexed with a spirit that enabled her to foretell  the future. Paul commanded that the spirit come out of her in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ;  the spirit [immediately] left her and  the woman’s owners were enraged because they had been making money from the woman’s ‘gift’. They brought Paul and Silas before the magistrates of the city, accused them of causing an uproar, and soon after, the magistrates commanded that Paul and Silas be dragged away, beaten, striped, and thrown into prison. The jailer placed them in the inner prison, fastened their feet in stocks, and left them there.

It was around the midnight hour, and do you know what Paul and Silas were doing in their dark, dank, inescapable prison. What would you expect? Do you suppose they were yelling at the jailer to let them out because they had done nothing wrong? Maybe they were singing in unison a few bars of “Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen”. I would have been doing all this and more. But not Paul and Silas. In what was their darkest hour, these two were praying and singing hymns to God.

—-And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.  ACTS 16:25 KJV

Paul and Silas talked the talk AND walked the walk with regard to their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What’s more is that they did not cower down and stay silent when faced with beating and imprisonment. This story gets even better…

As they were praying, singing, and giving praises to God, the door to their cell flew open and everyone’s shackles were loosened. Perfect ! This was their perfect opportunity to escape, and ‘get outta Dodge’ while the getting was good. Nope. Didin’t happen. Paul and Silas did not attempt to recreate a scene out of Prison Break. They remained in their cells. The keeper of the prison, assigned to keep watch over the prisoners, was ready to kill himself; he was certain that the prisoners placed in his charge had escaped.

— And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled. ACTS 16:27 KJV

Paul immediately put the guard’s mind at ease, telling him not to harm himself, as they were all still there. From the moment that Paul and Silas were faced with accusations and confrontations, they could have said, “Hold on boys; there’s been a misunderstanding. My friend Silas and I were just passing through. These slave owners obviously misinterpreted what I said and did.” “We don’t want any trouble.”  “Jesus? The Messiah? Nope. No sir, never heard of him.”

Neither of them said or did any such thing. They entered the city, openly casted out a demonic spirit, sang, prayed, and praised God while in prison, and their testimony as Christians remained unscathed. In fact, the prison guard was so relieved to discover that his charges were right where he left them that he fell down in front of Paul and Silas and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul and Silas replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” And there it is. Because Paul and Silas talked the talk, walked the walk, and trusted in God to keep them safe during this entire ordeal, a lost man’s name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life; a soul was won for the Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven !

— Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.  ACTS 16:31 KJV

For so many years, I talked the talk; I went to church, prayed, shook hands, hugged the little children and the elderly ladies. I even went door-to-door a few times with my assistant pastor, inviting people to church and asking, “If you were to die today, do you know where you would go, Heaven or Hell?” But I wasn’t walking the walk. I was not living daily for Christ, and it did not take long for my testimony for the Lord to be all but shattered. Still, I was saved. I had received Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. This brings me to my point; There is an eternity of difference between ‘being saved’ and being a Christian.

—Not everyone who saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven. Matthew 7:21 KJV

Praying to God to forgive your sins, trusting in Christ,  inviting Him into your heart and life, and accepting Him as your personal Lord and Savior is a ONCE in a lifetime decision. Let me put it as plainly as I can; We only get saved ONE TIME and we CAN NOT lose our salvation ! Anyone who tells you something to the contrary is teaching and preaching blasphemy. We can not become ‘unsaved’. Our salvation is not ours to recant; it is God’s gift to us through His son Jesus Christ.

— My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.  John 10:27-29 KJV

Argue with me all you want, but you can’t argue with Christ. So, I ask you, Christian, are you walking the walk? Do your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, etc. know that you’re a Christian? can they SEE Christ in you? I am the first one to confess to you, as I confessed  recently to my Father, that up until a few days ago,, very few, if ANY of the aforementioned people in my life know that I am a Christian.

When I was a child, growing up in my grandparent’s church, during Vacation Bible School, I would sing “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” That was long before I received Christ as my personal Savior, before I was saved. For the better part of the past fifteen years, I’ve smothered this little light of mine, the light of the Holy Spirit and Christ Jesus. I made the once-in-a-life time decision to accept and trust in Christ. But following Christ and living the Christian life is just that; it is a life time of decisions. As I said in my previous post, I have decided to  jump off the fence, land on the Rock of Ages, and continuously pray that God keep the Light in me burning bright !

Are you walkin’ the walk ?

Is The Light burning bright in you ?

Are people approaching you and asking, “Sir (or ma’am), what must I do to be saved?”

it’s not too late Christian, make a conscious decision to do less talkin’ and more walkin !

Until He returns

— J.