Sometimes You Have to Rock the Boat

Sometimes You Have to Rock the Boat

Have you even been in a situation where you are faced with the choice
of staying quiet or speaking up? Maybe you’ve been asked to compromise
rather than hold your ground. Often we just lower our heads, shut up and
follow the crowd. We don’t want to cause trouble. We don’t want to rock the
boat. We want to just bump along following the status quo hoping everything
will turn out ok.

Well, guess what? Sometimes God wants us to rock the boat. Perhaps
He needs us to stir the pot a bit. He needs us to push back.

Push back the darkness. Push back the lethargy. Push back the covers
and wake up! Society has laid down the demarcation line of what is morally
acceptable and what is not. This line is continually being moved further and
further away from holiness. Push it back! God is calling men and women to
stand up and be counted. Be counted as His watchmen ; calling out a warning
to those who are off the path, those who are in darkness and don’t even know
it. If we do nothing, if we turn a blind eye to the rapid descent of our country
and the church in general, how can we say we love people? How can we say
we love God?

Ezekiel 44:23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy
and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the
clean.

Now, how can we do that when we can’t even put down our phone? How
can we do that when our life shows there is no difference? I have found in my
own walk, I am showing fuzzy lines. My mind is far too often consumed with
the frivolous and vain.

Without spending copious time in the WORD, I end up spending
copious time in the world. That, my friends, is a huge difference and the time
invested in either one shows in everything I do and say. Time is short and I
hear God pleading with me to adjust my thinking. Even today it was echoed in
the sermon.

Psalm 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony
of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be
acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Reading, meditating and doing the word of God… this is the answer.
God gives all of us 86,400 seconds a day. How much of that time do I spend
serving myself rather than Him. How much of that time do I spend intervening
or interceding for the weak and the lost? Do I even think about them? Do I
even see them? Or has my heart become so hardened and my mind become
so dull that I don’t even hear their heart’s cry any more?

I have been praying and God has opened up some scripture to me.

Numbers 16:41 And he stood between the dead and the living; and the
plague was stayed.

Aaron ran into the middle of a prideful, grumbling, self-righteous mass of
people to save them (pretty much from themselves) while thousands were
falling over dead from a plague. The plague was a judgment God had
deemed necessary, as they had continually balked and scoffed at His leading.
These people were God’s own chosen ones. He had rescued them and
blessed them, yet there they stood denying their own sin and questioning God
at every turn.

That sounds a bit like the country we are living in. America has now
decided for itself what is sin and what is not. As a country we have accepted
pushing God out of any government office, murdering the unborn, euthanizing
the weak, homosexuality, greed, lying, and a myriad of other sins. Should we
not be sending out a warning? Shouldn’t we, in light of what is considered
commonplace, stand out like a sore thumb in today’s society? Shouldn’t we be
pushing back?

Are we? Are we viewed as different? Are our stances showing up as
light and hope? Or are we too afraid of what folks might think or who we might
offend? Even if they do not listen, we must still speak and live the
truth…especially to those who call themselves the church.

Ezekiel 3:4-10 And he said unto me, son of man, go, get thee into the house
of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. For thou are not sent to a
people of strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel.
Not to many people of a strange speech and to a hard language, whose
words thou canst understand. Sure had I sent thee to them they would have
hearkened unto thee. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for
they will not hearken unto me: for all the house if Israel are impudent and
heard hearted. Behold I have made thy face strong against their faces, and
thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an adamant harder than flint
have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks
though they be a rebellious house. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all
my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with
thine ears.

This may be a hard task; speaking to those who won’t listen. It will truly
be a fruitless task if we don’t apply that final sentence. First I must take heed
to the words and begin to apply them to my own heart and life before I can
expect anyone to listen.

We can all agree that the time is short. All the signs show Christ is
coming soon, so what are you going to do with this time? This world is falling
apart. Our country in particular has taken a rapid succession of steps
backwards… away from it’s original calling. Those of us who are calling
ourselves the remnant need to be at the Father’s business now more than
ever.

Ezekiel 22:29-30 The people of the land have used oppression, and
exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and the needy: yea they have
oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them, that
should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I
should not destroy it: but I found none.

Be a rescuer of the poor, a helper to the weak. Show mercy. Be a man
or woman who prays for our country. Call out sin in your own life. Put an end
to self-righteousness and hypocrisy. Live as you ought. May God strengthen
and help us all.

Submitted by Sharlon Worley October12, 2025