When To Speak

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 4th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

“Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you;…”
Proverbs 9:8

“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”
Matthew 7:6

Do not cast your precious pearls before swine, before pigs. Very strong words spoken by Jesus Himself. Don’t share things that are intimate with those who will mock you, ridicule you, belittle you and that will make a fool of you. Do not share precious truths with someone you don’t really know because it will come back and it will bite you. I want to say to that young lady who is listening to this message, don’t share personal and private thoughts with that young man before you get to know him and trust him.

I remember many years ago, we were having an outreach campaign in the city of East London. We had booked the Orient Theatre, a beautiful place right on the seashore and it was a one-week event. It was running very successfully, we were having a full house every night. One night I was preaching my heart out and there was a heckler. A man sitting at the back of the hall and every time I would preach something he would say, ‘Where does it say that in the Bible?” he was really pushing all the buttons. Those are always the meetings I seem to end up in. He was trying to disrupt the meeting but we had a team of very experienced men that quietly came up and escorted him out of the meeting. 

After the close of the event, we were all walking out of the hall and this same man was sitting outside, he was drunk and he said, “Preacher, I want to speak to you about your Jesus.” Quietly, I said to him, “Sir, I am not prepared to speak to a drunkard about my precious Lord and Saviour”, and I left.  

After the event, I got a phone call maybe two or three weeks later when we were back on the farm to say that that young man who was drunk and who was heckling and causing trouble at the meeting has just given his life to Jesus Christ and he is born again.

Timing is of the essence. There is time to speak up and there is a time to keep quiet. Do it today and you will find that your life will be so much more pertinent and so much more successful.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.