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Thank you so much for sharing your insights and testimony, dear brother in Christ, and thank you for the wonderful excerpts!

And as one of the strident ones . . . I think it's a mixed bag. The world has lots of loud voices. Sometimes one needs to be loud and startling to even get a hearing in all the noise of modern life.
On the other hand, soft and understated is such a rarity, that can also be loudER in terms of effectiveness than conventional loudness can be in some situations, on some issues.

Then there's the issue of who is one called to say something to in a given situation. Some are called more to Believers' exhortations and some more to the lost. Certainly we are all challenged of The Lord to reach out to the lost. Yet, some have more of an emphasis than others toward certain groups etc.

Truly, a Christian must offer the words of God and his own testimony according to God’s leading and not what seems right to himself. God gives each of us physical and spiritual gifts according to His own will. If God has gifted a person for teaching, he should not try to be an evangelist.

For an example we could look to the Apostles who were quite different and individually chosen by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul was profoundly educated, intelligent, had a strong personality and was uniquely prepared by Christ to confront the intelligentsia of the day – the Jews first and then the Greeks and then the Romans. His life was full of contention and difficulty and much fruit.

John, on the other hand, was a living testimony – he was specially loving and gentle. He was chosen to care for Mary, receive prophecy and reveal deep Spiritual truths. His long life was not as difficult as Paul’s but his ministry was every bit as important. And, like Paul's, fruitful to this very day.

And the testimony of the two was identical in declaring Who God “is,” i.e. revealing that Jesus is God, The Creator (John 1, Col 1 etc.), the ministry of the indwelling Spirit (John 15, Romans 8, etc.), the unfailing love of our Father (John 17, Romans 8:38-39, etc.) and so forth.

Or to put it another way, without Him we can do nothing and with Him, nothing is impossible. If He calls a man to tangle with intellectuals or rabid atheists then that is what he must do. And if He calls a man to spiritually nurture a particular someone then that is what he must do. And if He calls a man to suffer the “stings and arrows of outrageous fortune” that is what he must do … without the whiney “oh, woe is me!” because, as with John, our life is also a testimony.

In sum, a Christian must realize that his life is not his own, that worldy “possessions” are just an illusion, it is always “about” Christ. And our first and most important priority is to love God surpassingly above all else. That is the one and only Great Commandment! (Matt 22:37-38)

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. - John 15:4-5

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. - Romans 8:9

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. - Colossians 3:3

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20

The earth [is] the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. - Psalms 24:1

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? - I Corinthians 6:19

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? – Matt 16:24-26

I thank God for the body of Christian witnesses we have here on Free Republic. There is a great diversity of Christians specially gifted for different ministries.

Look at your own education both formal and in the school of life – and that of everyone on this ping list and elsewhere on this forum. Who is better gifted to engage atheist philosopher-scientists than betty boop?

Yet, I'm increasingly convinced that if it's not done out of Love, it's probably not done truly FOR Christ. And probably only what's done FOR CHRIST out of HIS LOVE IN OUR HEARTS will truly last eternally.

It is worse than that.

Having excellent doctrines, being intolerant of evil, doing good works, contending for the faith and so on are not enough when a Christian has lost his first love. Christ may remove his candlestick, i.e. the Light of God may no longer shine through him into the darkness of this world.

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have [somewhat] against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. – Revelation 2:1-5

Truly, there is only One Great Commandment.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment. – Matthew 22:37-38

God’s Name is I AM.

In sum, a Christian must realize that his life is not his own, that worldy "possessions" are just an illusion, it is always "about" Christ.

Amen, A.G! The heart of the Gospel.

I was reading an excellent article, CALVIN: WHY HE STILL MATTERS by W. Robert Godfrey who wrote likewise...

"...Book Three of the Institutes is above all about faith. B.B. Warfield once said that John Calvin was the great theologian of the Holy Spirit. Warfield was certainly right, but Calvin was an even greater theologian of faith. To read the third book of the Institutes seeing what Calvin has to say about faith in those chapters is to come as close as any uninspired author has ever come to making clear what true faith is: how it rests in Christ, how it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, how it was planned from all eternity in God's electing purpose, and how the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ and fills us with confidence that for Christ's sake we are saved now and forever. Probably Calvin's most distinctive teaching is this, that we can know not only that today we belong to Christ, that today we have true faith, but that we can know because of the promise of God that tomorrow we will belong to Christ, and forever we will belong to Christ. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." It was not John Calvin who said this, of course, but John Calvin quoted it and believed it. If Jesus Christ is our savior today, he will be our savior tomorrow. This conviction is a great source of Calvinist confidence. Calvin gave us a genuine biblical religion that knows that what God has begun in the hearts of his people he will bring to fruition..."