Friday, 27 June 2025

Charlie Shamp on Sofa Criticism


 There’s a cost to carrying the Gospel into hard places. I’ve stared down mobs shouting threats, been in the hospital from my body giving out, held at gunpoint, threatened by Hindu and Muslim extremists and had to flee for my safety. I’ve slept in mud huts, wondered through garbage dumps and slums wondering if I’d live to see my family again. That’s real persecution.  


But here’s what those moments taught me. When death breathes down your neck for preaching Jesus, you stop fearing man’s opinion. You stop caring about bitter YouTube rants or accusations of being a “false prophet” from people who’ve never stepped foot in the battlefield. Why? Because I’ve already gambled my life for this calling. I’ve walked away from near death moments knowing the devil couldn’t silence me so why would I let some stranger’s keyboard?  


Those lies online? They don’t haunt me. Why? Because I’ve literally seen the hand of God move and my life was spared. I got to live another day and went home to hug my kids, kiss my wife, and thanked God I survived to keep fighting. Every minute I waste defending myself against petty critics is a minute stolen from feeding the hungry, praying for the sick, or holding my family close.  


To my fellow warriors doing real Kingdom work. If you’ve bled for the Gospel, sweated in the harvest, or wept over souls, you know truth isn’t measured by likes or shares. The enemy wants you distracted to make you answer every allegation, obsess over every rumor. Don’t. The same grace that kept you alive in the valley of death will shield you from cheap words.  


I’m not here to debate armchair theologians or answer to people that are bitter about the church. I’m here to preach Jesus until my last breath. If I’d died in that prison, or that malaria clinic, or on that dirt road… my kids wouldn’t remember me as a man who “won arguments.” They’d remember a father who showed them how to live and die for what matters; the Gospel of Jesus Christ! 


Keep your armor on. Keep plowing. Let the critics mock; let the bitter rage. We’ve got a Kingdom to build.  


Apostle Paul said this, “I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race…” (Acts 20:24)




No comments: