I once heard the story of a small Russian towns population that had an underground church. At that time Bibles were illegal as were Christian meetings of any sort. The "church" didn't roll over and play dead even with the threat of death and imprisonment. They met and worshipped. What was different were the circumstances. They had no Bible. Not a one. What they did have (similar to the Israelites and Jewish population today) was "oral tradition." Each member of the assembly was charged with memorizing a portion of the Bible. When they were present for "church" they had a complete Bible. The chapters and verses were passed down from generation to generation. Quite the circumstances; wouldn't you agree? They were not and are not alone. Churches like theirs meet all over the world today in countries where Christianity is suppressed or illegal. Millions of people all over the world have given their lives for their faith. The countries are littered with graves of those who have been killed for their faith. They are a memorial to those who are the majority. In America we don't have such a predicament. We are free to worship, possess the Bible and read it. We're allowed to have it on our shirts, bumper stickers, placards in our windows and published in all kinds of literature. Yet, we don't form the majority. Why? Because of our circumstances.
We find ourselves much like the frog that has been put in a pan of cold water. The heat is turned on and slowly the frog adjusts to the heated water until it is boiled to death. Why no struggle? Why not try to jump out? Why do we just sit there and let the frog die? Because we are not in the majority. We are not persecuted. I mean really; telling us that we cannot pray in school? Who is going to stop you. We don't need our prayer in school to be a public spectacle. Bow your head and pray anyway. Take your Bible to school and read it when you have lunch or a free time. We find the energy to cry that we, as Christians, are being persecuted for our faith but really we don't have any persecution. We are not in the majority. We don't have circumstances that warrant our protesting. Jesus had the circumstances and didn't protest the persecution up to and including his death. Why do we? NO ONE CAN TAKE AWAY FROM YOU AND I WHAT IS INSIDE OF US. No one. If that which is within us is gone, it's because we gave it away. Why would we want to create that circumstance in our lives?
We've been told to not be offensive to anyone or any religion. It's the era of where people feel they are threatened and there is a reaction. The question is will we give up what we stand for or will we continue to believe as we do? In the end times there will be two choices for Christians. Stand for your faith and die or deny Christ and live. No one will miss out on eternity. We will either live eternally in Heaven or eternally in hell. Those are the circumstances that determine whether we stand with the majority or not. The Bible says that we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. That cloud of witnesses are those who held onto their faith in Jesus and passed from here to eternity believing and not denying. Some lived the faith their whole life while others accepted Jesus just before they drew their last breath. Both groups and everyone in between have the same reward...Heaven. It's easy to compromise our faith. We do it every day. In fact this is so common among Christians that they have taken to alter the Word of God to meet their wants and to make people feel good about NOT following the Word. Perhaps you have been doing that? I know I have done that for some seasons of my life. I don't want to be found in those circumstances with that majority. Do you?
No comments:
Post a Comment