OLD POST, NEW MEANING This past week I was blessed with the opportunity to work in middle school VBS at Fairview Baptist Church. Our youth pastor, Anthony Caldwell, had a vision for this week. A vision that honestly captivated me from the moment he told me about it. We were going to take our students on an UNDERGROUND WORLD TOUR. We spent the week opening the eyes of these 11-13 year old kids to the fact that there are people around the world EVERY day being persecuted, imprisoned and even killed for one simple reason, being a follower of Jesus Christ! While it took some of these kids a day or two to REALLY get into what we were trying to teach them, once they did they were hooked. And not only the students but some of the older teenage leaders had never heard about the horrible things that happen to people all around the world simply because they are Christians. While we tried to make things as realistic as possible for our students by only having a single light bulb burning in what we called our “house church” rooms to give them a visual effect of what these folks deal with day in and day all to worship the one true God. We even went as far one night as to assign them scriptures the night before that they were write down on a slip of paper and bring to the “house church” the next night. That way if their “house church” were to be raided they could dispose of the pieces of paper and not be charged with having a scripture on them. That was the night they really started getting it. While reflecting on this past week and all the amazing things God laid out for our students to learn about, I was reminded of something I originally was impressed to by God to write in November of 2011. It was a devotional posting that back then I entitled, “SUFFERING, SACRIFICE, AND YOU!” God impressed upon me this morning that I needed repost this in hopes that some the students that I was given the great blessing of leading this week would read it and hopefully get something out of. My prayer for all those great kids is that the fire that is burning so strong and so brightly in them right now for their persecuted brothers and sisters around the world will NEVER go out. And that they will always remember two things that GOD IS WORTH IT and that we are ONE WITH THEM! SUFFERING, SACRIFICE, AND YOU! “Then they brought the apostles before the high council, where the high priest confronted them. “Didn’t we tell you never again to teach in this man’s name?” he demanded. “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death!” But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed Him by hanging Him on a cross. Then God put Him in the place of honor at His right hand as Prince and Savior. He did this so the people of Israel would repent of their sins and be forgiven. We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to those who obey him.” When they heard this, the high council was furious and decided to kill them. But one member, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was an expert in religious law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be sent outside the council chamber for a while. Then he said to his colleagues, “Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men! Some time ago there was that fellow Theudas, who pretended to be someone great. About 400 others joined him, but he was killed, and all his followers went their various ways. The whole movement came to nothing. After him, at the time of the census, there was Judas of Galilee. He got people to follow him, but he was killed, too, and all his followers were scattered. “So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!” The others accepted his advice. They called in the apostles and had them flogged. Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go. The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.” Acts 5: 27-41(NLT) Often times we Christians view our pitiful attempt at sacrifice as real suffering, but to be honest we really know nothing about suffering for the cause of Christ. We view the “sacrifice” we make of going to church a couple of times of week as suffering. Now I’m not sure but I think that setting in a climate controlled building on a relatively comfortable seat, listening to some pretty music, and a decent sermon is far from what Christ sacrificed for us. It’s also far removed from what the apostles in this text sacrificed and suffered through for the sake of telling others about Jesus. Many of the disciples in this example were new converts as well as some of the original disciples that were with Jesus. Some of them had viewed the suffering that Jesus had endured at the hands of the Pharisees. To endure that kind of suffering and sacrifice for the namesake of their Lord Jesus, this band of disciples would view the stripes they would soon wear as a badge of honor. Enduring just a little bit of what Jesus had gone through was cause to rejoice. Can you even imagine viewing taking a beating like that for just merely telling someone about Jesus as a great thing and something that you would love to have happen to you? Now keep in mind that this was not just a beating in the modern since of the word. This was a flogging like that which Jesus has endured before being crucified. The disciples were flogged according to Jewish law, each probably receiving 39 lashes across their bare backs with a leather strap which was more than likely being wielded by a large, strong member of the Temple guard with some major anger issues. I personally can imagine the “flogger” as I’ll call him getting very frustrated while issuing the punishment. I envision the disciples thanking and praising Jesus every time the leather strap hit their back and ripped away the flesh. What faith! What absolute LOVE these men had for Jesus. They would endure any suffering and make any sacrifice they were asked for the cause of telling the world about Jesus. After the flogging they were told to not preach of Christ again or they would suffer more of the same type beating that had just endured. Did this discourage the disciples? Did they stop preaching Jesus to the masses? Quite the contrary, this charge they were given along with beating they had received made them more determined to get the message of Jesus out to everyone they encountered. I was reminded of these events after reading an article in a publication from The Voice of the Martyrs. The article relayed the story of an Egyptian man they called “Ahmed”. “Ahmed” is a truck driver that has been interrogated, beaten, and tortured by the Egyptian police for bringing many Muslims to Christ. The Egyptian police department has a special division that focuses solely on Christians that witness to and convert Muslims to Christianity. In article Ahmed told details of what he does to assist these people by hiding them and providing them food and other supplies that they can no longer get themselves because they have denounced Islam and proclaimed Christ. He also told in vivid detail about his most recent beating at the hands of the Egyptian authorities. He said that he was, “hanging upside down with ropes on my legs. They threw cold water on me and beat me in the sensitive area. I had to have surgery because of this. They also used a tool to blow air into my intestines. When I went into a coma they lowered me down to the wet floor.” One would assume after this type of suffering and sacrifice that Ahmed would be quite bitter and ready to give up right? WRONG! Ahmed’s next statement, to me, is so profound and so where we should all be as Christians that it’s embarrassing that I don’t share his sentiment. He said, “Carrying the cross is a pleasure for me. I enjoy it, bearing this reproach with Christ—thinking of carrying the cross. This is my own belief which I got from the Bible about things done for Christ. I demonstrate what he has done for me; this is the feeling I’m delivering to the people I’m serving. This is what Jesus did for us. Carrying the cross is connected with the biblical verse, ‘They didn’t love their lives to the death’ (Revelation 12:11)” All I can truly say after that testimony is WOW! Here we have two great stories of people that are willing to endure physical suffering and amazing sacrifice to make sure that one more lost person hears about Jesus. But too many of us of, me included, are not even willing to deal with a little bit of emotional suffering to share Jesus with a co -worker, a neighbor, a fellow student, or even a family member. We set back and know that we should be sharing Christ with everyone we come in contact with but then we let pride (a.k.a. Satan) tell us that someone else will do it because we are afraid that we may get laughed at. That we may not get invited to the next big dinner party if we share our faith at work. That the cute guy or cute girl that we want so badly to go out with won’t be interested in us if we share Jesus with them. But then you have the examples here of the disciples and Ahmed that were and are willing to be beaten and if need be will die for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus. Somehow that walk across the cul de sac to share Jesus with your neighbor doesn’t seem as daunting now does it?
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:42:42 +0000
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