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Scripture for the day: Acts 5:40-42 And when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
Thought for the day: What a bunch of radical, fringe kooks these Christians must have been! No wonder the Jews and Romans wanted them out of the way so badly; they upset the good folks of every town and village they entered. You know, it's a fine thing to be a Christian, and I think more people ought to live the Christian life, but why can't they just keep it to themselves? Why do they think they have to invade everyone else's space with this so-called "good news?"
"I know what you mean. Why, just the other day a small band of those Jesus people came through town, upsetting everyone with their talk of sin and guilt and the need to repent from our evil ways. How dare they! I'm a good person; as good as the next anyway. Why can't they leave well enough alone. What was good enough for father Abraham and Moses ought to be good enough for us."
I can picture two business leaders, two country farmers, two Scribes, or two Jewish mothers having this conversation as they go about their daily routines. And I hear similar thoughts expressed today - Christianity is a personal matter, and it ought to be kept in the home or the church where it belongs. What right have these people to force their views on the rest of us? And the vast majority of us in the church have bought into this lie.
The truth is, Christianity is unpopular and anyone who honestly and fully embraces Christianity will be unpopular as well (well, actually it’s Jesus who’s unpopular; not the church). There is a sense in which, if you're running about every day and everyone likes you and you're getting along with everyone you know and no one is taking any offense at the things you do or say, you're probably not doing your job as a Christian. The early Christians, and many around the world today, are fully aware that embracing Christ will mean they become so unpopular that it could cost them everything, up to and including their lives. Many who heard Peter preach from the balcony of that home in Jerusalem on Pentecost lost their families, their worldly goods and even their lives. Many others were driven from Jerusalem because of their new-found faith. All could have avoided such unpleasantness by simply recanting their faith and going back to the ways of the world. They refused because they had finally found the one truth that would set them free from the bondage of sin in which they had been trapped for so long.
Too often today, in order to bring people into the faith and build our churches, we tend to downplay the hard truths of the kingdom and emphasize the peace, love, joy and contentment that is to be found in Christ. All those things are true of course, but we will never be completely honest with our friends and neighbors until we tell them the whole truth, the truth that, as members of the fallen race we call human, they are moral rebels, imprisoned in the dungeon of sin; a dungeon from which there is no escape save through the blood of the Lamb. Too often we neglect the truth that calls for repentance, a turning away from sin, and a conscious wholehearted belief in Jesus Christ. We often are tempted not to focus on the truth that without this repentance they will surely perish and spend eternity in a Godless hell. And too often we fail to warn others that, if they do turn to him, the same enemies that crucified him will try to crucify them.
Lord, give me the heart of a martyr this day. Help me to have the attitude of Paul who, as they marched him along the Appian Way in chains, could say, "I count everything as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things."
Now go take on your world. - Bill