“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” (Romans 5:1)
Being hunted and chased down for professing to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, given an opportunity to recant, to deny Him, not doing so, and then tortured brutally unto death still happens at times in our day, but, for the most part, this is limited to certain areas of certain nations, and rarely makes the headlines, unless it is especially egregious.
We mourn and rejoice for our brothers and sisters in Christ who the Almighty has blessed to suffer so for His glory, and it should encourage us, strengthen our resolve, cement us firmly on the foundation of our faith in Him who gave Himself for us.
But sadly, for many it seems to do no more than evoke a distressing emotional response, temporary at best, and then the next so-called important event of the world draws our attention.
“And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” (1st Thess. 1:10)
Because it is happening “over there” and not outside your door, not to you personally, it is not something we contemplate at length, we would just as soon contemplate His love, His mercy, the peace that we have with the Most High because we are hid in Christ, safe eternally from His wrath, and because of the nation that many of us live in, those nations of religious freedom, we do not need to attempt to hide the faith we profess to have.
Yet how many still do for fear of being ridiculed, of being laughed at or mocked, for fear of losing friends, family members, their current social standing?
“They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” (John 16:2)
This assurance of salvation that you say you possess, this unmitigated truth that you hold within yourself that you are loved, that you always will be loved, that you will spend eternity in the Kingdom of the Living God, to what measure of persecution do you believe you will stand on this faith you profess? Only you can answer that question, and unless the Living God places you in a position where that question must be answered, you will never know.
And personally my friends, I do not believe that many want to know.
“If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:” (2nd Tim. 2:12)
I have met more people in my life that are embarrassed to speak of Him whom they say they serve in public, than those who are willing to suffer torture and death for Him. But perhaps that’s only those I have met.
Crushed under the weight of an evil and wicked world, chased and hunted down, hiding while seeking for just one more lost soul to speak to about the peace of God through Christ. All that has been written here for you can only happen in one place, in this life.
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,” (Phil. 3:13)
There are those the world is not worthy of, and there are those that only profess Him with their lips. There are those coming after us that will not love their lives to the death for His glory, there are those who came before us, and even are now today, who have paid the price in full.
Consider these truths and look upon your own heart, are you honestly an example for others of one who has died to self?
