Jesus Sign up sheet.
A missionary in the Middle East with a ministry that helps churches in the Arabian peninsula and to minister to Christian believers there shares.
In America, we live in a culture where a revolution of hate is on the rise. The biblical response to hate is to love one another with the love of God. Christians have an eternal perspective because according to Ephesians we are seated in heavenly places in Christ. Our challenge is to see this world from our Heavenly Father’s vantage point.
Dave recalls when Chaldean Christians in Iraq were invaded by Isis. Their homes were destroyed, their property taken, and their wives and children were violated. They became refugees. Dave recalls how his heart was touched for these brothers and sisters in Christ. He wept for them for weeks.
How stark is the contrast between the Middle East and the United States? In America, we’re upset when someone cuts us off on the freeway. One barb of a negative comment will burst our bubble of happiness. Jesus said that when we’re persecuted, God will give us the words to speak. When Dave baptizes Muslims, he reminds them to count the cost… They must forsake all to follow Jesus. They will be ostracized from their families and neighbors. One mother had her child taken away after she converted to Christianity.
Anti-Christianity is already encroaching our culture. In Canada, the pastors aren’t allowed to speak the truth of the Word of God that the government deems hate speech. Jesus said on his “sign up sheet,” you’ll be alienated and some of you will be put to death. In America, if you quote scripture from Romans 1, you’ll be called a “hater.”
When the Egyptian Coptic Christians were beheaded on the beach, they prayed for their executors, ‘Father forgive them. Lay not this charge against them.” One of the executors repented, turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, and was himself beheaded along with his new-found Christian brothers.
What’s in it for us when we “sign up” for the real gospel? Jesus said that you will be imprisoned and some of you will be put to death. However from the eternal perspective Jesus said, not one hair on your head will perish. From God’s eternal perspective, life in this world is “but a vapor.”
Jesus didn’t preach a “tithing” message to the rich young ruler when he asked “what must I do to inherit eternal life.” This man told Jesus, “all the commandments I have kept from my youth.” However, he had forgotten the first commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Jesus knew that this man’s god was his material riches. The first commandment says “thou shalt have no other gods between your face and God’s face.” Jesus didn’t tell the man to tithe. He said, You must sell all of your material possessions, give the proceeds to the poor and follow me. You have to be “all in” to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
According to Hebrews 10, when you endure suffering, sometimes you’re exposed to insult and persecution…sometimes you stand side by side with those who are so treated. If you’re living for Christ, the world will hate you.
Iraqi women who come to Christ have to leave their families. One woman’s father said, I want you to leave because if you stay here, they’ll kill you and then kill our family because you have forsaken the Muslim religion.
How do we factor the trials of life into the hope that we have in Christ? According to the gospel, Faith overcomes the world. For tribulation worketh patience and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.
Those who were persecuted in Hebrews 10 knew that they had a better reward in eternity. We don’t belong with those who shrink back and are destroyed. We have an eternal hope. According to Hebrews 11, we’re given the example of the believing faith of those who are written in the “hall of faith.” Many were delivered miraculously by the power of God. However some were persecuted, sawed asunder…wondering about in deserts and mountains. These all were examples of believing faith. God has planned something better for all of us in eternity.
Therefore, seeing that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of the witness of their faith, let us lay down the weight of the sin that so easily entangles us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down upon the right hand of the throne of God.
What do we get when we sign up to be Jesus’ disciple? According to 2 Corinthians 4:17, For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory… The pain and tribulation of this world is but a nano-second in light of eternity. The eternal perspective is the hope of the resurrection… The hope of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His eternal perspective as the hymn says, “when we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun…we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun!
May we ever live to the praise of the glory of his grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael