We Will
How are you doing?
How are you really doing?
In the months since the 2020 election, there has been unease among the body of Christ … how are you doing?
Are you wondering about all that might lie ahead just like I am?
Christians are wondering how the results of a contested and vicious election would affect our ability to worship and to share the truth of the Gospel message in our current culture.
Perhaps you are at peace about what is happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue … in the halls of Congress … and behind the closed doors of Washington.
If you are at peace … then pray for the rest of us.
Because of what is happening in our culture, I am sobered.
I am not afraid but I am sobered.
As I have been praying through the issues that have caused a typhoon of unease in America, I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit speak to me with an encouraging reminder, “Carol, your role as a believer in Jesus Christ in the year 2021 is the same as the role of a believer at any moment in history.”
Then, I felt the Holy Spirit lead me on a journey through time.
The Holy Spirit, who is the best Teacher in all of eternity, helped me to investigate and contemplate how Christians survived during turbulent and fractious years in history.
Would you like to travel through time with me and with the Holy Spirit?
Would you like to learn what I have learned?
Our first stop is the first century AD.
At this moment in history, the emperor Nero horribly and unfairly persecuted Christians. Professing believers in Christ were torn apart by dogs or burned alive as human torches.
During this time in early church history, men such as Paul, Peter and James continued to preach the Gospel and write letters to the scattered and tormented church.
The church grew and flourished; Christians sang and worshipped the Lord on their way to their deaths.
We can and will do the same in the 21st Century.
Now … let’s head toward the Middle Ages.
During the Middle Ages, Christians were exiled, persecuted and tortured.
If a person refused to renounce Christ during this era, their hands may have been burned, their feet cut off or they may have been beheaded.
And yet, even during these dark times, the Gospel continued to be preached and converts continued to choose Christ.
We will continue to preach and we will continue to choose Christ in the 21st. Century.
Now, let’s spend some time in America during the awful days of the mid-nineteenth century.
This period of history is known as the years of the Civil War when brother fought against brother … when white men held black men and women in bondage … and when houses and lands were ravaged by fellow Americans.
What were Christians doing during this historical period? Now, not all of them were choosing to stand up for those in bondage, and that breaks my heart.
However, there was a remnant … as there always has been and will always be … who chose the hard way not the easy way.
There was a remnant who partnered with Christ in making a profound difference for the forgotten.
During the Civil War, many Christians assisted slaves and put them on the “Underground Railroad” which then took them to freedom and to safety.
We, as the Body of Christ, will at this moment in history, fight for the freedom and safety of those whose skin color is different than ours.
We will not be silent … we will not tolerate racial division … we will make a way where there seems to be no way.
We will be the remnant of Christ.
And then the Holy Spirit took me to Europe during the Holocaust.
During World War II, undaunted and bold Christians hid Jews in their own homes. They risked their own lives and the lives of their families to love people who others hated.
Christians such as Corrie ten Boom and Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood against an evil government in powerful and in practical ways.
We, as 21st. Century believers in Christ, will continue to stand up for those who have been hated and mistreated.
We will fight for freedom and for dignity for all races and for all people.
And then the Holy Spirit reminded me of the missionaries from many different historical junctures who were not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Men and women who refused to cower in fear have taken the message of Christ to dark continents and to lost people group.
They gave their lives in obedience to the Great Commission.
Many of these valiant soldiers of Christ never returned home again. As they waved good-bye to their families, they were bidding them farewell until the shores of heaven.
Jim Elliot. Nate Saint. John Chau. Betty Stam.
Men and women of God have been buried alive, assassinated by the spear and have been paraded naked while being mocked.
We will not cower in fear and we will not be ashamed but we will courageously tell the world about the saving grace of Christ.
It is our glorious assignment and high calling!
We will go … we will love … we will tell … we will evangelize … we will stand … we will worship … we will protect … we will be kind.
We will.
As Christians of the 21st. Century, we must embrace a “no matter what” attitude toward all that is transpiring in the world around us.
No matter what … I will serve Christ.
No matter what … I will praise the Lord.
No matter what … I will tell others about Christ.
No matter what … I will be kind.
No matter what … I will speak up for those who are unable to speak up for themselves.
No matter what … I will be the light of the world.
No matter what … I will tell the story of Jesus.
No matter what … I will.
Thanks for listening to my heart this week.As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me.And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!