The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
Today’s devotional comes from Ron Boyd-MacMillan’s excellent volume Faith That Endures:
The
Biblical scholar William Barclay famously described a New Testament
Christian as having three remarkable characteristics: “One, they were
absurdly happy; two, they were filled with an irrational love for
everyone; and three, they were always in trouble!”
Persecuted
Christians are constantly in trouble. As a Palestinian pastor put it,
“If you speak truth to power, power always reacts.” An encounter with
the persecuted reveals the incendiary nature of this gospel we follow,
and if our witness does not provoke some sort of explosive reaction, we
have to check whether our gospel powder is damp or dry. We should be in
trouble for Jesus! If we aren’t, something is wrong…
Persecuted
Christians are not tempted into the illusion that the world is actually a
friendly place that does not mind our identifying with Christ. The
world for them is unmasked in its hostility to Christ.
Once when
visiting Czechoslovakia in the 1980’s, I delivered a Bible to an elderly
pastor. He had not seen a Bible in years. He smelled it, kissed it with
trembling lips, cradled it, and then with great reverence, opened it.
Then he turned to me and said, “Let me tell you of my wounds.” And he
poured out his trials for God, which included seven beatings by the
secret police and the awful seduction of his daughter by a government
agent who then fooled her into betraying him. Then he turned to me, his
eyes boring into my soul, and asked, “What wounds have you for the
Master?” I was embarrassed to have so few to share.
The questions
of the persecuted church are simple: Are you in trouble for Jesus? Where
are your wounds? If you don’t have any, maybe you’ve forgotten you’re
in a fight at all. Whatever culture we are in, we are always being
subtly coerced into spending our money, or time, on what is not of
Christ. Persecution afflicts us all if we stand up for Christ. The
world, the flesh, and the devil will never reach an accommodation with
Christ. Like it or not, we are caught up in cosmic warfare. The gospel
has landed us in it. We will all be scarred by the battle. We will all
experience persecution. The difference is only one of degree and
type.[1]
RESPONSE: Today I will evaluate my life and assess what are my wounds for Christ. I will then rejoice in suffering for Jesus.
PRAYER:
Lord, I submit to Your Lordship over my life and accept whatever wounds
You will enable me to bear for Your sake and the gospel’s.
1. Ronald Boyd-MacMillan, Faith That Endures (Grand Rapids: Fleming Revell, 2006), pp. 322-323.
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