But I Must Live....Right?

In the final Beatitude, Matthew 5:10 (NIV), Jesus says:

"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

This particular Beatitude prompted Jesus to go a little further in his teaching. Matthew 5:11-12 continue the thought of 5:10. In vv.11-12 Jesus continues:

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Sometimes it is verses like these that are hard to hear. I mean...does God really want me to give up everything? Is persecution really necessary for me to follow Christ? Really?

In his book on the Sermon on the Mount, R. Kent Hughes recounts a story about the church father Tertullian and a man that essentially asked the same question I asked above. Here is how Hughes tells the story:

The early church had no doubt about where a believer's duty lay. One hundred years after Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, a man approached the great church father Tertullian with a problem--his business interests and Christianity conflicted. He ending by asking, "What can I do? I must live!" Tertullian replied, "Must you?" When it came to a choice between loyalty to Christ and living, Tertullian held that the real Christian chooses Christ.

I am not advocating that Christians should go looking for trouble and persecution. That would be something other than what Christ and the scriptures are saying. Also, I think we need to be clear on what persecution is. If I "harass" people with the message of the cross and the police come to me for harassing the public, that is probably not persecution...that is me dealing with a consequence of my method not my message. But why do we see so little persecution in the church (particularly in America, I know that persecution is widespread in other countries)? "By far the greatest reason there is so little persecution," writes Hughes,"is that the church has become like the world."

My prayer for Jesus' church, as well as for me personally, is that we will be able to say and live out along with the Apostle Paul, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:12, NIV).

We need to lay all of our dreams, desires, faults, opinions, ministries, programs, etc. at the foot of the Cross! Sometimes I feel that I have done that. Other times I feel that I have so far yet to go. Thankfully He is not finished with any of us just yet.

Neglecting our Heritage?

I will be the first to admit that I often must rouse myself from a slumber. It is only too easy to become distracted from the will of God and take my eyes off of the cross of Christ.

Recently I was "reaquainted" with a bit of my Free Methodist heritage...a heritage that smacks spiritual lethargy in the face with a "2 by 4". For example, we have John Wesely who at the time decided to take the message of the Gospel outside of the walls of the church building. Wesley, recording his thoughts regarding this decision in one of his journals, writes:

"...I have submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation."

He knew that at least the initial response from other church leaders would be one of disdain. It was a frowned upon practice to do what Wesley did in that moment. In many ways don't we find the same general attitude existing today? "Your faith is great, I'm happy for you, but do not share it with the public." that is something I have heard before.

Then there is the example of B.T. Roberts, the Founder of the Free Methodist church. At one point in his ministry Roberts, who was married with children, sold the family home and they bought a theater in Buffalo, NY from which to minister. Now, imagine coming home and telling your wife or husband, "Honey, I sold the house and were moving into and old theater to minister to the poor and down-trodden." How would that go over?

I remember when my wife, Stacey, and I moved three hours away to minister in another region...our family did not quite understand. "Can't you work at a church near here? How long will you be gone? Are you ever coming back?", etc., etc.

Jesus never said that following him would be easy, as a matter of fact, he says just the opposite. In Luke 14:27-30 (NIV) Jesus says:

"And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will h not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'"

Sometimes we need to look back and see where we came from in order for us to look ahead and the where we are going. And of course this heritage goeas back much farther than Wesly, Roberts and many others. It goes back to the cross of Christ, the Pentecost event and the early church who followed King Jesus in spite of great difficulty. Let us once again fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and pioneer of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and now sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven.