What is going to happen to Christians? Around the world Christians are already being persecuted. America is blessed. Do not think that you, America, are beyond something as terrible as persecution. Christians in America, do not think that your citizenship to an earthly country will prevent you from ever experiencing persecutions. We are very blessed, and I thank God for that. We are allowed to worship Jesus! We can sit in a park and hold a Bible study or a church service. People in China sometimes can only find caves to worship in.
The Holy Spirit was given to help us. It was not given, however, to prosper us. The Holy Spirit is not our “you-can-never-lose” slot machine. Neither is it a pot of wealth given to those who ask for blessings. “Bless us, Lord. For we sit back and treat our neighbor like trash. Bless us, Lord. I treat everyone the same: like dirt. I continuously forget that the car ahead of me who just cut me off has a driver who was created in Your image so bless me by not letting anyone else cut in front of me. Bless us, Lord with Your Holy Spirit so that I can pursue myself. Lord, bless me because I deserve more money at work. I deserve the best of everything because I accepted Christ as my Savior. Yes, bless my wickedness, Lord.”
The Holy Spirit was given to help us. It was given so that we would have God near us when we pursued the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is a Helper who is here with us, inside of us, to give words when we have none. The Holy Spirit was given to draw the people of the world closer to God. This God is the One who deserves the glory, not us.
Now, before I go on I need to say that not every American Christian is hooked on a selfish way of thinking. Yet every single one of us is that Christian. Some of us recognize this selfishness and briefly are able to do something that actually makes God smile. We have compassion on others every once in a while. We do spread the gospel at times. Those times, unfortunately, do not happen enough. The rest of the time, do you know we look like? We look like the world, like we are completely of the world.
What is it going to take, American Christians? Do not make Acts repeat itself in the way of how they began to evangelize. What happened right before the gospel began to spread with fire? Stephen was martyred. Is that what it is going to take here? Are we first going to have to lose our freedom to proclaim the Word of the Lord without fear of death? I pray that it does not take America that long. Look around; there are so many people even on your street who need to hear of the hope of Christ today. They cannot afford that you wait until some Christian dies for the name of our Precious Lord. No, they need a Savior now.
I am not saying that you should go out there and be a Bible thumper. No, those people frustrate me a lot. I used to listen to one once a year on the University of Idaho campus. He would come and preach the fear of hell into each student. Or so he thinks. He said that homosexual people would go to hell and those having sex out of marriage would follow. Those people who kill babies would be next. What a gospel there. That would turn me off to hearing about Jesus. He accused us all. Where did Jesus accuse the lost in the Gospels? I believe Jesus loved them. He loved the woman caught in adultery. He loved the ones who were demon-possessed. He loved the ones who were considered too unclean to touch. He today loves the homosexual people, and the woman who just gave up her child to abortion. He loves the people who try anything to be satisfied from drugs to sex to religions that do not lead to Him. LOVE! As Heidi Baker, in the documentary Finger of God, says, “Don’t complicate the Gospel. The Gospel is all about love.”
I once heard a message where the speaker asked us if we would die for Christ. We all raised our hands. Yes, we were willing to take a bullet for Christ. Then he asked if we were willing to live for Christ. Instead of a bullet, would we take beatings? Hardly any hands went up. Mine stayed down. This was a new thought to my teenaged brain. I had not heard anything like this in church before.
Last year as I read through Revelation, it occurred to me again that I should be willing to not deny Christ even if it caused pain. Honestly, I was uncertain if I would be willing to suffer for Christ even then. I talked to my campus pastor about it and he told me that he too had been struggling with the same thing.
So there are two things this blog is trying to communicate to you. The first is that Christians have been given the Holy Spirit for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. The second is that American Christians also should be willing to live fully for Christ. They should be willing to suffer for Him and to die for Him if it comes to that.
Are you willing? I am.
WORKS CITED
Finger of God. Dir Darren Wilson. Wanderlust Productions 2007.
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