See Revelation 21:8.
Fortunately, we repentant cowards (including 11 of Christ’s chosen apostles — Matthew 26:56, but excluding the one unrepentant coward of the bunch) are not left to try to somehow conjure up courage within ourselves, we are simply called to kindle and not quench the Spirit of power that God Himself has put in to us who are His (2 Tim 1:6-7; 1 Thes 5:19).
There is an idea out there in the modern evangelical church that goes like this, “If somebody comes and points a gun to my head and tells me to renounce Christ then I should affirm my faith in Him, but I’m not going to go out and do something stupid (or foolish) to get myself persecuted.”
As it stands, I fully agree with that statement. Yes, you must confess Christ even if God’s enemies point a gun to your head. And no, you shouldn’t go out and do something stupid to get yourself persecuted.
But my stern warning on this point is that we must be very careful what sort of acts we label as “stupid” or “foolish”. The reason is that Christian love, viewed through worldly eyes, often looks stupid and foolish. With reverence, I dare to say that in worldly language, Philippians 2:3-8 is the ultimate description of stupidity. The Son of God, emptying Himself, letting go of His RIGHTS as God, becoming a bond-servant!? Foolish! Allowing Himself, He who had all authority to command a legion of angels to save Him or to call down fire from heaven, surrendering Himself to death, even death on a cross!? Stupid! And He calls me to think of others’ interest as more important than my own? What kind of fool does He think I am?
But the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. And what the world regards as foolishness (the cross of Christ) is wisdom to God (1 Cor 1).
Pagan American culture still honors our soldiers for putting themselves in harm’s way for the common good. But Christian American culture often encourages our men to be pansies. We act as if it is commendable for service men, firefighters, and police men to take risks in fighting physical battles, but pastors and Christian leaders should “play it safe” in the face of even more intense spiritual battles! What? The spiritual leaders of the early church were men who had done jail time, received death threats, had their property plundered, or had already received the martyr’s crown for righteousness sake. Where are such leaders today?
The problem with the idea quoted at the beginning of this post is that it can easily promote an attitude of the most extreme form of selfishness. That is, it acknowledges that renouncing Christ when a gun is pointed at my head risks me becoming an apostate. I don’t want to stand before God’s judgment as an apostate, so I know I should confess Christ. But if someone else is suffering, I dare not do something “foolish” to protect them. Sadly, such an attitude is already apostasy, because if we have no love for our brother we proven that we have no love for God (1 John 4:20-21).
The enemy is already shooting his “flaming missles” (Eph 6:16, NASB). Make no mistake, when we “play it safe” to avoid trouble that doesn’t mean that no one gets hurt, it just means that someone else gets hurt. There is not a choice between a world full of bullets or a world without bullets. Like it or not, the bullets have already been shot and are headed straight at their intended targets. The only question is, will you step in front of other people’s bullets, or will you step aside and watch the bloodshed?
My tribute to Rich Mullins consists in providing you with a link to Twenty the Countdown Magazine’s Tribute to Rich Mullins (as featured on this page). This is probably my favorite interview/radio program that I’ve ever heard. The first time I heard it several years ago I cried numerous times. At the time I didn’t have much idea of who Rich Mullins was, but what stuck out to me was the deep, genuine humility that seemed to come out in so much of what he said.
Some excerpts:
But I think that part of our identity as human beings is that we have work, that we have things to do. And I am gifted as a musician. I am gifted as a writer and so I have to do that out of obedience. I am not gifted as a singer. I have a weird voice. I have a terrible speaking voice and when I sing its not as weird as when I talk so I should probably sing more and talk less. But, nevertheless, I don’t like my voice even when I am singing and people say, “Why do you sing then?” and I go, “Because it is the most reiterated command in the whole Bible.” And I figure there must be a reason why it says over and over and over, sing sing sing sing sing. I also kind of go, this is a lot easier than loving my enemies so maybe I should start with the easy stuff and maybe by the time I am really old I will have been able to tie the more complicated knot.
We all want to be useful to God. Well, its no big deal. God can use anybody. God used Nebuchadnezzar. God used Judas Iscariot. Its not a big deal to be used by God and the shocking thing in the book of Mark, and the reason why it is so shocking is because Mark is the briefest of all the gospels but he has these terrific little details and one of the little details is that it says, “and Jesus called to Him those that He wanted.” And you realize that out of the twelve people that He wanted, only one was essential to His goal in coming to earth. The other eleven people were useless to Christ but they were wanted by Christ. And I kind of go, I would much rather have God want me than have God use me.
A lot of times we think something spiritual is happening and it is merely aesthetics. That is why it always bugs me at the end of a concert someone will say, “Wow the Spirit really worked” and I kind of go, “How would you even be able to know that? It was so noisy in here tonight. How would you know if the Spirit was working?” “Well, I was really moved.” Well, that is an emotional thing. That’s not a spiritual thing. A spiritual thing is folding your clothes at the end of the day. A spiritual thing is making your bed. A spiritual thing is taking cookies to your neighbor that is shut in or raking their front lawn because they are too old to do it. That’s spirituality. Getting a warm, oozy feeling about God is an emotional thing. There is nothing wrong with it. I think there is nothing more practical than real spirituality. But nothing more fun than just a good heartfelt emotional experience of God because I think emotions are good. They are only dangerous when we come away from an experience where we were emotionally manipulated and we confuse that with being convicted. I think conviction - there is an emotion that accompanies that but it certainly goes deeper than just coming away going, “Oh isn’t God neat? Two different worlds.”
[Regarding the fact that he never married after his former fiancee broke off their engagement following 10 years of involvement with each other:] And I think, you know, maybe God wanted me to be celibate and the way that he accomplished that was to break my heart. So that’s the way it goes.
Galatians is a book about the gospel – the true gospel versus a false gospel. Paul was an apostle, a herald sent to proclaim the gospel. Galatians 2 tells about a meeting between Peter, God’s chosen apostle to the Jews in particular, and Paul — set apart as apostle to the Gentiles. The meeting was about the core of the gospel that each was proclaiming. As they extended the right hand of fellowship to each other and bless each other on their way, something seems to almost come up “out of the blue” in this context:
They only asked us to remember the poor– the very thing I also was eager to do. - Galatians 2:20
“Go Paul, preach justification by faith, preach the sufficiency of Christ and the cross, establish churches,… and as you go, be sure to remember the poor.”
“But of course!”, he replies.
This scene is so much more pleasant than some of the Christian infighting that frequently goes on regarding what form of ministry is most important. “Evangelism is more important than social action.” “No! Social action is more important than evangelism.” Whoa, brothers, hold on! It’s not a bad thing to be passionate about evangelism and church-planting missions. It is not a bad thing to be passionate about social action and domestic ministry. We’re not each other’s enemy.
I really like this quote found on a particular page of the Desiring God website:
We do not want to compete for funding with churches, mission agencies, and organizations focusing on the poor and persecuted. We’d rather compete with McDonalds, Microsoft, and Miramax.
Do you have a zeal to see the gospel reach the remote tribes of the world and you get frustrated to hear about a church “throwing away” their money on some domestic ministry project that seems not nearly so desperate? Or is it the opposite, do you have a zeal to help the poor in your community and you get frustrated when church members want to send money to some far off place while there are so many needs back here at home? Hey, don’t bite and devour each other. I dare say Christians will probably never be guilty of too much evangelism, too much social action, too much foreign missions effort, or too much domestic ministry. Too much time and money spent on videos games, vacations, and vehicles is entirely likely, but we can never love God too much, and we can never do too much to love fellow man for His sake.
Oh sure, imbalances do exist. And they do need to be addressed at times. But in general, if you are passionate about something (anything!) that brings glory to God and is for the genuine well-being of man, then great! I want to be one who encourages you. Even if the area of service on your heart is not the same direction that I want to invest my limited time, talent, and treasure, if you are doing something more valuable that watching TV, then I salute you! (And if someone out there is truly watching TV for the glory of God, well then, um, please explain that one to me for my future reference.)
I pray that within the church of Jesus Christ missions would not be the enemy of domestic ministry, and social action would not be the enemy of evangelism, but rather that all things which are good and righteous and pure would triumph over the frivolous, the sinful, and the shallow pleasures of this world.
Perhaps the worst consequence of sin is itself. Without repentance, a little sin leads to more and more sin. Romans 1:21-32:
24 Therefore God gave them over…
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts…
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind…
Did your conscience used to feel pricked over certain things, but you went ahead with doing the wrong thing or neglecting the right thing, and over time the voice of conscience has quieted to a whisper or entirely disappeared? The Bible describes this process as the searing of our conscience as with a branding iron (I Tim 4:2). You used to feel sensitivity in that area, but now it is so burned and scarred over that somebody could poke you right in that spot and you wouldn’t feel a thing.
It may be different things for each of us: pornography/lust, fear of man, laziness in responsibilities, lack of love for a particular person/group of people, lying, love of money, looking away from suffering and injustice around us because it would cause personal inconvenience, etc. Whatever element in such a list you are inclined to give the most fleeting consideration to is quite likely the one in which your conscience is most seared. The area of grossest sin in your life may very likely be the area that you feel the least bit “convicted” about. Brothers and sisters in Christ, now is the time to repent! Don’t look to your feelings, look to the unchanging word of God.
Below is one of my favorite quotes from Luther. I think this quote can be applied on at least two levels. On one level it speaks to how the church must boldly engage the wicked culture around us. But the same wisdom applies to how each of us must boldly engage the wicked nature within us.
If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. (Luther’s Works. Weimar Edition. Briefwechsel [Correspondence], vol. 3, pp. 81f.)
Don’t neglect the fight, in dependence on God’s grace and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit within you, against that one “little point” of sin where your conscience has been seared. Tell God that you refuse to be given over to anything that is displeasing to Him.