Nowhere To Hide

 But Peter and John replied, 'Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than Him? We cannot stop talking about the wonderful things we have seen and heard." Act 4:19-20...."We can expect views that differ from those of the thought police will be boycotted, shamed, and outed. But we will not be silenced. We will endure the shame, the ridicule, the penalties. We will be heard, and we pray that the church will speak with one voice." Erwin Lutzer

This morning I listened to a video of Pastor Erwin Lutzer being interviewed concerning his book, "We Will Not Be Silenced." It had to do with what the church may expect to be coming in the near future, indeed, right now. The seeds for it were planted long ago, and the fruit of them will be seen in our midst. It is coming to the place where the one who is truly Christ's will not have any place to hide. Our witness must be real. We will be counted as His, or not His. Casual Christianity, which is an oxymoron, but made possible by our weak message and witness, will no longer be an option. Costless discipleship will be no more. The cross, long absent from much of the western church, will reappear, and we will have to carry it. Are you and I ready for it, because ready or not, it is upon us.

I love the words of Peter and John to the Jewish religious leadership. They spoke these words after the resurrection and Pentecost, when His Holy Spirit was poured out. They, and the other believers had been giving powerful witness of His resurrection and thousands were coming to Christ. The leader's place and control were threatened, so they in turn threatened Peter and John with death should they continue to proclaim their message of life. Thus their reply, that they would obey God and not man. And here is what is key in that reply; they would not stop proclaiming all the wonders that they had seen and heard from and in Jesus Christ. This will be your challenge and mine, because our faith will be strengthened by what we have seen and what we will continue to see and hear. If we are seeing nothing and hearing nothing, than we have nothing to tell about, and nothing to stand upon. Perhaps this is the great problem of the western church? Too few of us have seen, heard, and beheld His wonders, and so we have little or nothing to proclaim.

The church is going to be finding itself in the midst of an increasingly hostile culture. How are we going to respond to the hostility? Without a doubt, we have to realize that the resistance stems from sin, blindness, and rebellion. These will not be overcome by political or social activism. Neither will they be overcome by the church simply being loving and caring. We are to speak the truth in love, but we must understand that a culture in love with its sin will not see such words as loving. It will hate the church that speaks them, and use every means to silence it.

I repeat what I have written before. God is calling us to war, but it is a war fought on our knees, with the weapons of the Kingdom. He has promised that the gates of hell will not stand against the people of the Kingdom. Are we, you and I, those people?

I close this piece with this story from Richard Wurmbrand, author of "Tortured For Christ." Wurmbrand, a Romanian, was in a communist prison simply for the crime of being a Christian. One of his cellmates had been horribly tortured to the point where he was dying. Lying nearby was the very man who'd been his torturer. He himself had been accused by another of crimes against the state and was now imprisoned and suffering torture himself. He too was dying. As he lay dying, he had been overwhelmed by the witness of life and love he'd seen this man and other believers. He asked if the man that he'd tortured would pray for him. That man, barely able to walk, crawled to his bed, held him in his arms, while stroking his hair, and led Him to Christ. Wurmbrand said, "The murdered ministered to his murderer." This is how we will overcome. By the power of His Word, our witness, and His life and love. Victory in Jesus!

Blessings,

Pastor O