A Disturbed Christian Believer!

I found myself disturbed earlier today as a result of a post I received on FB. The post reported on a video and news story of a young Christian Convert from Islam who was murdered by Muslims in a most heinous way. I could not watch the video of this young believer in Christ, being held down and having his head cut off with a knife while he was alive. Reading the story was difficult enough, with its graphic description of the event.  I have not been able to get this story out of my mind and the plight of countless other believers, who will face similar or worst treatment at the hands of Muslims. After spending some time in prayer, I feel emotionally better for the moment and I feel the need to write or even vent about my concerns.

I am having conflicting feelings about this! I am feeling sorrow, sadness, horror, compassion, and anger over this atrocious act. At the same time I am feeling relief and a kind of thankfulness that it was not happening to me or Christians in the United States. I feel truly hypocritical right now! I imagine it is the “self preservation” gene making its impress on my thoughts. However, in all of this, the thought occurred to me that these believers are true Christians! They put it all on the line for Christ. They believed Jesus and are living Christianity inside Islamic and Atheistic dominated countries; where they live daily with the threat of being killed for their Faith. How brave they are!

 By contrast, we who are Christians in America offer up a lot of lip service; live a soft, undemanding, open life of faith. Our faith is rarely, if ever, challenged and tested. We are never faced with a life or death decision concerning our beliefs and faith. We have in the past and it still occurs today, suffered discriminations of some sort for being Christian. However, discrimination for us is more of an annoyance: a inconvenience that does not rise to the level of martyrdom.  In this Sunday’s sermon, my Pastor, William E. Tyler, of Antioch MBC, emphasized the point that, as Christians “we often deny Christ by our inactions!” We are given daily opportunities to “share our faith” with others, and we fail to rise to the occasion. We fail to fulfill our call, duty and commission to “reach the unsaved!” We are effectively denying Christ and the Christian Faith we claim to believe in! Then on the heels of his sermon, I come home to read of this brave believer’s martyrdom and I’m moved to tears.

I cannot tell if my tears are for the loss of him and other Christians facing the same fate; or for the sorry state we find ourselves as Christians in America today! How have we become so lax in our duties to our God, Faith and one another?  We have experienced clear proofs of God’s Unconditional Love and Power in our individual and collective lives. He has truly brought us from a mighty long way. Many of us have been so far down in the muck and mire of this society; we were without hope of rising above our sinful nature and conditions.  Then someone shared their faith with us! Someone prayed for us! A seed was planted in our minds and God nourished it until one day we were strong enough to accept Christ and our lives were changed forever by God’s gift of Grace. Christ worked a real miracle in my life and others lives! Cleaning us up and making us acceptable to the Father. We are now charged to share that miracle experience, so that it can duplicate the work in the life of someone else.

You and I are should be proof enough to any non-believers that God is truly real! Who else could take filthy sinners and wash them clean, to live new lives as lights to a darkened world?  Who else could give this young man peace and assurance to calmly face having his head cut off, when all he had to do to save his life was denounce Christ and Christianity?  He found his salvation in Christ Jesus and not Muhammad! The Gospel of Mark 8:35 says, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” This young Christian found the same Faith that allowed the early Christians to face persecution and death by wild animals in the coliseum, for the enjoyment of pagans. He found the same Faith that allowed the Disciples of Christ, to face their martyrdom for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ! (Sharing their faith!)  Could this be an example of “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding”, promised in Philippians 4:7. We probably won’t understand it until we are faced with similar circumstances. Only God can give you that assurance of peace in faith, where a believer will give up his life rather than deny Jesus Christ in apostasy.

Here we fat Christians sit in our finery! Fine homes and automobiles! Fat in material wealth; Fat in our body temples; Fat in our self righteousness; Fat in our egos and false pride! Yes, we are indeed FAT! Enjoying the freedoms of speech, travel, religion and worship; while in countries like China, Russia, Korea, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and parts of Africa; Christians are being persecuted and killed for the same beliefs that we claim. None are spared from martyrdom! Men, Women and children are viciously killed for professing Christ; possessing a bible or page from a bible; or reciting a passage where someone could hear it.  Hiding and meeting in secret to worship together; knowing at any time, they could be imprisoned, tortured and killed, for doing so. And here we are in America, taking our freedoms for granted! I would venture to say that the “average” Christian has no idea of the sufferings of other Christians for their Faith.

In my youth, I was incarcerated in an L. A. County Probation Forestry Camp. We were assigned to work in the foothills of Los Angeles; fighting forest fires, clearing brush, cutting trails and planting trees. It was hard, tedious work in the hot sun.  Everyone on the crew sought to do as little as possible in fulfilling the day’s quota of work. We called this effort “playing the part!” We would go through the motions of working and to the supervisor watching, it would appear we were working hard. However, we only accomplished a fraction of the work we were supposed to achieve.  We would jokingly say of one another “So n’ so, is playing the part!” So the next day, we would be back at the same place, doing the same thing, with the same results. I think we Christians in America are doing the same thing! Playing the part! Going through the motions of practicing Christianity; appearing to those watching, that we are righteous and giving service, but accomplishing little of either!

I believe that we have lost sight of what the Church and Body of Christ was in the past and how it is supposed to function today! We have become very comfortable “playing the part!” It is a sad commentary on our Faith that Christians are so divided!  According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, there are upwards of over 30,000 Christian Denominations. Can you imagine how Jesus Christ’s one, simple gospel became fractured into 30,000 different gospels! Remember what Jesus said in Mark 3:25, “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand!”  How long will God allow this house to stand like this? How are we to grow in our Faith when we cannot agree even on basic doctrine and worship together? We have divided ourselves in our theology, but God says He is ONE! We have divided ourselves along racial and cultural lines; but God says we are ONE PEOPLE! We have divided ourselves in religions, but Jesus gave mankind “The WAY! Don’t you think it is time for us Christians to re-asses what we are doing and just who it is we are following? 

I say to you truly, you must read God’s word for YOURSELF and allow it to lead you back to the Faith taught by Jesus and His Apostles. The Faith that will cause you to be active and committed to fulfilling God’s Will and Purpose in your life. Each of us has gifts that can be used in kingdom building! Each of us has a task that we can accomplish for the Lord and the cause of Christianity! Are you going to sit contently by, enjoying a weekly feel good sermon; or are you ready to get up and truly be a part of the body of Christ? Can you continue to sit comfortably by and unconcerned, while our brothers and sisters in Christ are dying for the cause of Christianity? Does not your heart say there must be something we can do? Why can’t Christians march on Washington and demand our government do something to stop this? Why can’t Christians demonstrate in front of Muslim Mosque and demand that they stop the killing of Christians?

You let a Muslim be killed here unjustly and see how fast America’s streets are filled up with Muslims decrying the injustice! See how in an instant there will be demonstrations against America in every Muslim country! Don’t tell me that junk about “it is not all of the Muslims, it is just the extremists! I know friends who are Muslims and they aren’t like that!” Yeah! Right!  You had better examine how the extremists are funded from these Mosque and other Muslim organizations in America!  We so-called Christians sit back and watch Christians die like dogs, and never say a mumbling word. Too afraid of offending the Muslims. Scared not to be politically correct about what we say! Don’t you think it is time for Christians to stand up and defend our Faith and our believers as they do? And yes, I expect to receive some flack and criticisms from some of you blind Christians, and misguided American Muslims! Bring it on! Maybe this will be the dialogue it will take to wake up these complacent, sleeping Christians!

The Muslim extremists who believe in Islam are determined to destroy America and Christianity! There statements and actions are proof of this! This is common knowledge! Their desire is to kill all Christians who will not denounce Christ and accept Islam. They are bound by their Book to do so! Most of you Christians are acting like this is some fairy tale! You had better wake up to reality! Don’t think that the U.S. Government and the Politics of America can’t change that drastically! Egypt just elected an extremist from the Muslim Brotherhood as its leader!  When he institutes Sharia Law in Egypt, you will understand! A country that used to be an ally to the U.S. will now be considered a threat! It has the potential of becoming the largest stronghold for terrorist in the world. 

What do all these terrorist groups have in common?....The religion of Islam and its dedication to the extinction of all other religions but Islam. These people are willing and eager to die for their beliefs and God. We so called Christians won’t even speak up for our beliefs and God! They will strap on explosives in an effort to defeat us and make change. We won’t march in the streets or write a letter in order to protect Christians and our way of life! Christians could at anytime be faced with the same decision this new convert to Christ was faced with, right here in America. What will you do?  Don’t be too comfortable! Remember how God allowed Israel’s enemies to capture them and destroy their city and temple because of Israel’s disobedience. Don’t think this cannot happen in America today! The same God back then….is the same God today!

Your brother, In His Service

Min. Douglas