Sayed Musa

I sit at my desk drinking coffee while planning my next youth sermon. Next to the east side of the church is the post office and next to the west side of the church is the municipal building.  Both these buildings are run by the government, and neither have any problem with what I am doing at my desk.  So I sit comfortably and continue my work....

In the mean time, on the other side of the world, a man named Sayed Musa is set to be executed because of his Christian faith.  He has done nothing which deserves government actions...he has simply believed.  Here is a link to an article that describes the situation and is being updated as events unravel:
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor?s=Sayed+Musa

With this happening as we speak, there are a couple of questions I want you to ask yourself, as these are the questions running through my mind.

1. Do I pray for persecuted Christians throughout the world?  Because of how easy it is to believe here, we forget that there are people who profess the same thing we do, but because of where they lived are getting brutally tortured.  There is a free magazine called Voice of the Martyrs (click to go to website) that tells the stories of those who are persecuted.  It is a great magazine to have to remind you to pray and make aware to you what others are going through (since our news doesn't find interest in this).  
2. Do I really believe what I say I believe?  If it came down to it, and I was getting tortured like Sayed Musa is getting tortured, would I hold fast to the faith?  
3. Why am I so timid to share my faith?  Brothers and sisters across the globe are getting killed for it...what am I so afraid of?  Rejection?  Being seen as a Jesus freak?  Loosing a friendship?  Having an awkward conversation?  What would Sayed Musa say to us if he heard our excuses?

May Sayed Musa's story remind us of our call to preach the gospel at any cost.  May it bring us boldness to be who we are called to be.  And may it bring us to pray for our fellow brothers and sisters.

Cross to Bear

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." -Mk 8:34

This verse is asking two things of those who wish to follow Christ: deny and take.

Denying yourself requires much more than we want it to.  I doesn't mean denying your personality, dying as a martyr, or denying stuff.*  It means denying you: your selfish desires and hope in the things of this world. It is calling you to not live for yourself.

But we don't just deny, we then take.  Taking up you cross means that you agree to do whatever God call of you, no matter the cost.  This has nothing to do with bearing the troubles life brings you* (death of a loved one, difficult job, family trouble, etc.), but everything to do with obedience to God's will, and accepting the consequences that may follow.  For some this will involve physical suffering and ever death, but for others it might involve a sacrifice of time, money, comfort, friends, or anything else.  The idea is that nothing is to be held back...we take up our cross no matter what it is, and in doing this it shows our love for Jesus surpasses our love for anything else.

The cross imagery here calls to mind a very profound idea:  Someone who carried a cross through the city to their execution would publicly demonstrate their submission/obedience to the authority which they had previously rebelled against.*  This is exactly what we are doing in taking up our cross.  Though we were once far off (Eph 2:13) and enemies (Rom 5:10) of God, we now make a public declaration of our submission to Christ.  We intentionally live for His will, come what may.

Cross bearing denies self and seeks to live out what God calls us to.  The end goal of cross bearing is not the suffering it may require, rather the end goal is obedience to what God calls us to.  Jesus dying on the cross is the ultimate display of this type of obedience, where He gave everything to fulfill what He was called to do.

So what is your cross to bear?    


*Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-). The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Salad or a Big Mac?

Sally waits in line with her little boy Jack as her mind races.  What should she order for her boy?  Should she order him a Big Mac, and make his day?  Or should she order him a salad because that would be the healthy option?  Satisfaction or heath.  This is what it all boils down to.  Both have there advantages and both have there drawbacks.  What will it be?

We all know that pursuing Jesus is good, but what is "good."  It is good to order the salad, but that isn't the option that will bring Jack the most joy.  Unfortunately, this is often how we view what it is like to follow Jesus.  We know it is the right decision, but it will lack the satisfaction that the alternatives bring.  We want to change, and become more like him, but are afraid that this change will result in boredom and a lack of joy.  Well, this is because we view things all wrong!

"The secret of gospel change is being convinced that Jesus is the good life AND the fountain of joy.  Any alternative we might choose would be the letdown."*  He is the joy and satisfaction of the Big Mac while being the wise choice like the salad.  He is both!  God created us to live in fellowship with him.  This means that our desires find their true satisfaction in him, since that is what they were created for.  This means that there will be no lasting satisfaction in anything apart from Jesus.  This is good news!  You can have both!

Our problem is that we live in a culture where we want things now.  Yesterdays news is boring, answering an email after its been in your inbox for two days is too late, waiting more than 5 seconds for a webpage to load is frustrating, getting stuck in traffic throws our whole day off.  What is our response to our impatience?  It is wanting satisfaction now.  We would rather have a lesser satisfaction now then a greater one later.  I would rather eat the Big Mac now and deal with the consequences later.  Take a step back and really think.  You will realize that Jesus truly is our deepest longing and joy, we are just too impatient to see it and wait for Him.  Joy in him isn't a quick fix, its a long road...and too often we would rather have the quick fix.  It is like a child who has a deep desire for a bicycle.  But instead of saving up for one, he uses his allowance each week on candy.  It satisfies his current desire, but not one of his deepest ones.  I will end with a quote from C.S. Lewis, where he drives this point home:

"Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink, sex, and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

*Tim Chester in "You Can Change" p15