I once read an edition of the Daily Bread Devotional where one of the writers made mention of a poster on the wall of a Christian college student. The poster depicted a lone fish swimming in the opposite direction from all the other fish. The poster had a caption; “Go Against The Flow”. The whole thing painted a picture in my mind of a fish that was committed to what it believed and was ready to stay the course, no matter what the other fish did.
I love Marks account of Jesus promise of what would happen to the Christian here on earth. Peter had just asked Jesus what reward they were going to get for leaving their livelihood to follow him. Jesus answered, “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sister, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” (Mark 19:29-30). If that’s not enough to scare you then I don’t know what will. But the fact is that we don’t follow Christ because of what we hope to get from him. We follow him because the Holy Spirit has convicted us of sin and we realise that we need God. However, if there is anyone who is following Christ because of what he hopes to get, then he should be ready to take the good with the bad. You can't take one without the other. Christ never promised us a life of ease.
Following Christ in light of the above therefore requires commitment. It’s not enough to say it, we need to live it. We know how it is. We all want to be loved. In a world that has totally become hostile to Christian ideals, at times we want to shrink from letting people know what we believe. We find it hard to profess our faith because we don’t want to be regarded as strange, even crazy. We want to blend it and not cause any waves. Or we’ve become famous and we realise not everyone that likes us believes the same thing we do. We don’t want to alienate our fans by letting them know what we believe, especially if it might hurt our finances. Whether it’s a lack of trust in God or something else, that’s story for another day. We get all apologetic about what we believe and we don’t stand up for the truth. It shows the lack of commitment we have to Christ.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were in no way apologetic about what they believed or stood for. They were ready for the consequence of not obeying Nebuchadnezzar and not bowing down to his idol. I wonder whether they had rehearsed it before then. Did one of them fear that the others might renege on their agreement not to bow? If one of them had bowed would the others have followed? I doubt it. Their words showed their convictions. I wonder if anyone of us knows how it feels. To be in a sea of human beings, with everyone bowing and some lying prostrate on the ground. Some doing it in worship, others in fear of what would happen if they didn’t bow. But they stood their ground. That was commitment and their words to the king showed they owed neither him nor anyone else any apologies for not bowing.
Carrie Prejean was at the final stage of the Miss America contest. She was the favourite to win. All she had to do was answer the last question in a way that pleased the organisers; the judges and the viewers at home and the crown was hers. To their shock, she held on to what she believed and the crown was taken from her. In the end, the organisers of the pageant were the ones apologising to people for her views. I thought about all the trouble caused and the whole furore over a simple statement about what she believed. Not even the chance to gain the applause of men dissuaded her from her views. Rather, like the title of a Max Lucado book, I believe she gained the applause of heaven. I believe that is what we should all strive for, what should move us. It was her story that made me write the novel DECEPTIO. We all need to remember that there will come times when our faith will be tried. Whether we stand for God or apologise for the views we hold, it all depends on us.
What do you believe?
J. C. Cruz
(P.S. I have been studying quotes by G. K. Chesterton and I have been thinking a lot about the faith that we profess. I hope to give my own quotes when I can, when I can’t, I will look for someone else to help me with his. My book, DECEPTIO is out now on WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers)
“I have always wondered why the act of defending the Christian faith and the people who write to defend it are both known as apologetics. Personally, I do not feel in the least bit apologetic about what I believe about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Church and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” J. C. Cruz
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