Posted by Devin Parker

It's three in the morning. Don't ask me why I'm up, but at least my wife is up, too.

Lately I've been reading about the lives of martyrs. Reading about their experiences - harrowing, hair-raising kind of stuff - really puts my life in perspective. I kid myself into thinking that I'm doing a fair job of "showing Christ to people through my behavior," but these people really did. They didn't mince around with trying to figure out the best way of couching it so that people would be more receptive to what they were saying, they didn't try to come up with a special outreach program; they just told people about Jesus, and what He meant to them. When they were persecuted, they responded with love.

Makes me feel like I've been dragging my feet. I mean, I know I've been silent far more often than I should have been. How does one bring up the subject? Does it matter whether or not the person I'm talking to thinks I'm a religious freak? When the message is so important... Have you ever heard the anecdote about how we'd all be standing before the Lord on Judgement Day, and people would find out what's going on and realize that Hell awaits them, and they turn and ask the Christian, "You knew this would happen and didn't say anything! Why didn't you warn me?" Thinking about it tonight, I feel like most of the time, I could only shrug and say, "Would you have listened?"

Looking over that last sentence, I realize it sounds insufferably smug. I can imagine what I'd think of that statement if I weren't a Christian. Still, Jesus wouldn't have instructed us to go out and "make disciples of all the nations" if He didn't really mean it. It just seems like the odds are so strongly against people actually listening or taking such a proposal seriously... I guess that's where the Holy Spirit comes in. I'm just too squeamish about it, I guess. The consequences are really far more important than what someone thinks about me...

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 11, 2003 at Saturday, October 11, 2003 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

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