1 Thes. 1:9-10 (ESV)
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, [10] and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
And this is Christianity. Turning to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and waiting for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Turning to God from idols, we all have idols. We don’t think of it much anymore. Not in the west. Our idols tend not to be statues. Our idols tend to be things like family, work, money, maybe drugs. These are things we easily find ourselves fearing, loving, and trusting more than God. Sometimes it is a civic organization, even a congregation, or a religious institution. I’ve had people who wanted to become members of my church drop the subject like a hot potato, when I even mentioned that we would have to discuss their Masonic membership. I have had people scared stiff to leave the LDS for fear of their family. Love, fear, and trust the essence of faith. And we never want to stop loving our family, we should even love our enemies. But we should never fear them so much or love them so much that we stop listening to God.
Only when we fear, love and trust in God can we begin to serve the living God. When we take a stand and serve him, even when it may mean losing family, or friendships in an organization such as the Masons or even Elks, we evangelize, we show forth our faith. In that, we serve the true and living God. And in that faith we wait for his Son from heaven the one he raised from the dead. We wait for him. We don’t wait in that we cease other activity. But we know that he will return. And when he does we will no longer care about the steaks in the freezer. But it is Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come, Hell, the everlasting lake of fire, not the worldly tribulation. Far from being promised an escape from earthly tribulation, we are promised that. But we suffer through earthly tribulation knowing that we have heaven coming, when we escape the wrath to come. And that is worth losing family or friendship over.
1 comment:
We cannot imagine what it would be like to lose your entire network of friends and family because of differences of faith and shunning.
The closest I can come is moving from Europe to Canada. But like Job losing so much, the Lord provides new networks. It did not take long for us to get settled in a new church and have the most wonderful Christian friends. Really, truly.
In the end it is a very serious matter and Jesus foresaw this: "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
Lord, give us all the proper courage at the right time for the right thing.
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