“Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
– Jesus in Revelations 2:10
As the number of countries where Christian believers are not persecuted is growing less and less each decade, it should be no surprise when it reaches our shores one day as well. The reality is stirring and has been for some decades now. What we see, as intensifying disdain towards believers, in so many spheres of our country is only the firstfruit of what can quickly turn into hatred.
The reason I write this is to warn followers of Jesus Christ.
I tell you a truth: Because of such cheap preaching of the gospel for so long in the land, the first sign of persecution will filter out true lovers of Jesus and those who merely wanted Him to be their homeboy. People will choose money over Jesus. People will choose their jobs over Jesus. People will choose their repute over Jesus. I can see the high school student choosing popularity over Jesus. The mocked choosing lost respect over Jesus. Yes, even children will choose their parents over Jesus.
What a grevious day it shall be when these things happen. To see eternity traded for seventy, eighty years. To see a birthright traded for soup. However, the exhortation concerns today.
Listen- if we cannot make decisions to follow Jesus with everything now, no matter how small the decision, what can be said as to what we will follow when our very lives will hinge on that decision? What is going to stop you, from whence the day you sold out on Jesus to stand up in a classroom, to selling out when you stand before a modern day Pontius Pilate? Or from the day you cheap out on your tithes to the Lord, to when you are asked to take the “mark of the beast”? Well, what if? I tell you a truth- if you cannot make a decision today, you will very likely be swept away in wickedness when the “big” decisions come.
We need to open our eyes to the growing possibility of a coming storm that will cause a great divide in Christianity in America- for you might end up on the wrong side. For your life will be demanded by God one day. And you must give an account! Will Jesus find you faithful? Or did you prefer the riches of earth, yet stand ashamed at the Son of Man when He comes with all His holy angels?
Again, the exhortation concerns today. What you sow now, you shall reap later. Sow faithfulness now, you shall reap righteousness later. Sow to your flesh now, and you shall reap destruction later. Today is the day when we must consider our ways as God instructed Haggai. For we do not know whether tomorrow our lives should be demanded from us. And we may find ourselves at the great wedding banquet of the Lamb (Matthew 22) without any wedding clothes to wear. To such, Jesus says, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes?” and be thrown into the darkness.
Wake up Church and rekindle your love for the Lord Jesus Christ! It is only the lover of Jesus that will persevere through persecution. It is only the lover of Jesus that will stand firm. The lover of Jesus that will inherit the crown of life.
Are you a lover of Jesus?
