Persecution

 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. -Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:10-12 

Persecution: Defined as hostility and ill-treatment you experience for what you did, or who you are. 

 The year was 1569, it was late in the winter in Asperen, Netherlands. I was standing guard by a residential home the authorities had turned into a prison. I had sworn to uphold my duties faithfully as a guard. As I looked over the landscape I noticed the pond was covered in ice, it looked passable, but too thin to trust with a man's weight. Suddenly, the window of the estate was pushed open and a shabby, starved looking man lowered himself on a rope he had fashioned from knotted rags! There was a moat around the home for security but it was frozen, the man jumped off the moat and made a run for it! I chased him, he ran across the pond, I followed, and broke through, the cold water closed over my head, I fought to the surface, and tried to get out, but the ice was too thin, I couldn't get out! So, this was it, I thought, my time to die had come....

Then I heard a voice, and a hand grabbed me, I was dragged onto the ice again, by this same escapee! He had come back, I looked at him, he looked harmless, and he had saved my life. Why was I chasing him? Why was he in prison? Well, I certainly wasn't going to arrest him now, I thanked him for saving my life and was about to let him go when I heard a voice saying, "You have to grab him! Remember your oath!" It was the burgomaster, I saw he was standing on the bank; if I turned this one loose, he had me dead to rights, and it would be over with me. So, very reluctantly, I seized the prisoner and took him back to his cell... -Dirk Willems' pursuer as imagined by yours truly. 

 Later Dirk Willems was burned alive, and executed, either by the flames or by someone else who wanted to end his suffering. His crime? Rebaptism. He had rejected his infant baptism as recognized by the official politically correct churches of the day and got a believer's baptism and was marked as an Anabaptist. This was a crime in the kingdom of that day. Yet, it was absolutely vitally important to Dirk in the Kingdom he was aligned with. 

 So, that's not the only form of persecution. I have here the story of one who was persecuted for being a Nazi. Then there is the story of the Bataan Death March. In that situation many American men suffered tremendously at the hands of the Japanese. That was persecution on a terrible scale. Why? Because they were Americans. They were persecuted for being Americans. Yet, to put a finer point on all these situations, all these men were persecuted for the same basic reason. They were persecuted because they were seen as the enemy and did things that put them in the category in the minds of the people. 

 Now back to the original text at the top. Are you willing to be counted as an enemy in this world for the cause of Christ and His Kingdom? It is not that you are desiring to be an enemy, It's just that the cause of Christ is what matters to you. This book is about surrender. So, we are looking for a complete surrender to Christ. A surrender that goes so far as to die for a Kingdom that cannot be seen physically so much of the time. Thankfully, persecution in the free west is so rare and mild that it barely counts as persecution. However, I am advocating for a willingness to surrender so completely to Christ, that we are willing to accept persecution and even count it as a blessing when it comes. Great is our reward in Heaven Jesus said. This paints the idea of living in eternity. So, part of this whole surrender thing is to just switch gears and live the relational life with Christ now. Live in eternity with Christ now. Realize that the unseen reality is more real than the seen one! It is! Realize this in the heart. This is why Paul was able to say things like, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" 

In the next chapter, I want to switch gears, take a break from the sermon on the mount and talk about God's Kingdom. Because we have now made it through the beatitudes. We have surrendered a lot of things, we have been down here giving things up because surrender is victory when you're giving it to God. So, let's look up and out just briefly, to try to grasp the big picture of God's Kingdom in some small level that we can understand. Then we will return to the sermon on the mount. 

This has been chapter 13 of Surrender!? To Who?

That Other Show That Exists That's Not Called Nascar

Behold, there was a great to-do in St. Petersburg. No NOT that St. Petersburg. This St. Petersburg. There was a group of small men and a woman. There were teams of people that handled round rubber things and a hose that dribbled put put juice. The small men and a woman each buckled themselves into their own personal rocket. It had wings, front and back, but, the wings were upside down, so, they did not fly. Behind the small man there was a great shouty thing. It made tremendous noises and then the rocket acted like a rocket. At each corner of the little shouty rocket with the small man or woman in the middle was a round rubbery thing. The front rubber things slewed left and right, the rear rubber things were wider, yet, when the shouty thing in the back shouted extra loud, the rubbery things rotated so fast that smoke rose into the atmosphere. (Don't tell the EPA!) The streets of the correct St. Petersburg were closed wherever the shouty rockets were. Good thing too, because these little rascals were out of control! They zigged, zagged, and weaved through 30 mph corners at 90 mph or so, they launched assaults on each other, in desperate attempts to pass, with as much control, grace, and poise as a leashed beagle trying to catch a squirrel. Sometimes one would overstep and act like a startled cat on linoleum. Then it would have to be scraped away from the wall it had crunched against like a dropped pretzel. Well, they zigged, they zagged, they lunged, and slid about. Then they emerged from the city streets and entered the airport runway. They shouted along the runway, but eventually, they reached the end of the runway and had to turn back onto the city streets. None of them ever took off from the runway. Silly rockets, the wings are upside down! What did you think would happen?? Well, for reasons I'm not to keen to admit to and face, I found myself watching this strange and bizarre work of uhm...art? There were 2 little men named Scott in this work of uhm...art? They were also Kiwis. Near as I can reckon, that means they are from some island down there called New Zealand, and being so far away means they don't quite talk the way I think one should talk, one of them has a wife named Emma, but, for reasons that must have to do with being Kiwi, he calls her, Emmer. Hm....anyway, well, I really like the Kiwi Scotts, I even think they talk kinda cool, so I watched them in their rockets with great intrigue. Well, the one Kiwi Scott was a rookie just last year. For those of you who are still in...erhm never mind.., that means, beginner.  He got to start first in this uhm, art thing. That was also where he stayed. He deduced that if he took it just a wee bit easy on his rocket, he would only need to stop 2 times for rubber things and put put juice. Yet, by my observation, he slewed about and went crazy fast like the rest of em, because no one ever passed him. The other kiwi Scott decided if he were to stop 3 times for rubber things and put put juice he could go even faster! Well, it kinda worked, but, then he came up on this little Frenchman named Romain Grosjean. This guy showed great signs of ferocity when the second kiwi Scott tried to mosey on by, why, he would weave sideways and nearly take the front wing off Kiwi Scott's rocket!! For some reason Kiwi Scott wanted to keep his wing even though it was upside down, and he still hadn't gotten airborne, so he reluctantly settled down and meekly followed the wild Frenchman around for the rest of this uhm...art event. Then someone in a little box above the run-way waved a black and white cloth that looked kinda like a black and white checkboard and the rockets all calmed down. The Kiwi Scott who got to this cloth first was so happy that he leaped from his car with so much enthusiasm that he tipped over and sat down rather abruptly! The other Kiwi Scott was less happy, but, he was still first place amongst the ones who stopped 3 times. 

So, I guess it was a race then? Hm, well, if you own a rocket with upside down wings or some such thing, and a man named Scott from New Zealand, or to put it another way, a Kiwi Scott asks to drive it. Then, you should let him, if you want your rocket to get to the cloth that looks like a checkerboard quicker than the rest. Now, if you were to put the wings right side up, I'm not sure what or who should operate your rocket at that point. 

This has been my in-depth analysis of the opening race for the 2022 season of the best race series it seems like no one wants to talk about: INDYCAR!

To Keep it Simple or Not?

So, there are a few things from Scripture that exist in this World today. Yet, due to Humanity's abilities to attempt to define good and evil on their own in keeping with the example set by their first father and mother, Adam, and Eve. We find ourselves with some choices in these matters. We have the complex opinions of man, and we have simple truth. I will attempt to lay those out below. 

1. the Church.

Opinion 1: The church, on Sunday Morning is the church, you should attend it. In fact, according to some, your soul is at risk if you don't. So, you go and hear the music, and sing, you listen to the teaching, but then you might pickup the Bible and read it and wonder, where are the gifts, the apostles, the prophets? Why is the pastor teaching instead of pastoring? Well, there is an explanation for that too you see, it's called Cessationism. That is to say, the gifts stopped because the Bible is complete or some such thing. Or, you just become charismatic and do all in your power to bring it all in on Sunday Morning. Perhaps you rename your lead pastor or bishop to apostle? Perhaps you go and ordain someone and call him a prophet? Perhaps you even pray in ways that us mere English speaking mortals cannot understand? Yet in all this, the fundamental root opinion in both camps is, Sunday Morning is the church, and you'd better come. So, we fight for it, we pour blood, sweat, and tears into this so to speak. 

Opinion 2: None of the churches I know are the church. So, you construct the ideal church in your head. You pour through the New Testament, and make a mental checklist of all the ingredients you see in a church. Then you open your home and host people as long as it takes to get it all done. You strive to give time for apostolic workers to come and shake things up, or be sent out. You give time for prophetic words to happen, you bring the gospel to the streets for evangelism. You have a time for teaching, and a time for prayer ministry, pastoral care. You keep going, communion, feet washing, bishops, deacons, etc. You bring it under 1 big umbrella and give it a name. It is now the church, it meets all the criteria, you fought hard to get here, so you'll do whatever it takes to keep it.  

Keeping it Simple: What the New Testament said is what happened. If it says they washed feet, they did, if it says they had communion, they did. If it says they spoke in tongues, they did. The Greek words Paul used for the terms that were translated into words like Bishop are the definitions to go by, not what the catholic church thinks. For leadership definitions click the link. So, to take it literally, and keep it simple. How are you doing? How is your church experience? Is it lacking? Whose fault is that? Yours actually. You don't need other people to come along and make a system for you to get the experience you need. Just have fellowship with God daily, connect with people, attend a church meeting you like, enjoy the teaching, the music, seek God on how to fellowship with others in other ways during the week. It really is that simple. Just own it, and do it. 

2. Church Leadership Problems.

Opinion 1: The church needs to be protected, so we establish layers of bureaucracy and accountability to keep a stable and fluid leadership flow going. We run it like a business. We establish protocols for everything. We need to be efficient. When you get ordained. It's for life, don't leave. Stick it out or you'll be a bit like the scum of the earth. A dangerous heretic. As a leader, you have tremendous power, but, it most be funneled through the proper channels. Don't betray the people who made you a leader.

Opinion 2:  Having a church run like a business is awful. Meet in homes, keep it simple. Who needs to worry about leadership? We are all brothers/sisters in Christ, right? Right!

Opinion 3: I have a vision. I have the direction. The church needs to go with me, I'm going to stick it out and fight for it with all I got! I fought too hard for them to let them just do it how they want and I'm certainly not going to just leave now. 

Keeping it Simple: The people described in the New Testament already exist. Let the Holy Spirit identify them for you as you need them. If you see that you are a leader. Walk in the direction the Lord is leading you, let those follow you who wish too, and let those who don't see it stay put. 

So, in closing, 2 main points. 

1. Are you willing to own it? To individually take responsibility for what is lacking in your relationship with Christ and what is lacking your church experience? Or, do you need a scapegoat? Someone or something to blame? A leader to blame? A church to blame? If you own it, the Lord will help you. I don't know how, but, He will.

2. If you're a leader, are you willing to just simply go and walk. Do you have the courage to walk? Even if it means walking away from people you love? Or walking into pain? Or, do you need to be a puppet master, or a driver, herding the crowd in the direction you want them? If you are willing to just walk and lead those who choose to follow, then God will see after you if you walk after Him, somehow. You follow God, and help those who follow God behind you. You don’t control who does. You just simply walk, and help those also walking behind you.