...Of Whom The World Was Not Worthy...
by on Feb 24th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Have you ever had a day where you started it with a definitive plan only to have something take place that completely changed what you did for the rest of it? Maybe it happens when you come down with a sudden illness. Maybe a phone call with news from home changes the trajectory of your day. Often, these types of days are deemed “bad” because they contain some traumatizing element to them, and that is what happened to me today. It was what I would call a divine interruption because I didn’t ask for it, didn’t want it when it happened, and God wouldn’t let me rest from it even though there was work, good work, to be done with the hours that remained in the day.
I have a regular online reading routine that contains a few dozen websites. Normally, I check these sites in the morning and leave them until the next day. If I don’t discipline myself in this way, I would spend an unhealthy amount of time waiting for new articles to sprout throughout the day. However, one article surfaced on my Google Reader and I checked it out, figuring that one little peak wouldn’t hurt.
The article, provided by Justin Taylor from The Gospel Coalition linked a couple of videos that were from Francis Chan’s church. Pastor Chan prefaced the videos and warned me that what I was about to see was terrible; the worst thing he had ever personally witnessed. The videos contained footage of the murders of three Christian pastors in India at the hands of Hindu radicals in their village.
The murderers, who I hope come to Christ, used what looked like either bamboo rods or wooden beams, in addition to their own fists and feet, to beat the life out of these martyrs. First, they broke their legs so they couldn’t run (even though they did not flee in the first place). Then their arms were broken to keep them from blocking their heads, which were the next thing to be crushed. Brutality in a raw and devastating form.
What kind of man do you have to be to face that kind of death without running or fighting back? Why would God take such substantive men, men who have proven that they have the character to lead their people well, and remove them from the earth, leaving weaklings like us to do the work of the ministry in their place?
When I saw them die, I was horrified, but I also felt that I had intruded upon holy ground because all I could do was watch and then return to my routine. The mind is not meant for such abrupt transitions, and my spirit has not been left alone from the images, as it shouldn’t.
There are too many thoughts to record in an organized manner tonight. This is a clue that reflection, solitude, and prayer needs to be attended to, but this life is not a game, gentlemen. The Lord has given life to us, He reserves the right to take it, and He will require an account for our conduct in between those two ends. Unless we are overwhelmed today with the influence and leadership of the Holy Spirit (which cannot happen if we are deaf to God’s Word and lame to living it), we will run when it matters most. God called them to die and they did not balk. Perhaps God will call you or me to die in a similar manner. However, He may also call on us to live for many decades in faithfulness to Him. Either way, don’t live for yourself or in your own strength. That is a waste. Cling to Jesus, He is all we have and that is more than the sum of everything we could hope to gain in the longest and safest of lifetimes.