Courage

From the love, power, and presence of God we discover the base of our feelings.  Emotions are highly impacted by love, and its paradoxes.  Some persons approach the matter from human insight, and may distort the meaning.  It is likely if one had talked to Hitler in the 1930s he would have declared his love for the Aryan Race.  To prove that love he would hate the Jews, even to annihilation.  Hating Jews was a habit for some societies.  Persecution of Jews preceded the arrival of Jesus, so to relate it to the agreement among mixed representatives as judgment for the crucifixion of Christ may distort history. Jesus was crucified by Gentile authority, with the approval of some Jewish leadership at the time.  Those Gentiles (Roman authorities) did not hesitate to resist Jewish preferences when they wanted to do so.  All peoples were represented at the crucifixion.  Given the orientations and interpretations of the time period, crucifixion was not unusual.  For thievery two men were crucified with Jesus – perhaps pick-pocket crimes.  The punishments were ghastly and common for alleged or proven crimes.  Ultimately the Apostles were treated as Jesus was treated, for declaring his message of God’s love.  They did not claim deity as Jesus was interpreted, but they affirmed Jesus’ claims.  Whatever miracles they performed were openly identified as coming from the power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Everything in Christ’s ministry, and that of the Apostles, offered a change that included God and righteousness.  To change seemed to them to change accepted culture threatening state and accepted beliefs.  That is what Christians got – both faith and condemnation.  The pattern continues in our time – usually in more sophisticated ways.  Many active Christians continue to face death for their faith perhaps to complete a life story different from that of the humanist.  Some statistical reports appear from time to time noting deaths caused by hatred of Christian faith in modern times, principally generated through governments dominated by some other firm religion.

Evangelical Christianity is highly supportive of the freedom of religion.  The appeal is to the individual. Its modus operandi is to accept what is current in the government of any country.  It has been shown that the people of earth prefer freedom, but also desire security and self-recognition.  A government that acts in fear of a faith that acts through persuasion, as Christianity does, may reveal inadequacies related to objectivity and freedom.  To cover those inadequacies, the presumed guilty agent is the one advancing a missionary faith.  Christianity is the consequence of evangelism, the energetic communication of the faith for the good of the individuals that follow it – even becoming beneficial for those do not.  So successful has that evangelism become through the centuries that other religions pick up the methodology and pursue it.  As a consequence, the Christian religion, in the human competition of a variety of faiths is made into a feared opponent so to be branded by this or that cultural imposition.  That imposition becomes so large that it is presumed to be worthy of put-down, perhaps to persecution.  Since Jesus Christ was condemned to death, only partly by those who followed his own cultural religious practice, the Christian is to be ready to accept persecution, without taking offense, in the process of the evangelistic enterprise.  When Christians have muted the commitment to carry that message from Christ they may become weak for purposes of God.

The odd saying is to be remembered, that our enemies may be those of our own household.  The muting of the radical message of redemption in Jesus Christ, the main reason for the church, has been so muted and watered down, even lost, by some church groups so that in biblical terms those congregations and institutions are no longer Christian in the biblical dynamic.  In honesty they ought to acknowledge drift in this or that direction, and proceed.  God is quite able to care for himself, and is not fearful that mere mankind will stop his purposes.  Those who understand God and his purposes that have been broadcast in Scripture, are not worried that true faith will be eradicated.  Courage in faith is a main issue in Scripture.  With everything going wrong in a sea storm, the disciples feared for their lives.  Then Christ came walking toward them on the troubled water.  In the context of chaos his great but simple words were: Take courage. It is I. Be not afraid.  Ultimate courage is in true faith that takes us to life victory.