Christians are Easy Targets, but it’s Costly.
Christians are lambasted these days as idiots and buffoons. They are ridiculed, laughed at, and mocked. And, let’s be honest, there are times when I, as a Christian, am ashamed of the behavior of some purporting to believe in the God I believe in. But frankly, the unbelieving world is the last that should be throwing stones because their vitriol is filled with the same arrogance and malice they accuse us of.
Christians all over the world bemoan these attacks and claim that it is getting worse. They point to the ‘great falling away’ and wonder, like Elijah, if they are the last to hold onto the faith. Elijah was to learn that there were still many who believed. When these attacks come we, like Elijah, feel alone and isolated but take heart that we are not.
Heb 13:5b … for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Jesus fed five thousand men plus women and children. A short time later only one hundred and twenty remained cowering in an upper room. More than 97% had fallen away. Most of His followers had left Him. The authorities, both spiritual and secular, were baying for His blood. Yet still, he said, ‘I have overcome the world’. Like us, in His extreme moment of sacrifice, hanging on a cross for all to see, He called out:
Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Yet three days later He assured His disciples that they would never have to endure alone: Mat 28:20b…lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Amen means so be it.
Thayers has an interesting definition of the word Amen.
Strongs #G281: 2a) at the beginning of a discourse — surely, truly, of a truth
2b)at the end — so it is, so be it, may it be fulfilled. It was a custom, which passed over from the synagogues to the Christian assemblies, that when he who had read or discoursed, had offered up solemn prayer to God, the others responded Amen, and thus made the substance of what was uttered their own. (Thayer’s Greek Definitions. Published 1886, 1889. Public Domain.)
By adding ‘amen’ Jesus is confirming that it will be so. He is with us no matter how hard the world shouts and screams.
Psa 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Psa 2:2a The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed,
Psalm 2 v4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
What are we to think of all this? Has the Lord stopped laughing?
Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
We do not need to hide and be silent when attacked because we are not alone. Take courage in the knowledge that the unbeliever has a purpose in your life and it is not only for spiritual growth.
Eccl.2:26: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God.
Even if the unbeliever claims no faith in God, even if he tries to run from God, even if he curses and rages against the faithful, he will always be in God’s service and that service is to collect as much as he can to give to the righteous, in other words, he is still working for you.
Pro 13:22 …and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
God bless you.
