Daily Java:
They called in the apostles and had them flogged. Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go. The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. (Acts 5:40-41)
I really have trouble understanding how someone can rejoice after being whipped. I also wonder how I would do in the same situation.
I love God and he knows it. However, there comes a time when the public manifestation of that love will cause problems.
In the sixth grade, I had a teacher named Mr Tisdale. He taught science. One day (this would have been in 1962 or so) he was going to teach us about evolution. Of course, it was not as widely taught at the time as today, as Christians were a lot more dominant then in Texas.
Before he started, he asked, almost in an off-handed way, By the way, does anyone in here not believe in evolution. My hand leaped up into the air like the good Christian boy I was. I looked around to see the agreement and, to my dismay, I was the only one with my hand in the air.
I dropped my hand like it was on fire. Mr Tisdale said, okay, Johnny, tell us why you don’t believe in evolution.
I really didn’t know at the time, but I was hyper-conscious of all of my classmates looking at me. After all, I had been the only one who had the courage (?), temerity, whatever to raise my hand.
He waited. I said, Never mind. He said, go ahead, Johnny, tell us. I said, more firmly, never mind. Finally he went on with his lesson.
I have always thought that what he did was the essence of the bully. He knew I was just a Junior High kid and had no way of refuting him, no way of speaking truth to power. I didn’t have the evidentiary knowledge needed to make my case. I didn’t have the maturity to know that sometimes your teacher is a fool. Yet he pressed anyway.
He was wrong in what he did. And I was wrong in not doing what I didn’t do. I was ashamed, and, almost fifty years later, can still feel that shame. Right now, sitting at this computer, I can still feel how it felt that day in Mr Tisdale’s class when I sold out the Lord out of fear.
Now I know the Lord does not hold it against me. I was 12, it was a time of life in which children are afraid of bucking their peer group, he was an authority figure – all that was true.
But what if? What if I had stood up and boldly proclaimed my belief in creationism? What if I had boldly proclaimed the reason I was a Christian?
And then I would have flown around the room dispensing candy to all of the children.
That was as likely to happen as my bold proclamation.
But the point is, I have never done that again. I will not turn now. And the apostles were faced with that same thing. They were told not to do something, they did it, and were more than willing to face the consequences.
In fact, they rejoiced that they had done what was right anyway.
These were strong men and full of grace.
Right now, in the middle east, Christians are facing that same problem. They are told not to preach yet they do and are killed for it.
However, in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, one nation under God, children are told by school officials that they are not allowed to share their faith and are suspended when they do.
The world is anti-Christ. Our job is to bring him into it anyway, just like these men did in Acts 5. It takes a lot of courage and the ability to do things anyway even when opposed.
But, as one of those apostle said, still probably bearing the scars after half a century,
But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. (1 John 4:4)
