Thoughts for another day

September 8, 2008.

Today's verse: Ro. 14:8. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. (KJV)
(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

Being a Christian, and I mean a real Christian (not someone masquerading as one) and living the Christian life is hard. Even the most committed person will have moments of distress, where the question: is it worth it, will arise in the mind. There are so many points of interjection where you have to lay down your old, and let’s say, profitable lives for e.g. if you’re writing a voucher, you have to write the right figure and not an inflated one. Is that easy? Certainly not because all your life, you wrote that way. Then again, when you look at your enemy right in front of you, you may notice that he just turns his face away in a sneer. Can you do that? Of course not; in fact you are supposed to pray for him. And the list goes on. Remember the Sermon on the Mount?

A true Christian has to live for the Lord and the self ceases in walking with Him. Even death - our death has to be unto the Lord! Hope you read that right. It will be a death that brings glory to God. You know, Paul who wrote this, also lived by it and died by it, so we can truly say, his life was a bouquet of love for the Lord: and with such is the Lord pleased.

I can’t help but come to Orissa, India and the recent happenings there. Looking at it, I can see how those brothers and sisters have had the opportunity to be persecuted for Christ. They have been subjected to a rage beyond comprehension and inflicted with misery. Therefore, the promise of Christ, ‘Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake’, is real for them. Yet, I loved it when I heard some priests, who were attacked and rescued, when questioned whether they would go back to the place they worked and where they were attacked said, ‘Yes, of course, the people there need us and they need to see the love of Christ.’ What a marvelous thing. Imagine, you are attacked black and blue and you still want to go there! Only the Grace of God can help you say and do that!

That’s true Christianity. No matter what the cost, I am willing to stake my life for Jesus Christ. In this is God’s love manifest when a man stands up and says, in all I do, I do it for you. To live, is to me, a life led in honor of Christ and to die is to glorify His Name to the utmost. Amen. Is there one among us, who can unswervingly echo this?