Weekly Devotional

Back to the Bible 

1 Peter 4:14-16

^14If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. ^15But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. ^16Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.

It’s unfortunate that whenever we have the chance to share our faith with a friend, a co-worker or even a family member, the risk of making things awkward between us is usually enough to make us reconsider. The thought of sharing our faith with a stranger as they leave work is even more frightening. It would be embarrassing and humiliating.

I was recently in South Sudan, Africa, spending the month of October teaching the SPLA chaplains at our Far Reaching Ministries base. As I taught through the Book of Romans, I could see the resolute focus on the face of each man desiring to share the Word of God with their own people, not to mention the Muslims of Northern Sudan.

These men are not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they are ready to lay their lives down, to be martyred, for the Gospel’s sake.

It made me reconsider my walk with the Lord. I can say as an American, I have never had the threat of being martyred for my faith. But there may come that time where we will have to stand and be imprisoned or even die for our faith.  If it’s embarrassing to tell an unsaved friend or someone we work with about Jesus Christ, can we stand when the time may come that we will be persecuted or arrested for our faith?

A number of years ago, I spent Friday and Saturday nights on the streets of West Hollywood, California, with a group of Christians sharing our faith to anyone who would listen.  After many weeks of doing this, militant gay groups would threaten us with bodily harm and the West Hollywood police would threaten us with arrest. If this was happening in the late eighties, things are getting worse twenty years later!

Are we ready to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, to let our light shine before men?  Are we ready to suffer as a Christian, or will we stand ashamed?  I pray that God gives us a resoluteness to be a witness for the Gospel today!