Day One Hundred and Two - Take One For The Team

I listened to a sermon today, as many of you may know, I struggle with church, but love good sermons. Mark Driscoll is my favorite. As usual, he struck home. For me personally, it was that I really really need to get my butt to church. It's an act of worship that I must start doing out of obedience. 

But that's not what I want to talk about, not today. The other thing that hit home was this: "'But I'll lose my job, or my friends, or my grade point average.' Yes! To the glory of God! You worship a God who was murdered! You lean over the plate, and you take one for the team. That is how that works." 

I LOVE this. I'm not sure when or how but somewhere along the way, the church lost sight of a very important teaching: we were never promised ease and comfort. We were promised the very opposite. A student is not greater than his master, and we are not greater than Jesus. He taught, He served, He was murdered, and He rose again. We are to serve, suffer, and rise. That's what we were promised. Suffering was PROMISED. 

Not that life can't be great, or comfortable. My life is both right now. But I'm not expecting this to last. This blessing is for a season. I want to suffer. Because it means I'm doing something right. If you never encounter opposition as a Christian, then something is terribly wrong. The truth is not popular. It calls for humility and submission. In America, neither of those ideas is terrible popular. It is not popular to be firm in your beliefs, or tell people that they are wrong. The notion of being 'slaves to Christ' isn't popular, and it never will be. Mostly because the idea that we are all slaves to something isn't popular, regardless of its truth. Christianity will never be popular, Jesus did indeed promise that. He was opposed, suffered, and was disgraced. You will be the same. 

And that is for your GOOD. It is humbling. It is uniting. God will bless it, that was promised. That all things meant for evil will be made to good for those that love Him. Even if we don't entirely understand, it is still true. Do what is right, even if it is unpopular. Speak the truth, live the truth, even if it is unpopular. Be one person, do not have a christian face and a non christian face. Do all things for the glory of God.

I'm not perfect, I've failed at these a lot. It is a lot easier to have two faces. But that is not what I was made for. So once again, I am determined to be one person, and take a number of hits for the team. For how else can we know the truth from the lie, if others do not show us with their lives?