WHEN DO I OBEY?

Go look at yourself in the mirror. Forehead, eyebrows, nose, mouth, chin, shoulders...your eyes staring back at you, windows into a soul transformed by the death and resurrection and indwelling of Jesus Christ.

God has rescued you by the power of the Gospel.

Now imagine that out of love and loyalty to Him, you've become the pastor of a church in Pakistan (or Egypt, or Bangladesh, or the Maldives, or Saudi Arabia - somewhere it is illegal to preach the name of Christ). Yesterday, a member of your congregation snuck to your house after dark, bringing with him a new convert - a Muslim businessman who has believed in Christ and wants to be baptized. You know that if you baptize him, he will face persecution from his relatives, his business partners, his imam, and even municipal authorities. He may be killed. You also know that you and your family may pay the ultimate price if word gets out that you baptized him.

What are you supposed to do?

When Peter & the other apostles were dragged before a hostile Jewish council and an irate high priest for evangelizing, they stuck to the Gospel and the Great Commission. Acts 5:29 reports the when the high priest, on pain of death, commanded the Christians to stop making disciples, "Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men."

Remember Moses before Pharaoh? Elijah before Ahab? Esther before Xerxes? Paul before Festus.....remember how their loyalty to God was far, far deeper than their fear of man. Persecution, no matter how terrible, is NEVER a legitimate reason to blow off the mission Christ gave us. The early church leaders taught the words of Christ and baptized in His name, and a glance through the book of Acts reveals that even during an era of brutal opposition, MANY WERE SAVED DAILY!!!!

I'm not a pastor in Egypt or Pakistan or anywhere else; I'm a believer living in the U.S.A. Yet I know the temptation to waffle on the words of Christ when someone looks at me with hostile eyes or accuses me of being judgmental or intolerant because, like Peter, I say the Cross is the only way to God.

Pray for me, for I am learning to count the cost.

Pray for the pastors in Islam-dominated regions where, often, their obedience to the Father's Son results in suffering and pain.

"Christ's call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He came not to call scoffers but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances, but to capture men from the devil's clutches and the very jaws of Hell. This can be accomplished only by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ."  - C. T. Studd