There is no greater folly than to know the great salvation of God, but to then go on living for yourself.

Hope is hearing the eternal, Heavenly music of the future, and faith is dancing to it.

Voice of the Martyrs did a study of the lives of martyred and severely persecuted Christians and came up with 8 different qualities that they had in common. Do you possess any of these qualities?
1. They are energized by an eternal perspective. Individuals with heroic faith see beyond this world to the eternal realities. Rather than live for the moment and for this world, they look to the next, knowing that this life is not all there is.
2. They have an uncanny dependency on God. This quality is evidenced primarily by a life bracketed by prayer. Those whose faith is of a heroic caliber talk to God as if they know Him, because they do. And because they believe He hears them, they are less anxious than most.
3. They love the Word of God. They love to read it, study it, and hear it read as well as preached. Not every person with a dog-eared Bible is a hero of the faith, but it its likely that all who are have well-worn copies of the Scripture.
4. They are outrageously courageous. When it comes to standing up for what they believe in, they aren't inclined to sit on their hands. These people possess a heroic boldness that flows out of their perspective of, total dependence on, and love for God's Word.
5. They are living examples of what it means to endure. Quitting is not a concept with which they are familiar. And because faith heroes view life as a long-distance race, speed is not nearly as important as stamina.
6. They take obedience very seriously. Pleasing God matters much more than accomodating people's unpredictable expectations. Heroic disciples delight in doing what they know God desires.
7. They are unquestionably self-controlled. Men and women who serve as heroic examples to the rest of us, are not victims as much as they are victorious. They decide what the circumstances call for and act accordingly, even if it means voluntarily laying down their lives.
8. They are marked quite simply by love. Their eyes do not lie. Their countenance can warm the coldest room. People who have heroic faith are people who genuinely care for other people, and their actions prove it. Some might call it faith in action.

I read something this morning that really woke me up. It was a post in Urgent Prayer Requests by a woman who has belonged to a coven for many years and is planning to leave it. She is afraid for her life and the life of her son as she attempts to leave. In her post, she mentioned that she sees us as being caught up in, and worrying about trivial things. The fact that she would come to a Christian web site and ask for prayers is amazing and says a lot.
It was particularly interesting to me, because when I was 18, I was into witchcraft and looking for a coven to join. I never found the coven, but I did find the Lord, yet I know that but for the grace of God, I could easily have been where she is.

As I was praying and meditating on what she posted, I felt impressed to pick up a book by Max Lucado, "It's Not About Me," which I had started a couple of months ago, but never got very far into. In the book, Max talks about a man, G.R. Tweed, who was rescued from the island of Guam during WWII by using a small pocket mirror to flash SOS and flag down a passing Alllied ship.. He then muses about what would have happened if the mirror had been like us, and become insecure, afraid that it would make a mistake, or that it's blemishes would be seen. Or even if it had been riddled with self-pity and decided that since it had been stowed away in the bottom of Tweed's pack and therefore gone unnoticed and felt unloved, that it wasn't going to cooperate and allow itself to be used. What if it had decided to flash LAM (look at me) instead of SOS?

Max then goes on to mention 2 Corinthians 3:18, which many of us learned as "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord." yet can be also correctly translated as, "And we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect. This is the work of the Lord who is the Spirit." (emphasis mine)

The Greek word "katoptrizo" can be translated either as "beholding" or "reflecting." When Moses beheld God, he had no choice but to reflect Him. As Max says, "The brightness he saw was the brightness he became."

We are God's mirrors. Our sole job description is to be a tool of Heaven's heliography," to reflect God's glory in whatever capacity He chooses. In order to reflect, we must behold, which implies a long, deliberate study, not a cursory peek.

How does this tie in with the story of the woman I began this post with? She, and millions others like her, whether trapped in witchcraft or as even many Christians and non-Christians alike are, enslaved to their past, are desperately looking for the glory of God. They may not even know it, but that is what they are desperately seeking. The god she serves, who is also the same adversary that holds so many of us captive, is powerful. Yes, he is a defeated foe, but that does not lessen his power.

It is in seeing God's glory alone that captives will be set free. God and His glory alone, are more powerful than the enemy.

I love the Southern Gospel song written by the Gaithers called. We Shall Behold Him, yet, let us not wait until the future to behold Him, let's do it now, so we can reflect His glory and rescue many souls who are otherwise destined for the pit. Let us set aside the things that so easily entangle us, and get our priorities aligned with His. Doing so will bring persicution, but so be it.

During the war (WWII I believe) a young pilot was on a mission, in which he was flying solo. This was one of his first missions, so as you can imagine he was more than a little nervous. Things went all right for a little while, but then he heard something that made his nervousness turn into sheer terror. He heard what seemed to him like a munching sound, and when he looked down, sure enough, there was a rat making lunch out of the wires of his plane. Being several miles up in the air, and knowing that every wire on the plane was critical for his survival, he did the one thing his Momma had taught him to do - he prayed.

As he prayed for guidance, he heard a still small voice inside of him say, "fly higher and kill the rat." At first this did not make sense, but as the munching grew louder, so did the voice inside of him. This time he heard, "put on your oxygen mask, fly higher and kill the rat." Then it registered with him what the Holy Spirit was saying. If he flew higher, the oxygen in the air would be much, much less. With his mask on, nothing would happen to him, but the rat would die due to lack of oxygen, and the wires of the plane would be safe.

He did as he was told, soon the rat was dead, and he completed his mission with no further incidents.

We all have things in our lives that, from time to time, eat away at us. Most of the time, we tend to try to rid ourselves of these problems in our own strength, and on the level of the one(s) perptrating the problem. As Jesus stated in the Sermon on the Mount about turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile, and giving your cloak as well as your coat, and Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:7 about not taking fellow believers to court, we must opt to take the high road, not fight our enemy on his own turf. We must follow Jesus example and love our enemy and those who persecute us. If we don't the "rat" will constantly come back and chew on our wires. Love, unconditional love, destroys his ability to do that.

A True Story of True Love-

In 1939, or maybe 1940, the Nazis marched through a town in Western Europe, dragging all those of Jewish descent into the streets. The vast majority of those were killed instantly, but there were a few, very rare exceptions. One such exception recalled what had happened on that fateful day, and the crucial decision which saved his life, and ultimately preserved his health as well.

This survivor was a young man with a beautiful young wife and three small and adorable children. The Nazis broke into their home and forced the young family into the street with the rest of the Jewish people in the town. Everyone was lined up against the wall with the exception of this young man, because he could speak German, and therefore, was considered to be worth sparing. He was forced to watch as his neighbors, and his precious wife and children were gunned down at point-blank range, simply because of their ethnic heritage. As horrible and devastating as this situation was, the young man said later that he made a conscious decision right then and there not to hate these Nazis, but to see them as victims, as captives to a power they could not control, and therefore love them unconditionally.

He was taken to a concentration camp with everyone else whose life was spared, and there he subsisted on a cube of bread and a small cup of broth each day. While there, he often gave what little food he had to someone else whom he deemed in greater need than he was. This did not go unnoticed by either his fellow inmates, or the prison guards. He always treated the guards with utmost courtesy and respect, no matter how he was treated in return and soon, he had gained their respect as well. This didn't mean he was given any special privileges though. He existed on the same level as the other Jewish people in the camp. The difference was in his attitude.

When he was released at the end of the war, in 1945, the liberators were surprised to see how healthy he was and how relatively well he had fared. They assumed from his condition that he had just arrived a short time ago, but soon learned that he had been there for six long years. When asked the secret to his survival, he told the people inquiring about the tragedy he had endured and that crucial decision he had made. Because of the humility the love had wrought in him, others had to tell of his sharing his food with those in need.

Given that he endured the exact same treatment and conditions that his fellow inmates did, the only conclusion is that it was his decision to love his persecutors unconditionally that saved and preserved him.

In this day of extreme emphasis on self-esteem, self-worth, pampering the inner child, clinging on to past traumas and hurts in order to find excuses for our sometimes inappropriate behavior, even among strong Christians in the church, it would do us well to consider this man's story and learn from it.