Giving It All
This has been a week where my head has been filled with church history – especially history of the great spiritual revivals the swept across England and North America in the 1700′s and 1800′s. We have looked at the lives of the great men and women who brought about this revival. Names like John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, John Newton, Thomas Cowper and Willima Wilberforce – just to name a few. We have learned lots about these men and we have learned a lot about the conditions for revival. It has so far been a great week.
But yesterday we stood on the spot where three men of faith were martyred for thier faith in the 1500′s. All three died by being burned at the stake. The description by our tour guide graphically described how it happened. As I stood on that spot it really bothered me emotionally. To think that just because they believed in Jesus and held to certain theological positions – they were burned alive. I thought about how easy it is to be a follower of Jesus today. There is little or no persecution – no threats of death or even harm. But is it too easy to be a follower? We don’t need to put it all on the line for our faith do we? Has this made our faith stronger or weaker?
These men were willing to give their all for the sake of their and I started to wonder about myself. How much am I willing to sacrifice for Jesus – the one who sacrificed it all for me? That is a tough question because I haven’t been tested for it like these three men. But would I be willing to sacrifice big time for the sake of following Jesus? I think one of the big reasons for the revivals of the past – it was sacrificial living. Maybe we have so much today that we are afraid of what we might have to give up. I remember he words of Jim Elliot who died for his faith in the 1950′s when he said ”he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”. Jesus said that whoever loses his life for his sake will find true life. Maybe the days are coming when we are going to be asked to sacrifice just a little more – not our lives – just a little more – for Jesus sake.