Covenant Church

On this Valentine Day it is a good thing to check our heart and see if we love Jesus as much as when we first met Him.Cross-bearing Christians must wrestle with their conscience. What price will we pay to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to go into all the world, preach the gospel, baptize and make disciples?

As a young man I was in a college fraternity. We did not drink or do drugs. We did do some foolish things that risked lives. Have you ever had the experience of finding yourself thrown blind-folded into icy waters of a Smokey Mountain river in November? Odd, what young people will do to belong. Initiations rites can be demanding. Yet, young inductees will fully choose the pain to gain status. The higher the fence, the more ambition to climb it.

Neither of my sons chose the fraternity route. I think they were wiser to simply make lots of friends without social boundaries of colors and insignia.

In Syria tens of thousands of people are taking to the streets in protests against the government. Ostensibly, they are not asking for money or status. They are asking for freedom. Tanks shell. Artillery booms. Dead and wounded are carried away. Tens of thousands take to the streets again to pay the price for regime change. Thousands have died. Number wounded unknown. Not about heaven, but earth. They are willing to die for human causes.

How many persons has militant Islam sent out to commit suicide? Pregnant women. Children. Brainwashed. Threatened. Bribed. They have carried bombs to kill others and died in the explosions.

Christians who live the faith are not suicidal. In Christ we are  to respect life. We are to serve. We are to be kind. We are to pray for our enemies. Nothing in the Bible allows for a human being to be used as a lethal weapon against innocent women, children, old people. Creating random terror is the work of hell.

Yet, the Bible does call us to sacrifice. The Bible does call us to lay down our lives for the gospel sake. In fact, the Bible teaches that we died to the ole man when we came to Christ: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Galations 2:20).

Here is my struggle. Do we really believe that Jesus could come soon? Do we believe that these are tumultous days of II Timothy 3? Do we believe that there is an urgency of the Great Commission to share the gospel with those who have not heard? Do we value time? Do we believe today is the day of salvation...acceptable time?

Then passion must drive us. Passion calls us to the battlefront. Passion calls us to gladly surrender to the Cause.

As a college student I stood one night on an Interstate highway about 2 AM trying to hitch-hike a ride. Dark. Middle of nowhere. Only traffic was going South. Laila was North. I lost heart. Picked up my suitcase to cross four lanes of highway in hopes of a ride South. Stopped with the sudden thought: "Going South I would not see Laila!" I put my suitcase down on the North side and decided to wait until I got a ride. It was five AM when I tapped on her bedroom window. Moments later she leaned through the window and kissed me. All the agony of the journey was forgotten. Oh, I was soooo glad I did not go South!

I know this is a human illustration. I know that Jesus and heaven are more than the kiss of a man and a woman. But if I would stay in the North lane to see Laila, what will I do to see Jesus?

Press on, Pilgrim. This world is not your home. You are just passing through. Yet, when you have passed through make sure you have left a high water mark of testimony of things eternal!

Pastor Bare

Hebrews 11:10

For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.