We are free and nothing can change that reality!
Photo by Zulmaury Saavedra on Unsplash
Several years ago, a friend of a friend suggested that as we vote and participate in the body politic, our highest criteria should be the rights of Christians.
I did not wish to rebuke or correct that person directly or publicly. So I thought about it and waited to address the principle itself.
For all who cry out "What about our rights?" when the issues of human rights, dignity, and justice are raised, I have a thought.
Respectfully, as much as I believe in religious liberty for all people of all faiths, the scriptures do not teach believers to passionately pursue our own religious rights or value them over service, discipleship, justice, peace, and compassion.
We are to exercise them as if they were absolute and willingly accept the consequences when they are not recognized by society.
Our rights are secondary as we are called to follow Jesus in an historically and spiritually hostile world.
Nothing can stop us or hinder us from being servants of Jesus who serve Him by serving others.
Not nakedness nor peril, nor sword.
Be encouraged. No one can deprive a Christian of the ability to worship, serve, and follow.
Only our natural lives and livelihoods can be threatened.
What really counts is secure.
If we will observe His command to love God and our neighbor, to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him, we will either live or we will die ... but we will be doing what we have been placed here to do.
When our voices cry out against injustice and for human rights, may they do so more often for the rights of others than for our own.
That will be a test of true discipleship.
And now, a few unrelated (or are they? One never knows) quotes uncovered from my archives
When I stood outside the church looking in, I found much to criticize. But once I fully entered the church, I realized the difficulty of sustaining anything like the New Testament vision of what the church should be. I have much more sympathy for the church's failures now that I am contributing to them! Church 'frustrates us into holiness,' says Richard Rohr, by holding up a shining vision and then inviting us to join the lackluster reality. (pp.72/Church: Why Bother? my personal pilgrimage)" - Philip Yancey
"The deeper truth is that . . . Your pain is the concrete way in which you participate in the pain of humanity. . . . Jesus’ suffering, concrete as it was, was the suffering of all humanity. His pain was the pain. . . . Once you discover that you are called to live in solidarity with the hungry, the homeless, the prisoners, the refugees, the sick, and the dying, your very personal pain begins to be converted into the pain and you find new strength to live it. Herein lies the hope of all Christians." - Henri Nouwen
"Bred in the bone . . . Hope is the Creator’s implant into us, His traveling children, on the move into a future we can imagine but cannot control. Hope is our fuel for the journey. As long as we keep hope alive, we keep moving. To stop moving is to die of hope deficiency." - Lewis Smedes
