They Loved Not Their Lives To The Death

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”

Matthew 10:16

Scripture tells us that the world is evil, and it is into this evil world that the Lord sends us out.

vs 18:

“You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake,

as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.”

In this “last days” generation we have faced SUCH hostility from unbelievers, a frontal attack against us should we dare speak out against the evils in our society. It’s getting worse every day in America, a land where only a generation ago sinners practiced their sin behind closed doors and decency was the unspoken law of the land, evil was acknowledged as evil and perpetrators of evil hid their sin.

It’s quite a shock for those who are old enough to remember those days, thinking it would always be that way, never dreaming the change coming to America. Hide their sin? Oh no, they flaunt it and revel in it.

"Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?

No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush."

Jeremiah 6:15

Believers grieve the righteousness that has been lost, and shudder in the face of the persecution against them. For speaking the truth they lose their businesses or face spending time in prison. For speaking THE TRUTH. The greatest crime in America is now speaking the truth.

Today even pastors and ministers are often forbidden to speak the truth even in the churches. There will be some who will defy Satan and speak the truth openly no matter what - as Dietrich Bonhoeffer fearlessly did in Germany - and lost his life because of it, among countless others.

“But when they deliver you up,

do not worry about how or what you should speak,

for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak;

for it is not you who speak,

but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

Matthew 10:19-20

Believers, we were born for such a time as this, and we must make the choice now whether we will be silenced or whether we will speak the truth no matter the consequences. It is time to pray, now before it gets really bad, pray for strength and pray for courage because strength and courage will be scarce.

“He who loves his life will lose it,

and he who hates his life in this world

will keep it for eternal life.

If anyone serves me, let him follow me,

and where I am, there my servant will be also.

If anyone serves me, him my Father will honor.”

John 12:25-26

Corrie Ten Boom feared the concentration camps and told her father she didn’t think she could endure something so terrible. Her father asked her, “When you go to the train station, when do you get the ticket?” She replied, “when you get on the train.” “So it will be for you Corrie,” he replied, “when the time comes you will receive the grace to endure it. The grace will come when it is needed.”

If we determine in our hearts to be faithful no matter what, we will find grace to endure whatever we must, and that grace will be bountifully given. Do not think that you will go alone into persecution, no, your Lord will go with you. You will not be alone.

There was a missionary family being murdered for their faith. The children began to cry. The father said to the children, “Why are you crying? Tonight we will have supper with Jesus!” Oh how the heavens rejoiced at the grace given to them when needed. They were fearless. And that night - they had supper with Jesus.

“And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb

and by the word of their testimony,

and they did not love their lives -to the death.

Therefore REJOICE, O heavens, and you who dwell in them!”

Revelation 12:11-12