Friday, February 12, 2016

Exalting a Nation


My wife and I very much enjoyed attending the American Renewal Project in Spartanburg, South Carolina, hearing great speakers like Rafael Cruz, former Congressman Bob McEwen, David Brody, and others. 

 "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." - Proverbs 14:34

David Lane, founder of the ARP, challenges Christians to stand for biblical values with courage and conviction in his article, Christians Must Stand with Courage and Conviction.
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Lutheran Pastor Wolfgang Schuch was one of the giants of the 16th century. According to Charles Spurgeon's The Treasury of David, Schuch was imprisoned for denying "the Church and the sacrifice of the mass" and was sentenced to be burnt at the stake. Upon hearing his sentence, he began singing the 122nd Psalm, "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord.'"

In fact, it was in the 19th-century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon's aforementioned commentary on the Psalms that I read about Schuch. But Spurgeon read about Schuch from within the pages of Foxe's Book of Martyrs. When Christians stand with courage and conviction—even in the face of death—their testimony inspires others for generations to come.

Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis faced her own trial and dilemma in 2015. She would either knuckle under to secular judicial elites and compromise her beliefs as a Christ follower, or she would go to jail. Confrontation with evil is nothing new; John N. Oswalt says believers throughout history have been "flayed alive, impaled, mutilated and killed" (Isaiah Commentary). Theology can make for splendid Bible study discussion in the safety and comfort of a yet-free society, but the real question is this: Will you bet your life on it?


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