What does it mean to take a stand, draw a line in the sand, and say to the world “This far and no further”, what is your personal final level of pain? When will you fight like a cornered wolverine for principle and moral standard, and exactly what moral standard or code do you hold as your own?
Count the cost and reward
Christ said: and I paraphrase here: If you take up your cross and follow me you will be persecuted, you will suffer, and the world will hate you as they hate me. To follow me means you must love me more than your mother, father, spouse, children, extended family, and friends.
The world and life as you know it in the world is temporal….all of it…..ends in death. Jesus said: “I set before you life and death, choose life.” Again, Jesus paraphrased: Follow me and receive everlasting life. Commit to me, study God’s guiding word, do all God asks of you, listen to the Holy Spirit who is the third person of the Trinity sent to you by God to be your guide and comforter, for your instruction. Live your life according to the commandments and instructions for life given to you, only because of God’s Grace, and you win. You spend eternity with God. There are only two eternal choices, with God or without Him, and guess what, YOU are in control of that choice.
Standards to stand upon
When, with this information, you make your choice to live for Christ and truly turn your life over, you are now equipped to do battle, because God protects HIS children. Now you have standards penned by the creator of all life, and you will not fear standing for them, not halfway looking back over your shoulder but fully forward. When you live in Christ, you do not debate, philosophize or question what is right and what is wrong, all of that is already declared or “written in stone” if you prefer.
It saves so much of your lifetime to not be in a state of confusion and indecision at every juncture of your life, every time and I mean every time, a decision needs to be made you have the answer and documentation to back it up, and your response is automatic and delivered with authority.
Armor of standards
If you are faced with a personal life crisis situation which threatens you, your family, your business and/or your entire future on earth and you are called to take a stand your response can be taken with absolute authority and total confidence, because you are armed by God and ready. Do not go part way and then, like Lot’s wife, look back, there-by allowing opportunists to hi-jack your cause. No human or corporate group of people is going to care more about you or the stand you took than the God who made you. Your stand is your opportunity to become an example to those who watch Christians closely for cracks in their armor, to show your trust in the God you proclaim, and to grow in the roll for which God created and gifted you. Trust, obey, stand and lead your charge. Even if you go down in secular flames, you will eternally have God’s love, and that is all you really need.
If you are faced with a “home invasion of your standards” i.e.: your loving children and grandchildren come to visit and assume they can live according to their self designed standards in your home. Take a stand. You would not allow strangers to camp in your home assuming what is yours is automatically theirs. House rules apply to all, respect for your way of life and your values are not too much to require of your guests. If they have come to spend time with you, then they are welcome. If they came to destroy your peace, talk on their cell phones, watch filth on your TV, fight, argue, demand special food and entertainment, expect you to make their beds, pick up after them and become their short order cook, then you stand. If they never come again, have you really lost something valuable? Take a stand and you will probably be surprised at the response. Respect for God involves your willingness to market his word. Respect for you involves your risking the loss of human love to stand for God’s love.
Read and absorb God’s word, so when the secular world screams “Did God really say”, you can calmly meet the question with, Yes he did, and he meant it, let me show you where it is written.
The suffering you do here on earth in God’s name, which includes small and large hurdles, and the God-given grace to endure, added to the joy of the journey with other Christ followers, (not necessarily all who claim Christianity) is that for which your brief moment on earth is designed. The only success you will ever really achieve is the fulfillment of a life lived in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, for God. The reward is real life, forever, in the shelter of God’s love.
“When we answer the call from Christ we find our bliss, our grace, our spiritual destiny, and our fully actualized true selves” further…Life in Christ is what makes us fully alive.