Cancelled Or Courageous? ♡♡♡

                                       

"I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will" - Romans 12: 1-2

Hey everyone, it's me again. Happy new week and I'm especially happy to be able to bring you another Monday blog post to (hopefully) inspire you as you start a new week in the strength and grace of the Father. I'd like to take this opportunity, with so much currently going on in the world today, to remind us of a very important instruction from the Apostle Paul in the first century, in which he implores us as believers to recognise our separation from the world and the systems by which it operates:

This statement [See focal scripture] was written by Paul more than a millennia ago, and yet it feels as if it has never rang more true than for us in the world we live in today. Culturally, the world (and the dominant western world in particular) has thrown off the supposed shackles of its Christian roots and value systems, and shifted to a new system of morality that celebrates things that God hates. Right and wrong has been upended and truth is seen as some variable, subjective quantity that differs depending on the circumstances and situation of the individual. Self-expression is seen as the highest form of moral good and yet oftentimes what is expressed by the poor souls caught up in this destructive ideology, is not pretty at all and offers no benefit to society at large.

This is what the world today that we live in looks like, and the dominant ideologies that govern it, preaching tolerance and inclusivity as their ultimate goal, themselves will suffer no alternative or opposing perspective or worldview to be tolerated at all. In today's world, making the choice to follow God's will, to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, and to live a life that both pleases the Lord while challenging the dominant ideologies of the world, is becoming increasingly harder and harder.

I remember being young and fearing that open expression of my faith among my unbelieving contemporaries would at the worst see me suffer a bit of embarrassment. Today' however, the stakes are exponentially higher, and doing so could see a person excommunicated completely from their friends and social circles, i.e. "Cancelled", simply because they openly choose not to subscribe to the "message" preached by those who ardently and vehemently push to plunge the world deeper into this Godless ideological rut. Nevertheless, brothers and sisters. We cannot shrink back or relent. Jesus said:

Mat 11:12 (NKJV)

"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force"

We can be grateful having not had to suffer the violent torture, mutilation and death that our contemporaries in the first century had to face for the sake of the Faith and the election by our Lord Jesus and the Father on high. But in the modern age we live in today, we must take courage and see the challenges of these competing ideologies as the type of persecution and the cross that we must carry in order to keep the faith and champion the cause for the Lord our God.

Mat 16:24-27 (NIV)

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

Jesus's words here serve as a timeless reminder, that whatever is the persecution we face, whether physical violence or being "cancelled" by zealous extreme left-wing ideologues, we must count our lives, our pride and dignity as nothing, and be ready to take up our cross and sacrifice it all in the court of public opinion (just as Jesus did), in order to gain the promise of a life eternal in the hereafter. And so take heart also brethren, no matter how difficult it might get. We're not alone. We have an advocate and a comforter in the form of God's Holy Spirit. Jesus gave us this promise in the last verse in the Gospel of Matthew:

Mat 28:20

(.....and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

So don't be afraid. Be strong and courageous in this new week, brothers and sisters. Dare to be different, and the Lord will delight in you... And there's nothing better than that.

Have a blessed and incredible week.

Love,

Wale