The Battle

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.      John 15:19

Did you understand that you were entering into a battle when you came to Christ? I can tell you that I was          unaware of the cost to follow Christ. In the winter of 1980, I was saved in an independent Baptist church. There was no talk about denying yourself and following Christ or counting the cost. I certainly was not aware that over 90% of the world’s population just considered me an enemy.

I did not know it would cost me friendships and family relationships. I was raised Roman Catholic. My mom was born to Italian immigrants, and there was a tremendous emphasis on the church’s traditions. When our first child was born two years after my salvation, I knew my mother would expect Crystal to be baptized into Roman Catholicism. I had not told my mother of becoming a Christian. They came over for dinner, and my mother asked when the baptism was going to occur. I told her that it would not be happening because the Bible teaches that only believers can be baptized. At that point, my mother came out of her chair, cursed my wife for making me a protestant, and reached over to slap my wife. I got between my wife and my mother, and my dad grabbed my mother and escorted her out of the house. As she was leaving, she was screaming curses at us and told me I was dead to her. At that time, I did not know what  Jesus had taught. I should have expected that       reaction, “Do you think that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; 52 for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three ( Luke 12:51-52)”.

Christian, we are in a battle every day. The world hates you because it hated Jesus first. We have always been the minority. That will not change. But, we know that the battles that we fight each and every day are worth the struggle.    Paul declared, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God ( Romans 8:18-19)”.

Let each of us stand firm, fight the good fight, and eagerly await as we wait for mortality to put on immortality.

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark