When was the last time you heard a sermon exhorting you to the spiritual virtue of courage?
Never?
Me either.
I’ve heard a lot of sermons in my life, and it’s possible I’ve forgotten one, but I cannot recall a single time I’ve heard a preacher teach about courage.
My Bible reading yesterday included this passage from Revelation 21:6-8:
And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Given that cowardliness leads to eternal destruction, maybe courage is something we should be teaching about more.
I’ve been thinking a lot about courage lately in the context of the Great Covid Delusion.
Like many of us, I quickly realized that Covid wasn’t the great danger it was made out to be, and that we were in the midst of a hysterical overreaction. However, I went along with things like mask-wearing in public places in order to fit in. If I’m honest, I was afraid of the consequences for not complying.
As time went on, however, I have become convinced we’re not just in the midst of an overreaction, but a sinister and deliberate deception with the goal of implementing totalitarian control. What exactly the goals are I don’t know for sure, but there’s too much evidence that nasty actors are behind this, pushing the fear and panic buttons and herding people toward a destination that will benefit them and enslave us.
Given that, for me, complying with this in any way, including by something so apparently simple as wearing a mask, is no longer conscionable. To do so is to cooperate with lies, to become part of the Great Delusion, to foster the enslavement of myself and my fellow human beings, to be part of the kingdom of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet instead of that of King Jesus.
So I don’t anymore.
It’s funny though. Growing up, I read stories about courageous actors in terrible times of historical oppression, such as slavery in the American South and Nazism in Germany. I always imagined myself as Harriet Tubman or Corrie ten Boom, one of the amazing human beings who risked everything, including their own lives, to rescue others. Surely if I’d lived in their times, I would have also done what they did.
And yet, when it came down to a relatively simple act such as entering a store without a mask, I was afraid.
I admit it. I was terrified when I first started doing it. I had vivid imaginations of being confronted by angry shoppers, the police being called, being dragged out in handcuffs.
None of that has happened so far, thankfully. The only place I’ve been challenged is at a funeral, and I was able to get through by telling them I am exempt. But going to public places is still stressful. I’m usually the only maskless person in an entire crowded store, except for small children. Occasionally I’ll run across one or two others.
Isn’t it funny? We imagine ourselves performing great courageous historical feats only because we can look back on them, and we know how they turned out. Harriet Tubman successfully rescued many people and died in peace. Corrie ten Boom survived the concentration camp and lived to a good old age serving the Lord. It’s easy to overlook the very real fear and uncertainty those people faced. They had no idea how things would turn out. Their lives, freedom, and well-being were under serious threat. And yet they did what they did anyway, because it was the right thing to do.
As pathetic as it is, I believe I am training myself to do greater acts of courage by performing smaller acts of courage.
Courage is like a muscle, or like any other virtue. The more we exercise it, the stronger it gets. The more steps we take in a certain direction, the easier it gets to keep going in that direction. Small challenges prepare us for medium challenges prepare us for big challenges. We don’t get to facing the lions in the arena in one day.
Jesus made it clear we need to be willing to give up everything, including our physical life, in order to be his disciples:
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? (Luke 9:23-25)
He also warned the end times will be very, very hairy:
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. (Matthew 24:21-22)
And that the virtue of courage will be necessary to make it:
But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matthew 24:13)
These aren’t things we hear talked about in our churches very often. We have lived in a very comfortable, prosperous society where Christianity has been tolerated even after it ceased to be dominant. But that’s changing.
Recently Canada passed Bill C-4, an anti “conversion therapy” bill, which criminalizes any counselling that seeks to help a homosexual individual reorient his sexuality, or a transgender individual live according to his biological sex. It’s not hard to see how this will be weaponized against religious faiths that believe in “traditional” sexuality, including Christians. Let’s be honest here: probably almost exclusively Christians. I have a funny feeling other faiths will get a free pass.
Pastors in Canada have long avoided preaching on controversial topics like sexuality, or when they do, do so in the most careful and qualified terms possible to avoid “offending” anyone. Bill C-4 is their reward for subservience. They forgot that the gospel is offensive. They forgot they are not called to not offend anyone, but to courageously preach the truth, no matter the consequences.
Most pastors in Canada have gone along with government-mandated lockdowns, happily closing their churches and hosting Zoom services, cutting believers off from much-needed fellowship and closeness. As if all we needed out of church was a sermon and some songs viewed on a computer screen. As if we weren’t told “not neglecting to meet together” (Hebrews 10:25). They forgot that courage and obedience to God are required for spiritual leadership. They have betrayed the sheep and their mandate.
I think the time has passed when being a Christian meant not much more than going to a meeting once or twice a week, sitting in comfy chairs and having a nice chat with people like us. We are increasingly going to need to exercise courage to decide to continue to obey God in the face of a government that commands us to do otherwise.
It’s uncomfortable to feel like a criminal or scofflaw when we have lived all our lives as obedient citizens under basically good and lawful government. But when government turns against us and against God, it is necessary to disobey.
Who is our Master? Earthly government, or the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus?
We are going to have to decide. And which side of that decision we land on will reveal where our true allegiance lies, and whether we love our own lives and our comforts more than we love Jesus. When it begins to cost, we will see who was really with him and who was just in it for the good stuff when the going was easy.
Pray for courage.
Courage. Thanks. I think Gods Spirit is leading you. Keep speaking.
My first thoughts are what I’ve been challenged in my spirit recently to meditate on and repent of. But I’m afraid. I realized that. Because the ultimate response if I truly meditate on it? Is radical obedience, preaching the death and resurrection of Jesus without stopping. And preaching the vaxes kill.
I know I put the cart before the horse in my comment above. I will go backwards to explain:
I started realizing that hey if these shots KILL, if I truly, really, sincerely believe that to the point that THIS is that proverbial hill upon which I will fight? Yes I do. So therefore, I need to be shouting out to all “they kill people, it’s been proven”..... BUT, there’s a but here (my conscience says ouch):
If I believe THAT, then what about the gospel? Do I really truly believe that God is One, that He spoke His word, His truth, that EVERYTHING historical in the Bible actually happened, that He truly sent His only Son Jesus as a substitute for our sins and that He was crucified on a Cross and Rose again to new life and, most very importantly, that my salvation verse, John 14:6 Is truly, well, true? What does that mean ultimately? that those without Christ are truly dead in their sins apart from Him. They are dead now.
The mandates and vaccines caused me to wake up to what was going on , and selfishly it took until I received the mandate from my job on August 20, 2021 before I woke up, returned my heart trust to a God (not there for some years). But I am just now waking again to this truth that I can shout to the skies the truth of the shots killing.
But the people will still be dead in sin if I do not preach Jesus also.
Raoul Wallenberg. Colonel Stauffenberg.