Fight For The Faith

Fight For The Faith "Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses." 1 Timothy 6:12 My daughter Pamela was at our house yesterday and we began talking about the condition of our nation and that our freedoms were gradually being taken away by laws that were being passed in congress. Witnessing your Christian faith will now get you court marshaled if you are in the armed services. It is also not allowed in many companies across our country, and is slowly being taken out of our schools. It will not be long, at the rate we are going that God will not be allowed anywhere, if things continue as they are. However, our time is short as God will come again before this happens. For those that have been reading my devotionals for some time you know that I have been warning you this day was coming. If you think they will stop at the military, wake up. When is it time to fight, and say enough is enough? I don't know too many people who really enjoy a fight. That of course begs the question, what is worth fighting for? Our life. Our family. Our country. Our faith. Today, I want to concentrate on fighting for our faith. I often get much encouragement and inspiration from reading about Paul's life. As you read thru the New Testament, especially the Book of Acts, it is incredible how this man fought for the faith. I am challenged by all Paul personally endured as he fought for the faith. He literally gave his entire life from the moment he met Jesus on the Damascus Road until his work was finished and he was executed for following Jesus Christ. Between those two events, we see one of the greatest examples of fighting for our faith there ever was or will be. Our world today lives in open rebellion to God, His Truth, and Jesus Christ, and does not want to be reminded of their sins, nor told that when they die they will spend eternity in Hell for those sins. Man began to rebel against God the Creator from the very beginning and nothing has changed over these past 6,000 years of human history. The very existence of the children of Israel, God's chosen people, was often in jeopardy by those heathen people groups who lived in open rebellion to the one true God. God sent Jesus as the Savior for mankind, yet He was not only rejected by the world, but by His own people. For the past 2,000 years, the Christian faith has been under attack by those who rejected Christ, from the Roman emperors in the early days of the church to the governments of this world today. The Christian faith has only survived because of those who were courageous enough to fight for it. I contend that one of the main reasons the Christian faith is so weak and ineffective in our world today, especially in the United States, is that people have never really learned how to fight for their faith. We were born in a blessed and unique place and time of human history, a nation founded on its belief in the God of the Bible, the Truth of His Word, and faith in Jesus Christ. For the better part of the 230 years this nation has existed, it was clearly a Christian nation. It really wasn't necessary to fight for the faith as so many of our brothers and sisters around the world over these past 2000 years have had to. However, over these past 60 years, we have become like the children of Israel. We have turned from God to the false gods and idols of the world. We have fallen into gross sin and debauchery. We are now living in open rebellion to God, His Truth, and Jesus Christ. While this has been happening before our very eyes, Christians who never had to fight for their faith before have sat back and done virtually nothing. It is clear why the lost world we live in is winning and we are losing, as many years ago we retreated behind the four walls of the church to safety. We literally left the marketplace to the scavenger of Satan. We are responsible for abortion on demand. We are responsible for the mainstream acceptance of homosexuality and gross sexual perversion. We are responsible for the decimation of God's Holy institution of marriage and the family. It is easy for us to blame Satan, but the reality is we abandoned the marketplace and left it to Satan to have his way. Let me share with you something I have learned over these past 30 years of fighting for the faith. If I wake up tomorrow and decide I am simply tired of fighting. I've done my part for nearly 3 decades now let someone else do it, the world will keep spinning. People will be born and people will die. In the end, God's plan will unfold. This is about me being faithful to what God has called me to do. You see, I have no other choice. I've given my life to Him. God has raised me up in these last days to fight for the faith. When I take my last breath it is not some man I will stand before, but God Himself. He is the one who I will answer to and who will judge me. I will keep fighting for the faith until my work here is over because I have committed my life to serving the Lord. When I wrote my book, "The Silent Church", I wrote it to let others know what was happening in our world. What keeps me going is the changed lives I see each and every day. People who come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through my Daily Devotionals. People who God touches in a miraculous way. Every day I watch the hand of God working in people's lives all over this world. I also never forget that God never gave up on me. It would have been easy for Him to write me off and let me live a life of rebellion, but He loved me enough to reach out to me, and let me know He had a better plan for my life. He has given me a peace and joy that words can't describe, and despite the battles, the weariness, He has given me a life of abundance I could have never imagined. Not the temporal abundance of this world, but the true abundance of the eternal things of God. That is why I get up each day, put on the armor and fight for the faith. Let me encourage you today to rise up and fight for the faith where you live. There is a world around you that is lost, hurting, and souls dying every day and going to Hell. There is nothing more precious you will ever fight for since Christ is the only hope for this world and each person. In the end, when your life is over, God will honor you as you hear these words, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." Robert W. Brock My Daily Devotional Volume Seven December 17