Real Safety

This is an early posting of tomorrow's blog because I will be out of town all weekend.

204/365

When I was in school, I took a course in foreign missions. One of our assignments was to write a term paper on a country where Christianity was considered a minority religion. In doing my preliminary research to help me select a country to write about, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The number of choices was unlimited.

Christianity was not only a minority religion, but numerous countries persecuted such beliefs. Now, I know that this isn’t exactly new information, but for me…a sense of true reality finally began to sink in.

According to recent statistics, Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world. There are a number of places where Christians are actually put to death for just being Christians. But, I suppose Jesus did say that this would be so.

Luke 21:16,18
“They will put some of you to death…But not a hair of your head will perish.” – NIV

Jesus doesn’t define death as genuine harm. As scary as death is to some of us, and as tragic as early death seems to us, we can all expect to die eventually. It is a universal experience, whether we are persecuted for our faith or our bodies fail us for some other reason. But, rest assured, no real harm will come to us because death in Christ is never a real harm.

Let us ask ourselves, where does our security lie? Do we seek security in our physical well-being? Real safety is only found when we stand firm next to the Son of Man. He is our protector. He is our defender. Even though we may walk through the shadow of death, we need not fear any evil; our God is with us.