Several years ago, I heard a minister give an illustration that I have never forgotten. Here is the story as I
remember it:
A little boy is told that his big sister desperately needs a blood transfusion. Their blood type is the same, and the little fellow is asked if he will give his sister some of his blood to save her life. He looks a bit scared, is silent for a moment, then says yes to the request. The procedure is soon over, and of course the child is in no pain. But he's awfully quiet. At last he ventures to ask, in a small voice, "When do I die?"
The boy thought he was being asked to give his life to save his sister! And after only a few moments' consideration, he decided to do so. Reminds you of Abraham and Isaac, and of God sending His Son to die for us, of Christian martyrs "who loved not their own lives" but were willing to die for Him who had given His life for them. Jesus told His followers, "He that would come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."
That is not a verse for us to quote glibly. Songs like "Take up your cross and follow Me" are not to be sung for the pretty harmony and forgotten as we leave the church and go about our business Most of us who've worked in Sunday School, church and/or Bible clubs have used the "sinner's prayer" to lead someone in praying to receive Jesus for the first time. A version of this prayer that I especially like ends with the words, "...take me as I am, and make me what I ought to be. HELP ME TO DO RIGHT, NO MATTER WHAT IT COSTS."
I once knew a young woman from a Muslim country, who was here in the U.S. for Bible college.
I asked her if Christians in her country faced persecution. "No," she said, "Not those of us who have been raised in Christian households and are already part of the Christian community; but Muslims who convert are
definitely persecuted." She went on to say that she herself had friends who had converted to Christ but still went to services at the mosques. "They say that when they pretend to bow down to Allah they are really bowing down to Jesus. I can't judge them, because the consequences of admitting to being Christians are so drastic!"
My immediate reaction was to think that this really wasn't right, and was not what the early saints did. When the choice was presented, did they "pretend"? But then immediately I knew that we people here in the good old U.S.of A.--well, many of us, maybe most, would be poor candidates for risking actual persecution, let alone martyrdom! Sometimes we can't even face the hard decisions life hands us just from day to day! I was going to introduce some generic examples of this, but maybe you and I both know what our "waterloos" are and have been. It won't do any good to conjure up mental pictures of heroism in the face of death and wonder if we could "come through"! But it might truly be life-changing if our next small choice, and the nexr and the next, were made after praying, "HELP ME TO DO RIGHT, NO MATTER WHAT IT COSTS."
