Staying On the Message

In 2010 I have been reading a daily volume titled The One Year Christian History. I have really enjoyed all the stories about Christians and the events that impacted their world. Some of them have been great moments, and some not so good. Today's reading was about Georg Blaurock, a Catholic priest from Chur, Switzerland who was born in 1491. He came to Christ about 1523. In his devotion to personal study of the Bible, he became convinced that baptism was for believers in Christ, not infants.  Georg joined a group known as Anabaptists, meaning rebaptizers. In 1525, the Zurich city council warned all parents in Zurich that they must have their children baptized within eight days of their birth or face banishment from Zurich. The Anabaptists decided to fight this edict and so arrests were made and people went to prison and, it appears to me a lot of people got off the message of the Gospel. While still in his 30s, Georg Blaurock, a promising preacher and man of God, was burned at the stake because of his beliefs on baptism. This seems like such a terrible waste of a life, and the issue deviates so far from the core reason that we exist as Christians.

When Christ was praying in the garden of Gethsemane before his arrest and crucifixion, he prayed that the Christians at the time, and all Christians to come, would be one, just like He and the Father are one, so that the world would know that the Father had sent Him. In other words, that love would be the prevailing characteristic of the people of God, so that a watching world would have tangible evidence of a loving God who is manifested through the lives of His children. Our message must be that the love of God has been freely given to us and that He forgives our sins and reconciles us to himself.

This morning on the news I heard this: "In protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil," a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida, plans to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks. The Dove World Outreach Center says it is hosting the event to remember 9/11 victims and take a stand against Islam. With promotions on its website and Facebook page, it invites Christians to burn the Muslim holy book at the church from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m."

If this takes place, how will this church ever minister to Muslims who are seeking after Christ? How will this affect the Muslim view of Christianity? What this misguided event will do is to provoke other Christians to condemn this church, Muslims will condemn this church, and the Gospel will be the loser. We are living in difficult times and the church of Jesus Christ must stay on the message. He is our Redeemer, our Savior, and He wants to draw all people to Himself. We must love people into the kingdom, not condemn them. Oh God, help us to listen to Your voice, to do the things You have asked us to do. May Your will be done in our lives.