. . . suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. (Gal 6:12)
Everybody wants to be known as cool. And it’s not just the teenagers. Adults too want to be accepted by their peers and not stand out as a freak. But did Jesus call us to be cool? No . . . He called us to be a fool . . . a fool for Christ. (1 Cor 3:18) Now don’t get me wrong. We are supposed to be friendly with people of the world, but we are not to be a friend of the world (James 4:4). But in our friendliness to others do we share Christ? What would be the greatest thing you could do for a friend? Tell them about the greatest Friend of all . . . Jesus! (Pro 17:17; John 15:15).
Now picture your neighbor’s house on fire and no one is responding. You know there’s a whole family inside and the house is going up in smoke. No one has vacated. What do you do? Go back to sleep? I don’t think so. You go and shout and scream and tell them their house is on fire and you boldly go in and see what you can do to rescue them. People who don’t know Jesus will be doomed forever if they die without His saving grace. (John 3:18) Would you risk your friendship and your “coolness” to tell them about the Lord and His salvation? I think in the end they would thank you, although initially they might put up a fuss because you are telling the truth to them (and the truth usually hurts!).
Picture yourself up in heaven walking around because you just got there and are checking things out. There’s the beautiful city, there’s the green pastures, there’s the beautiful music and the angelic choir. But then someone comes up to you and greets you and it’s that person you used to know down on earth. They reach out and hug you and shake your hand profusely. All the while they are thanking you for telling them about Jesus and that if it wasn’t for you they would never have heard about the good news of the cross and wouldn’t be in heaven experiencing the Lord’s love forever and ever. That’s what’s going to happen in heaven because we didn’t care about being cool on earth.
Louie