Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross.
Lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss.
There’s never been a better time, or more important time, in our history for Christians to stand up for what we believe in…Jesus. He didn’t die that we only should not perish, but that the whole world, through Him, might be saved. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Once we hear it and accept Him as our personal Savior, we have a responsibility to tell others just what He has done for us, so that they too have an opportunity to be saved.
God’s Word says to every Christian everywhere: Go ye therefore into all the world. That doesn’t mean He wants us all to be missionaries and travel to other lands. We are to spread the gospel where we are. As He gazed at the people of Jerusalem and took note of all the need just within that one city, what did Jesus do? He saw them as sheep without a shepherd and had compassion on them. His heart hurt for all the moms and dads and their children…the homeless, the hurting, the rich and the poor. Some thought they had all the answers, but truly none of them had a clue as to what was about to happen.
God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn the people for their lack of knowledge about sin and the consequences of it. He sent Him to be the answer, the supreme sacrifice for all of us. A lot to ask of one man, but Jesus was not just any man…He was God’s Son…conceived by the Holy Spirit to be born into the world just as we were. He wasn’t born with all the knowledge of God and where He came from, but it was imparted to Him gradually as He grew and “waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him.” Luke 2: 40
Jesus was thirty years old when He began His ministry and began to reveal to others exactly who He was and the plan His heavenly Father had for the world He’d created. His ministry lasted only three short years, but the impact of His life, death and resurrection still lives today…He still lives today, in the hearts of those willing to accept and believe…in spite of what some might claim, God is not dead. God’s power and His love for mankind is revealed daily in spite of the fact we fail to recognize it…or to stand up and praise Him for it.
There is no better time than now, for the followers of Christ to come together and stand up. There is hope. There is redemption for this world so bent on destroying itself…if only we choose to believe it. Not only did Christ die for us that we might have eternal life, but for the whole world. As we pray and feel for the Americans trapped in Afghanistan right now, God feels for the entire world. He is determined, as most Americans are now, that not one should be left behind. He fights and stands up for us daily…not against only the Taliban, but against Satan himself and all his advocates. But as it was when Jesus looked out over the city of Jerusalem and said: The fields are ripe for harvest, but the workers are few. He wasn’t talking about the corn fields or cotton fields…He was talking about the souls of men!
Men are hurting. People…young people… are dying…too many killing themselves for lack of hope. We have that hope, but we hoard it like toilet paper in the middle of a pandemic. Jesus meant for that hope to be shared. So, what did He do when the need was so great? He sent out more disciples…and that’s exactly what He tells us to do: Go ye therefore into all the world, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Bring them into the kingdom of God, so that not one is left behind to perish.
We are fighting more than a war in Afghanistan, and it’s time to stand up! As the old hymn says: From victory unto victory, His army shall He lead…Till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed! Amen
