Spoiler alert: It doesn’t work.

I recently attended Sabbath fellowship at a certain school. After the sermon the pastor made a baptism appeal. There was nothing emotional about that appeal but I just remember seeing this multitude of students go upfront. Now usually, when this happens I’d be in tears; tears of joy. But not this time. It was still a solemn moment but I remember going home thinking,

Heh, these boys and girls just made a mortal enemy.

I’m chuckling a bit now that I spell it out this way and also after what I’ve learnt in the time that has lapsed between now and then… But walk with me here. I can explain.

The reality is that every decision made for Christ is basically a declaration of war. Jesus has an enemy called Satan. And when you side with Jesus guess what? His enemy becomes yours too. Unfortunately, this simple fact goes unmentioned in our sermons and appeals. Ministers, informed consent applies in the decision to follow Jesus too.😅

So much of Christianity is war. Maybe not all of it. Maybe not even most of it. But a fair chunk is. However, we are often, to use a KJV translation term, offended when we meet with trouble. Maybe partly because your minister failed to include this in their appeal, but hey, read your Bible. Jesus says it bluntly and I quote, ‘ In this world, you shall have tribulation…’

The caveat of course is that trouble is inevitable in our world for everyone. And the devil is against all humanity including those who are not on Jesus’ side. But my dear Christian brethren, he brews special trouble for us.

I recognize the danger of overspiritualization of things but I believe the other extreme is equally problematic and prevalent: overmaterialization. Most of us need to give the devil more credit for our trouble than we do. Once I walked into a room and found that my friend had been crying. I asked what the matter was and the first thing she said was: Its the devil😹. She was right. And it was obviously not a laughing matter. But she’s okay.

I stand by everything I’ve written so far. Infact I believe that things are going to get worse before they get better. But I do not want you to be robbed of the joy of seeing people come to Jesus like I was that Sabbath. And so I’ve said all the above only to now say, I still want people to come to Jesus. Why?

Well, I’ve had so much trouble in my life because I’m a Christian. But I also have so much joy in my life. So much peace. So much hope. Because, and only because, I’m a Christian. And the part I left out in what Jesus said about the trouble we will have in the world is that He adds:

Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33

God has set up a system that is not only true and beautiful; It is also successful. Our enemy is mighty. But our God is mightier. He asserts:

KJV John 10
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

The Christian is, eventually, delivered out of all his trouble. But the deliverance God gives is not the deliverance of escape but of conquest. And thus, Paul concludes Romans 8 with the rousing doxology that:

KJV Romans 8
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

In the words of Eugene Peterson;

The plows of persecution are not working and the oxherds haven’t even noticed!

And so my brethren, immense trouble lies ahead. But in its effect to separate us from our God, spoiler alert: it doesn’t work!