Alive, Dead or Escaping

I enjoy watching the Hogan’s Heroes D.V.D collection that one of my family gave me. Hogan and his “heroes” are supposed to be air men that were shot down over Germany in World War 2 and placed in a Prisoner of War camp under the command of Commandant Klink. These prisoners constructed a series of tunnels and therefore could escape at any time if they so desired but they chose to remain in the camp so that they could help other airmen, who got shot down, to escape back to England. They also took the opportunity to undermine the German war effort by destroying bridges and such like. However taking part in these exploits exposed them to extreme danger. We admire people who take risks like that to help others; Schindler was one of them in Germany and so were the “underground” agents. Even in the French revolution we admire “The Scarlet Pimpernel” who allegedly saved many lives.

Jesus was of course the most helpful person ever; after all He was Divine but gave His life to “free” every single human from the “wages of sin” If they are prepared to accept His offer. What an exceptional privilege it is then to be one of those who has been “freed” which is what we are if we repent and “Believe” in Him, and furthermore we are then accepted as “Children of God, and if children, then heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ”. (Romans 8: 17).

 However we can’t then go home and relax and say “Whacko, I’m on my way to Heaven, I can now eat, drink and be merry because I’ve been “saved”’. No definitely not! Sure, we are free but what about our “Neighbours?” If we “love them as ourselves” we surely cannot rest until we know that they have also heard the “Good News”. I cannot imagine the anguish I would feel if I find myself in Heaven one day and look across into Hell and recognise the faces of people I knew on earth but didn’t share the “good news” with because I thought they might be offended or laugh at me. No we are expected to do the “Hogan’s Heroes thing” by doing whatever it takes to help others. You see I failed to finish that quote up above, it really says: “....and joint Heirs with Christ if we suffer with Him”. The bible guarantees that if we spread the “good news”, of Jesus offer of love and forgiveness, then we will sooner or later be unpopular; the worst that can happen of course is what happened to those 21 Christians in Syria recently when they had their heads cut off. My hope is that such a thing will never happen to you or me, but if it should then it would merely speed up our arrival in Heaven. Whatever the consequences though, we cannot relax if we know that there are people who haven’t yet heard the Gospel message...........Now a little story I heard a long time ago:

 Harry was a Christian who owned a farm and was just going down to the dam to shoot a duck for the family dinner when Bill, (who was a new Christian), came to visit. “Harry” said Bill “I have a problem; ever since I decided to follow Jesus ways I seem to have more temptations and problems than I had before. Why is that?” “Come with me Bill, I’m just going to get a couple of ducks for tomorrow’s dinner” Harry replied.

 

When they reached the dam two ducks flew up out of the nearby grass. “Bang! Bang!” Went Harry’s double barrel shot gun and the two ducks fell to the ground. One was dead but the other started flapping off toward the safety of the water. Bill ran after it; however it was too fast and reached the safety of the water before he could catch it. “Why did you chase it?” Harry asked when Bill returned. “Well it was getting away so I thought it worth the effort to try and stop it escaping, the other one is ours, and we can get it any time because it isn’t going anywhere”. “Exactly” said Harry “and that is why you are now having troubles with extra temptations and so on; you see, as a new Christian you are escaping from Satan’s influence so he is doing all in his power to stop you.” Is there an answer to a situation like that?

Yes, there is: when Jesus was about to commence His ministry, the Devil tempted him for 40 days and even used scripture to make some temptations look legitimate and acceptable. Jesus overcame these temptations because He knew his bible very well so he realised that those scripture passages were used incorrectly. Now we need to take a lesson from that. The New Testament is not a big book so we can, and need to, familiarise ourselves with it because scripture is the “Sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:11) against which Satan cannot stand. Of course we need to be familiar with the Old Testament too. Jesus certainly was.   Hope you enjoy pondering these thoughts. 

Best wishes,  Tom.