A Different Kind of Christian :: Deeper Devotion

by Tim Wade

Matthew 5:10

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The Kingdom of God is filled with all types of people. Some take thier faith seriously and live their lives as an act of continuous worship unto God. Others forget that it cost Jesus His life in order to gain their freedom from sin and thus treat their salvation like a get out jail free card. Then there are those who would rather be beaten and tortured rather than ever renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. These are the hardcore Christians. These people are men, women, young adults and sometimes even children who are people after God’s own heart. These are the ones who own the Kingdom of God!

Romans 5:7 tells us just how rare hardcore Christians really are when it says, “one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.”

Such a statement screams of just how selfish human beings really are. One would hardly die for a righteous man - I’ll think about, I might do it - maybe. For a good man? Well, let’s just think about it for a while. After all, it’s the thought that counts, right?

But when Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount some two thousand years ago He wasn’t talking about dying for good people, nor was He talking about simply getting picked on because you are a Christian. He was talking about those who would possess the Kingdom of God because by the grace of God they had already been given a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God was really like. They comprehended just what it meant to lay their life down for their bother in Christ, or to lay it down just so they could lead someone to Christ, and it didn’t scare them.

People like these are the ones who made a difference in the world years ago, and are the ones making a difference in the world today. They are the missionaries who go into hostile countries to spread the Gospel message because people there need the truth. They are the ones who remain in the barrios long after they have found Jesus because they want their friends to delivered just like they were. They are uncommon, unordinary people who have simply laid thier lives down in exchange for knowing the fullness of life in Christ. They are people like you and people like me who have simply looked at the world and said no more! These are the hardcore Christians and they own the Kingdom of God.

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