Over the last several years, many of my Christian friends have shared their concerns about how “the world” has removed God from our nation.  Certainly, things do happen in this nation – and in our world – that don’t feel aligned to our faith, but we are not called to look to the world (any person, place, or thing) for answers to solving it!  For one thing, the Bible is clear that for Christians, God’s temple resides within our hearts (through the Holy Spirit).  You see!  Nothing and no one can ever take God from us when He is buried within our hearts!  No power of Hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck Him from our hands – or our hearts!  His very temple is “built-in” to each one of us who submit to Him as our Lord and Savior.  He is built in to us by design of the Holy Spirit.  By an amazing and glorious design.  And, Christ is built into us in the exact same way that He was built into those first disciples in that upper room.  And, into the thousands on the day of Pentecost.  We have received nothing less to work with than exactly what those first disciples had!  And, nothing in heaven or on earth can stop the Holy Spirit!  Not the world.  Not death.  Not life.  Not evil (remember we win by the way!).  It is up to each and every one of us to choose to keep Him alive in our hearts so that the “fruit” of His Spirit is evident to everyone we meet in our lives.  So that anyone who crosses our path is drawn to God, because they see and learn about Him through the testimony of our witness and the love of Christ in our actions!  That’s how we help God build His Kingdom!  That’s how we keep God alive in this world!  When we follow what He has taught and others see God in US CHRISTIANS.  When they see the fruit of Christ’s Spirit evident in our lives every day:  When we exhibit the power of God’s love in all that we say and do.  When we foster joy unlike anyone else – even in hardship.  When we have that reassuring peace, even in the worst storms.  When we are patient with others’ misgivings.  When we foster kindness in every word we utter – even the difficult ones.  When the goodness of others is always at the forefront of our minds.  When we are faithful to God and to serving everyone who was made in His image! When we are gentle with our thoughts and our words toward ourselves and others.  When we exhibit self-control to bridle our tongues and forgive our enemies.  We are called serve our neighbors – and our enemies! – with love as we reach use our own hands and feet to help those who are poor, those who are marginalized, the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, the foreigner…”the least of these” in our society.  We are to help those who need help.  Those people made in God’s image that everyone but Christ has likely rejected and forgotten.  And, when we feed someone, give them water or a bit of love, Jesus tells us that we are doing those things even unto Him!  It is our faith in Christ – and then following His example with our own lives – that we keep Christ alive in this world.

Despite anything that happens in our world, it is impossible for anyone to remove God from those of us who carry Him in our hearts!  Consider this: Even when Christ walked the earth – and for at least two more centuries afterward – there were never any regular “group Christian prayer” or Bible study meetings happening anywhere.  Not in schools, not in any public places at all!  And, there were no Bibles to be found anywhere; the Bible was actually not printed until hundreds of years later!  In fact, during those early times of the Christian church, if you even uttered the name of Jesus or admitted to being one of His followers, you were sentenced to death!  Talk about opposition from the world!  This is what real persecution looks like!  Those first disciples had no public prayers, no Bibles, no church buildings to meet in, no Christian leaders in places of power in either the (Jewish) church or the government of that day.   Yet, somehow, despite “the world’s” harsh opposition to these early Christ followers, these 12 disciples prevailed and built Christ’s church from nothing but the Holy Spirit and the message of Christ’s Gospel being lived out in their own lives!  There is simply no example in Scripture of the disciples complaining about “the world” they lived in or where they sought answers from the world or complained of the persecution they were suffering.  As Christ taught them and us, they counted it “all joy” when they faced trials or persecutions for Christ’s sake, and they submitted to whatever fate became them – whatever “cup” they were given – in carrying out the call on their lives as Christ followers!  And, remember, it was in these disciples’ faithfulness to Christ and in their submission – even in dying for Him – that those who witnessed their faithfulness and testimonies came to believe themselves! In fact, the disciples submitted to their governmental, non-believing leaders and trusted God, exactly as Christ himself did when He submitted to death on the cross at the behest of the non-believing government leader of His day, Pontius Pilate who was led by the Jewish church to do so.  Christ and His disciples did not complain about their place in the world, but understood that God had a plan through it all!  They had unwavering joy and faithfulness facing far worse than we will likely ever know in our faith journeys!  They were laser-focused on following Christ and building His Church while simultaneously denying themselves and loving others.  And, with just 12 steadfast and faithful servants, Christianity began spreading like wildfire throughout all the nations!  And, it is through their lives and their unwavering faith and focus on Christ that the world took notice, repented, and turned to God and the teachings of Christ!  Christianity has never been reliant on anything the world did or did not provide!   

If, like Peter walking on the water, us Christians were able to keep our eyes on Jesus we could be like those early disciples and be hope-filled and faithful even amidst the harshest trials and darkest of storms!  I’m sure Jonah’s world looked pretty dark while he sat for days in that whale with his entire future uncertain!  But, let’s not forget what happened throughout all of that; how many people God saved on the ship Jonah was thrown from as well as eventually all of those people in Ninevah (who Jonah saw as “enemies” he didn’t want God to save).  God did all of this through what looked like quite a dark time in Jonah’s world.

And, how about Paul? I’m sure he experienced pretty dark times when he was chained and imprisoned instead of being able to travel the world spreading the Gospel as he had always done.  Yet, in Paul’s seemingly darkest time as he was spent all of his days in jail, he still kept His focus, hope and joy on Christ and used his time to write letters of encouragement – and also rebuke – to the churches of his day.  And, through God’s miraculous sovereignty, Paul’s letters have impacted people – and will impact people to the end of time – more than he ever would have on foot! Yet, clearly being imprisoned was a very dark time for Paul.

If we look carefully to how the disciples handled themselves amidst absolute and undeniable daily persecution and suffering, they never complained or blamed anyone about their circumstances in the world!  Paul, along with the other disciples, persevered in the faith and continued to live out the Gospel of Christ no matter what the world threw at them!  They persevered in the faith DESPITE their circumstances in this world!  And, just how dark did it look to every single one of Christ’s followers as they watched Jesus be crucified?  These were dark times not even close to anything any of us will likely ever encounter!  I’ve absolutely no doubt in those days after his death and before his resurrection, the world sure looked pretty dark!  Yet, if we’re paying close attention, we notice that all of these trials and “seemingly” dark times in the world, were either part of God’s plan or instances He used to further His Kingdom greatly!  It only appeared to the non-believing or unfocused eye that “the world” had won in all these instances!  But, that was never the truth!  We can clearly see that in none of these examples (and the many, many more we have), did the world actually win!  These were huge strides in bringing God’s love and light to the world!  We already know the truth: God wins!  So, do we remember and believe this truth in our daily walk or do we falter in fear and worry at each passing storm?

We must remember that we already have everything we need to persevere in the faith – in fact, we have more than the disciples did!  We have our faith in Christ along with the gifting of the Holy Spirit which is safely encapsulated within our hearts.  Only we – ourselves – are capable of removing Christ from our hearts!  We have the written testimony of Jesus and His Disciples translated into our own language and encapsulated forever in the Bibles we openly carry around.  And, we can buy those Bibles online, in Wal-Mart, or in the corner Christian store that operates without fear in our town.  We have churches practically on every single street corner (especially here in the Bible Belt of the south!).  We can pray openly anywhere and everywhere without a hint of fear.  We can go with our families to church without fear of being imprisoned or killed on the way.  We can hold Bible studies in our home for youth without fearing religious leaders coming after us.  We can post Scripture online anytime we like without being hauled off to jail.  We are more blessed than we realize!  And, the disciples had none of this – yet 12 faithful men managed to spread the Gospel throughout much of the world like wildfire!

I am convinced that what made those first century disciples so powerful in the Spirit was both their love of God and their dedication to give up everything to serve God.  They put their faith into action. There was evidence of the Fruit of theSpirit in their lives. Every. Single. Day.  They spoke about their own testimony and witness of what Jesus had done, and they loved and served people from all walks of life and from every nation.  Maybe, just maybe, we have made things too complicated or things have become too easy that Jesus’ two greatest commandments are so easily forgotten:  to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind – and to love and serve our neighbors – and even our enemies – using our own hands and feet every day of our lives.

If the disciples can spread the Gospel like wildfire with less than we have been given and while facing far more persecution each and every day than we have ever even known; what is keeping us from being able to do even greater things than they did in this very day and age and in this very place and time?  In fact, Jesus said we would do even greater things than He did.  So, what’s keeping us from continuing to spread the Gospel like wildfire?  Maybe we should study more closely what the disciples did and how they acted and how Jesus told all of us to respond in persecution and trials.  Though flawed, they are clearly our examples of faithful and Spirit-wielding servants.  And, Jesus, gave us the perfect example of how we are to act in this world when the Spirit is guiding us.  What does he say we should do when we are persecuted or when we face trials of any kind?  How does Jesus teach us to treat our neighbors – and even those we consider our enemies?  How did the disciples treat their neighbors?  How did they respond to the Jewish leaders or the government of their day?  How did they act and what words did they utter whenever they were persecuted?  What did they do?  How did they act?  These are men who were walking with the Spirit and the Spirit clearly guided their actions.  These are our models.  Just as the disciples were laser-focused, we must look closely at how Jesus – and the disciples handled themselves and how they lived in the spirit?  Do you see any Fruit of the Spirit evident in the disciples’ lives?  Do non-believers see that same Fruit of the Spirit when they look at you and me?

As Christians, our faith, focus, and guidance are always, ALWAYS found in Christ and in no one and nothing else!  We know what we are to do:  love God above ALL else, fill our hearts and minds with all the things of God and His Word, love and serve our neighbors as well as our enemies with the radical love of God, and go to God in prayer with our anger, frustrations, fear and hurt, and also share our joys with Him.  We are even called to pray for those who persecute us – to love them, to pray for them, and to do good to them.  We are even told to consider it “all joy” when we are persecuted!  We are not to be like the world!  We are to look radically different!  But, do we?  Will God find our thoughts, words, and deeds to replicate what He taught us and the disciples taught us?  Will He find us to be sheep or goats?  Remember, we will each stand alone before Christ and give an account for our lives on Judgment Day.  Let the Fruit of His Spirit penetrate our thoughts, words, and deeds here on earth – every day – help to ensure we actually do receive the response, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”