Friday - "Denial"

Denial
by Valerie Baker (www.frccommunity.com)

"But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 10:33)

This evening I am reading book 5 of the Zion Covenant series, Danzig Passage, by Bodie Thoene. I am about halfway through the book and I was reminded again about how if we deny our Lord before others, he will deny us before His father.

In the book a pastor, Karl Ibsen, is in a German prison. He is not a Jew but he has Jewish brothers whom he tried to help escape the terror of Hitler's Reich. He is confronted by another pastor who has sold his soul to the devil. The evil pastor is trying to convince Karl to deny his doings to save himself. This is the second attempt. The first being from the commantant of the "Nameless" prison.

Pastor Ibsen quotes Matthew 27 after he is confronted with the argument that is was the Jews who killed Christ. He rebuts with the fact that it was Roman soldiers who mocked Christ. He also references Isaiah 53 where it speaks of the Messiah being offered for the sins of mankind.


Isaiah 53:4-6
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.

It makes me think about how all through history, evil tries to prevail. Many "Christians" deny the Lord because being a Christian isn't popular. Many people don't do what is right because they are afraid of how their friends and the world might see them. The question we should all ask ourselves in every situation we face is "How does God see me?" Evil will always try to prevail. Evil will always try to tear you down when you believe. For Pastor Karl Ibsen, he did not deny his Lord the first time. Nor did he deny Him the second time. I'm sure there are many more times to come in the book. I don't think Pastor Ibsen will ever deny the Lord. He may stay in the prison and die in there, but he will be rewarded greatly in the kingdom of heaven. He is one of the few.

I aspire to be like the pastor in the book. I know some day I will be faced will the choice to deny my Lord in front of others or to stand for Him. I choose to stand. I pray when the time comes I will be prepared to stand and that I will stand. I know my reward in heaven is far greater than any reward on earth. I know the suffering and rejection I might get on earth is worth the rejoicing and dancing that I will enjoy in heaven.