To Lose A Life For Christ

“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” Matthew 16:25

Today is a difficult day.  Today we woke up to a changed America once again.  We have had markers in our rich history of days such as these as I know many would say.  My mom can tell you where she was when she heard President Kennedy was shot.  I can tell you where I was when the planes flew into the World Trade Center.  There are many such markers not only in our world, our country but each of our lives.  Moments in time that defined and changed us.  I woke up thinking, this has to be one of these moments.

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” James 1:12

I opened my laptop to talk about how we can be the change and realized that today is (appropriately), Patriot Day.  In 2002, a bill was passed to make today, September 11th, the official Patriot Day.  This day is a day of national prayer and remembrance for all those who lost their lives on that fateful morning.  A morning that will never be forgotten as we remember where we were and how we received the news.  A day where so many lost their lives because of some madmen and their evil plans.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

Yesterday, we lost a man of God who sought not only to change the hearts and minds of our young people in America but to give them hope of eternity as well.  Charles Kirk lived his faith.  He didn’t want to argue with people of differing opinions and in fact embraced people from all walks of life talking about their beliefs.  He then would challenge them to think on their beliefs and gave them the “other side” to think about, too.

He was young and so many of us have asked, why take him home to heaven now?  God knew when Charlie Kirk woke up yesterday morning that he would be in heaven in just a few hours time.  God knew that He would call Charlie home saying, “your work is finished on earth and you can now enter eternal rest.”  We, as humans, do not know why God brought him home at a point in his life when he seemingly was changing lives for the better but it is now up to us to carry the work forward.

Souls are crying,
Men are dying,
Won’t you lead them to the cross?
Go and find them,
Help to win them.
Win the lost at any cost.

The man who shot Charlie needs God.  The people who helped plan the 9/11 attack and their families need God.  The school shooters that have wreaked havoc in our children’s daily lives need God.  So many people need to be pointed to the cross.  Their ONLY hope is Jesus.  Our only hope is Jesus.  He is the anchor to our souls and we can’t live without Him.  Charlie Kirk knew this and lived his faith.

Do you remember the Todd Beamer?  He lived his faith and when it came time to do the right thing for his country, he diverted one of the planes on 9/11 so it would not harm people on the ground.  He was the same age as Charlie Kirk.  God took him home.  God left his testimony.  God left Charlie’s.  May we never let their testimonies be forgotten.  I pray our testimony is strengthened by these earthly tragedies and that we use this time of grieving to point others to the cross.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

This song I first heard from Filipino preachers who came to our church in Toronto and almost 40 years later it still affects me greatly.  We have a mission to fulfill and it does not involve so many of the distractions we have today.  Our mission is one – find the lost and show them Christ’s salvation.  Give them hope and give them peace today!