Total Honesty

[Heavnlyfragrance]

the time will come when lots of Christians will loose their heads for obeying & trusting Christ, while a lot will curse God to live.

When that time comes you need to know who's side your on. You either need to be on God's side or the enemy's side you can't be luke warm.

I know I will be on God's side. I may be scared for a moment, but I know that God would be right there with me and that His peace passess all understanding, and He will be carrying me through the hardship like He has so many times before.

[mrcorey]

My husband is already in Heaven, and the LORD Jesus is there, so knowing those things would make it easier for me to choose the sword. A moment's pain and then Home for good.

Still, it's easy to say that now when no one is standing over me with a sword. I pray I would endure to the end.

Dear sheya joie;

I am sorry about your husband.

Your post reminds me of 2Co 4:17 "For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; "

in Him;

corey

[peaches]

i used to worry a whole lot about this. and i remember a couple of years ago someone (could have been me, dont remember) asked this on the boards and there were some really interesting answers....

i often talk about not getting married/having kids for many many reasons that are mostly based on fear. a scenario like the one described by yod is one of them. i wouldnt wanna see my own child going through that and i most definitely wouldnt want to witness that child choosing his life.

the late gary (miss him lots! does anyone know how pat, his wife, is doing?) gave a response that almost completely changed my way of thinking. He said something about having faith that God will take care of the kids and that, as long as i do my job as a parent..... teaching them the way of the Lord, then the rest would be left to Him. after all, that IS what He does isnt it? gary also gave an awesome verse that just puts everything together....

Luke 12:4"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies[a? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

8"I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. 9But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. 10And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

11"When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."

completely comforting isnt it?

[peaceafire]

I beieve I would accept my fate , however I would be praying QUICK LORD QUICK!

[David from New Bern]

In the flesh alone I believe it would be nearly impossible to hold up under such conflict. However, the Holy Spirit carrying out the will of the Father in our lives could grant us peace that passseth all understanding and spiritual eyesight to see only the assignment and the glory it would bring the Lord. A good example would be the Peter of the gospel narrative denying Jesus, and then the Peter writing the epistles and preparing his fellow believers to standup well under intense persecution. The same Peter crucified upside down and testifying to the grave the things he couldn't spit out at the crucifixon.

[darkest_red]

I'm not just saying this without thinking about it because i have many times. My answer is yes, I know the truth and the other option is to live for a few Minute or weeks or months then then i die later and go to hell. So, no i would be beheaded and probably sing praises all the way to the guillotine

Dear Trinity;

I love your response. Thank you so much. I believe you when you say you would sing on your way to the guillotine. I believe it was King Henry {not sure which one} had several of his wives beheaded. And that is exactly what one of his wives did, she sang on her way to the gallows.

Do you think you'd be scared? Or do you think you would be at peace? If I started signing, they'd shoot me before they got me to the gallows!!!! ROTFLOL

in Him;

corey

For future reference, it was King Henry VIII.

I pray that I would have the strength to go through with it. As someone said, we all have to die at some point.

[sheya joie]

My husband is already in Heaven, and the LORD Jesus is there, so knowing those things would make it easier for me to choose the sword. A moment's pain and then Home for good.

Still, it's easy to say that now when no one is standing over me with a sword. I pray I would endure to the end.

Dear sheya joie;

I am sorry about your husband.

Your post reminds me of 2Co 4:17 "For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; "

in Him;

corey

ty. That is one of my favorite verses.

He passed away 4 years ago, and was praising the Father in his sleep a couple of hours before he died.

[buckthesystem]

I think I can say in all truth (well as far as I know it anyway) that I am personally 100% convinced that it would be better to succumb to the sword than to "give in to blackmail" and live a, perhaps, short time but know all the time that I have hurt Christ just so that I can live a little longer and live under a really horrible regime. I would be constantly thinking "is it all worth it?" and reminding myself that I have betrayed Jesus for, what? And as a result I would probably end up by killing myself.

But, having said that, I hope it would be a guillotine and not a swordsman. I would be more scared that the executioner would not be a good marksman and miss his aim and just hack my neck to pieces and cause a lot of pain and a very slow death, than I would of dying itself. If death was instantaneous, well I would far rather have it than a life under the control of the anti-Christ with nothing to look forward to but death and then an eternity without God.

I think it far more likely that it will never be as "clean cut" as that (excuse the pun) but as no governments want martyrs (this saying is common among governments), a person insisting on their belief in the risen saviour would be slowly bankrupted first, humiliated and tortured and members of their family threatened. It is easy to choose death for yourself, but quite another matter to see your child and your brother/mother/father/sister/grandparent/spouse being tortured and be told "you are forcing us to do this to your child or (other) relative", especially if you know that that relative actually thinks that by "not cooperating" you are causing them to be tortured and perhaps killed.

So, again, I think - in these circumstances - it would be incredibly wrong to just "go like lambs to the slaughter". We should fight with every fibre of our being, even if we know that the outcome is predetermined. We should never just succumb to blackmail, but fight it with everything we have. Why should we make this easy on satan?

This reminds me of a particularly pertinent passage from Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf". Now I must apologise in advance to those who might think it is inappropriate to quote Adolf Hitler, because I realise that the old adage is that "once you bring in this sort of thing, the thread soon dies" and I am really sorry if I offend anyone. I really don't intend to, honest! I just think this is really pertinent here.

"When an opponent declares 'I will not come over to your side' I calmly say 'your child belongs to us already..... What are you? You will pass on, your descendents, however, will stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community'".

I am more frightened of that then of dying because I believe that Jesus is the saviour. What really scares me is the fact that any Christians may be ridiculed for believing as we do, our families made to, or persuaded to, join in that ridicule, and thus, us be deprived of "dying a noble death". We will be seen to be "throwing our lives away" by the "powers that be" and also "throwing away the lives of our family members and friends, for selfish reasons" if we do not bow down and worship a false god.

We can feel all self righteous in the fact that we believe we are dying for our belief in the Christ saviour, but the mocking and ridicule of those (who might be our own family or friends) who just think we are being selfish and shortsighted, will be very hard to take.

I pray that if/when the time comes I can face it with resolve.

[kittylover0991]

Total Honesty.. I really had to think about this one... Ok, I'll say it...

I don't think I could do it... Well, if it meant cursing God's name to get out of it, I would go through with the death... but otherwise?... I dont' think I could do it.... I am embarrassed to say such a thing, but it is the truth.... I need to grow in the Lord a lot more.. and learn to trust him more.. and to love him so much more...

The Lord has given me a strong desire to serve him... but when trouble/fear comes... I oftentimes fall.... The Lord is continually pruning and molding me to be like him... Maybe some day.. but not today...

*sigh* "If your desire's are God's desires, then God will give you the desires of your heart"

[RustyAngeL]

Suppose your hands are cuffed and behind your back. You are on your knees. Your head is on the butcher block. There's a 250 lb man, all muscle, weilding a sharp double edged sword, standing there ready to behead you. Can you be 100% certain you would take that fate , or do you curse God and live?

Be totally honest. Would you accept your fate, or would you choose life? It may be an easy question now, but the time will come when lots of Christians will loose their heads for obeying & trusting Christ, while a lot will curse God to live.

For myself, my answer is, I hope & pray I would be strong enough and to endure to the bitter end. But I'm not 100% certain I could choose the sword.

I do know for sure, I would be scared and shaking. And I think if I close my eyes I could do it. And it goes without saying that I would probably wet my pants. And it's highly possible that I would faint.

What say you?

in Him;

corey

Hi Corey.

That is a brilliant question. I would have to go with, going with the flow on this one.

If god had brought me to a point where he/she was about to remove the nattering one, I would see this as a true blessing.

In no way do I depreciate my head, but if it meant I could go through to the next life by giving it up, then that would be a small price to pay, after all we have to die at least once before we enter the kingdom of heaven, don't we?

Spirited_one

In god

he or she??? you think God is a she? The bible is clear. Jesus said " if you have seen Me you have seen the Father. " Jesus was a male. God in the flesh. Please in the future..give God the respect He deserves. Alao in answer to your question, I guess that is was faith and trust is all about. We know that Jesus proimsed to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord. So I would trust I would choose life with Him.