How Invested Am I?

Brothers,

We are 81 days from Canton and the greatest temptation is to let days slip by blissfully unaware of the life and death battle of eternal proportions being waged all around us. I was convicted this morning as I listened to the testimony of a stewardess involved in the 1980 hijacking of a German airliner.

A stewardess testified that as the hijacked Boeing 727 was running dangerously low on fuel, the pilot requested clearance to land at Aden's airport. The request was denied and to make their point, airport officials blocked the runway with heavy construction equipment. With too little fuel left for an alternate landing site, the terrorist in the cockpit insisted that the pilot land the plane on the blocked runway. The stewardess tearfully begged the terrorist to reconsider since certain death would result. She quotes, "If we die, don't you realize that you will die with us?" The terrorist reportedly laughed and replied, "I am already dead...I died the day I joined the P.L.O." The plane landed safely in the rough beside the blocked runway and eventually the situation was resolved when German soldiers rushed the plane and killed 3 of the 4 hijackers, wounding the 4th.

As I heard this testimony, I immediately thought of Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave his life for me."

How invested am I? How does my commitment compare to that of a Palestinian hijacker? Brothers, if we lose sight of this truth we are nothing more than the comfortable, lukewarm Christian from Rev. 3:16. This world and it's cold dead churches will happily tolerate and even embrace a lukewarm Christian. It is the passionate, hungry and crucified Christian that will be despised and rejected. Am I committed enough to accept that?

Are you a walking dead man today? The world can do nothing with a man who is already dead. He is untouchable! Let's meditate on Galatians 2:20 and, in the days to come, remember that when the flesh tempts you to give in or you will die...laugh and remind your flesh, "I'm already dead, I died the day I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour."

Don't fail now men...now is the time to recommit ourselves to earnest prayer, fasting, and ruthlessly dealing with every area of the flesh that pulls us away from Him. Let's continue to hold each other up in prayer and pray for the upcoming meeting in Canton. Bill, can you arrange another PCC (prayer conference call)?

Your brother, Steve C.