Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Have you ever rowed a boat upstream, against the current? It's a waste of your energy. It's like in life, going against the majority.
Possibly this very day you will be confronted with some kind of controversy that tests your loyalty to Christ. In politics or in the marketplace, it is often easy to stand alone for the right; but the most difficult place to stand for Jesus can be in His church. That's where the conflict of the ages has been fought.
Would you have entered Noah's ark when everyone was ridiculing him? When almost all of Israel made a golden calf and indulged in orgies, would you have responded alone to Moses' challenge: "Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me" (Ex. 32:24-26)? When later the same crisis erupted and they "committed harlotry with the women of Moab," would you have joined Phinehas who alone "stopped" the plague that would have wiped out Israel (Num. 25:1-8)?
Would you have joined Elijah on Mount Carmel when he was outnumbered (within the church, remember) 450 to one by the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:21, 22)? You may say, "That issue was so clear-cut, yes I would have stood with Elijah!" But remember, Baal-worship was an exceedingly clever counterfeit, and the leadership of Israel were on Baal's side, thinking Baal was their true "Lord."
Would you have joined Jeremiah when he was dumped in that deep mudhole by the government leaders of the true church of that day--the kingdom of Judah (Jer. 38:5, 6)?
Would you have dared to stand alone with the Prisoner that Friday morning when the entire Sanhedrin voted, "crucify Him"? Would you have bravely told Caiaphas, "If you crucify Him, you crucify me too!"? Only the indwelling Christ can save us from fanaticism on the one hand and cowardice on the other.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 25, 2002.
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