In college I participated in a campaign called "I agree with Sam." It started at the beginning of the week and on Monday and Tuesday about 200 people in our ministry walked around with bright blue shirts on that said "I agree with Sam." If people asked us about it, we told them who Sam was and why we agreed with him.
On Wednesday an article came out in the newspaper that explained line by line what Sam believed. Sam believed in Jesus Christ and in what the Bible said.
Can I just be honest and tell you I wasn't thrilled to wear my "I agree with Sam" shirt for the rest of the week?
Ridiculous I know, but people were irate. People started Facebook hate groups about it. My religion class discussed the campaign the rest of the week. A couple students on campus even started their own group and made their own shirts that said "I agree with Leslie" (I can't remember the exact name). Leslie turned out to be a Lesbian who loved everyone and was tolerant of all religions unlike Christianity.
The height of my persecution- getting yelled at by a passing car.
I know, that last statement may seem ridiculous... most people wouldn't even call that persecution, but honestly being apart of that campaign was a pretty life changing experience for me. Being the people pleaser that I am, I really struggled with being called judgmental, intolerant, unloving and being labeled in many other ways by wearing my blue "I agree with Sam" shirt.
Recently I've been reading a lot about persecution. Not about current persecution, but about persecution back in the 200's. Did you know that people were RUNNING in line to be killed and tortured? It was considered a privilege to suffer and die for your Christian faith. An apologist from the 200's, Tertullian, said the famous line
"The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church."
Lina in our Bible study brought up a great quote by John Macarthur regarding persecution in our current time. Persecution is much more subtle, it attacks our egos and pride.
"Today, Satan usually directs persecution not to a person's physical body, but to his ego. He focuses on pride, the desire for acceptance, or the desire for status. That's very effective. Satan doesn't often threaten a Christian by saying, "If you witness, I'll cut your head off." He threatens a believer by saying, "If you witness, you might lose your job, your status--or someone might think you are strange." The techniques Satan uses today have a tremendous effect in a subtle way. He has found that it is very effective to kill the church by making it complacent, indolent, fat, rich, and socially oriented. The church has watered down its theology to accommodate the world. That is a more successful form of persecution than having all Christians boiled in oil!"
I couldn't write down this information fast enough. Not only do I believe this is true today, it is 100% true in my life. I don't want people to judge me. I don't want people to think less of me because of what I believe. I want liking Jesus to be cool. I don't want to have to tell people that I believe in heaven and hell and that Jesus is the way to heaven. I don't want to make people mad.
But, I also don't want to live this wishy washy life where I stand for nothing. Where I'm constantly worried about what people will think of me. I don't want to hold back from telling people about the Gospel that radically changes lives. Jesus' life is real. His resurrection is real. And His power in our lives is real. Knowing Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me and the best thing that has ever happened to anyone I know. But in this day and age- where truth is lost, tolerance is honored, and "do what you feel is right for you," is told to everyone, Christianity gets shunned.
My days living on a college campus are long gone and it would not be appropriate in my office to wear a bright blue T shirt that says "I agree with Sam." But I often think about that campaign and how quickly I became ashamed of that T Shirt because of the opinion of others. How I am praying that the persecution of the 21st century wouldn't make me an ineffective minister of the Gospel.
