Your life on trial

What is bravery to you?  Is it leaping from a plane?  Running into a building to save a small child?  Perhaps it is something not quite as dramatic, like standing up for someone who is being bullied, or participating in a protest against something that you know is wrong.  Everyone, it seems, has different definitions of what defines bravery, different thoughts on what constitutes a brave act.

Most people, however, would not consider committing an act that sends someone to prison a very brave thing to do.  For many, it seems that the word "prison" causes an instinctive, knee-jerk reaction.  Like Pavlov's dogs, we have been conditioned to assume that any ex-convict is a bad person, who has done something horrible, or at least unsavory or immoral. 

But numerous times in the Bible, people were sent to jail for no other crime than preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ.  And even prison did nothing to slow them down.  They preached before their arrest, during their imprisonment, and after their release.  Being confined in a small, dank, windowless cell was nothing compared to the unimaginable horror of keeping this precious gift of Jesus to themselves.  They burned with a single, obsessive objective - to share the Gospel with as many people as God put in their paths.  When that is your life's ambition, it little matters where you live - a prison cell is simple another sphere of influence for you to illuminate with God's light.

That got me thinking...what kind of offender would I make?  If I were charged with spreading God's word, would there be enough evidence to convict me?  Every single one of us will one day be on trial.  Our thoughts, our actions, our passions, our ambitions - our lives will be judged by how passionately we loved our Lord and followed His commandements.  Take an honest look at your life.  If you were to be judged right now, what do you think the verdict would be?

Acts 25:13-21

¹³ A few days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus. ¹⁴ Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul’s case with the king. He said: “There is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner. ¹⁵ When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and asked that he be condemned.

 ¹⁶ “I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over anyone before they have faced their accusers and have had an opportunity to defend themselves against the charges. ¹⁷ When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in. ¹⁸When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. ¹⁹ Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. ²⁰ I was at a loss how to investigate such matters; so I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges. ²¹ But when Paul made his appeal to be held over for the Emperor’s decision, I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar.”