Resist Not

“I will not fight, I am a Christian”. We live in a world geared towards personal gain and satisfaction, building a nice life for yourself is the American Dream, and everyone can have it. Jesus says that where your treasure is there will your heart be also.  The question that must be addressed is this, when our great possessions, or our nice lives are threatened, will we defend them? Will we resist?

The Bible is very clear on this, Jesus himself could have called legions of angles to defend Him in the garden. Jesus could have easily resisted the evil that night, it would have saved His life, however He did not, He opened not his mouth and was slain by evil men. However it seams that followers of Jesus today do not see it the same, Christians today are not as quick to allow someone to take all that they have, including their life. Why is that? Could it be our mind set? I believe if we are truly living a separate life, separate from this worlds system, separate from this worlds standards and politics, we will have little trouble to resist not evil. However I feel the opposite is also true. If we are involved in this world’s system, if we are involved in the politics and basking in the freedoms of our land, it will be very difficult to resist not. 

Jesus said that if His people were of this world, then would they fight. It’s that simple, and it’s true. If you are of this world, you will fight. If you are of a different kingdom, you will not fight. 

When I was training in Marine boot camp I was quickly taught there order of priorities, God, Country, Corps. I found it interesting that God was put first. We then marched in cadence to the chant “what makes the grass grow? Blood, Blood!” This country has always said that God was first, however by our actions we can clearly see that God was not first. Our freedoms are first, and if those freedoms are threatened, everything about God is forgotten and we turn to our highly trained military to defend those freedoms. This is how the world was ordained to operate, but what about the Kingdom of God? Are we as Christians also all about our rights? The truth is, if we lift high our rights, then we also will fight for them! 

When I was training in Marine boot camp I was quickly taught there order of priorities, God, Country, Corps. I found it interesting that God was put first. We then marched in cadence to the chant “what makes the grass grow? Blood, Blood!” This country has always said that God was first, however by our actions we can clearly see that God was not first. Our freedoms are first, and if those freedoms are threatened, everything about God is forgotten and we turn to our highly trained military to defend those freedoms. This is how the world was ordained to operate, but what about the Kingdom of God? Are we as Christians also all about our rights? The truth is, if we lift high our rights, then we also will fight for them! 

Revenge is seen everywhere we turn, “Our country will not run!” Is still seen posted on signs throughout our land, as we reel from an attack that happened over 20 years ago.  Billboards scream revenge as the lawyers of our land demand people defend their rights and freedoms, accidents are countered with life changing lawsuits.

A stand your ground law is sweeping the nation, giving civilians the right to shoot anyone that seems to be threatening you. Concealed carry permits are up some 500% as men and women right around us prepare for someone to infringe on there ‘God given rights’.

Jesus teaches us to lay down our lives, and then He showed us how to do it.

When talking about non-resistance, people always ask the same question, “ So, if someone breaks into your house to harm your family, you wouldn’t do anything?” More and more Christians are stumped by this question. The answer is very simple, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, resisting is far from the answer.

I stopped by my neighbors to chat, he is into politics, so naturally he lives in fear. He asked me if I had any guns, because I was gonna need them. After asking him why, he told me that it wouldn’t be long before city folks started coming around raiding our farms. I then asked him what he would do with a gun? In shock at the foolish question he told me that he would start shooting people. I told him that I would do what Jesus told us to do in those situations, he said good luck! I then asked him what sounded better, people come to his house with the intention of raiding it, he gets his gun and starts shooting at them, they quickly begin to return fire. Or, people come to my house with the intentions of raiding it, I quickly tell my wife to get some breakfast going, we begin to bless the persecutors, helping them load stuff up, getting them water and so forth. My neighbor grumbled a bit then admitted it would probably end better for me. Of course my neighbor is not a Christian.

How about you? How would you react?

This scenario has been played out many times by Christians of old, will it be played out again by the Christians of today? Or will we resist?

I noticed a man out walking his dog, he had a pistol holstered on his hip. I stopped and asked him why he had the pistol. “For self defense!” He replied. I told him that Jesus said if you live by the sword you will die by the sword, he agreed however it didn’t seem to apply to him. I asked him what he thought would happen if someone approached him with the intentions of robbing him and then noticed his pistol. His eyes got big and he said, “he would shoot me!” I told him of an account in Haiti when gangs where robbing everyone they saw, an acquaintance of mine always carried a gun with him, an armed man snuck up to him and demanded that he hand over the gun, he said he would not. He was shot in the head and the gun was taken.  

As our freedoms and lively hood is under attack in America, more and more Christians are abandoning there faith in the Creator and putting their faith in them selves, buying guns, this makes no sense to me. Have we lost faith completely? Do we now think we are stronger and wiser that God? When a Christian says he will not resist but instead he will pray, he will bless, this man is laughed to scorn, by the church no less! I was recently called a coward by an ordained man because I said I would not fight off an intruder. Is God not bigger!!

I must be frank, our young sisters are carrying pepper spray and our young men are carrying pistols! It’s only because we have lost the faith! We no longer smile and take the low road, the one much less travelled. We love our lives to the point that we will not lay them down, we love our freedoms and our country to the point of bearing arms! We must wake up! We can join a program to keep us out of the war, however I’d be more worried about what will keep me out of the kingdom of God dear people!

This world will fall, the systems of the world will fail, it always has. There is no hope.

I was preaching at a seminar when I was notified that a Haitian pastor that also was going to be speaking was not going to be able to make it, he asked if I would take his sessions, he told me he would send me his out lines. I agreed. The first topic was called  ‘Hope for Haiti’. The outline listed all these practical ways of restoring Haiti to a economically stable Christian country. I had to scrap the outline and I started the session by stating “There’s no hope for Haiti”. I would like to make the same statement here about America, “There’s no hope for America”. There is only hope for the redeemed soul! There is only hope for the one that abandons this world, the things of this world, their freedoms and ye their own life also, and joins the Kingdom of God!

Let us dare not forget that we as Christians are merely passing through, we are only strangers here, heaven is our home!

We get ourselves entangled with the cares of this world, we enjoy our lives here to the fullest, we love our lives, and you better believe we will resist when someone or something threatens it!

Is it pride to say we will not resist? No, it is confidence in our God!

I was traveling with a few missionaries when a gang emerged and overtook our vehicle, they pulled me out of the drivers seat demanding our guns, they didn’t believe us when we stated that we didn’t have any. They fired many shots over our heads as they search us and our vehicle. After they took anything of value they left. The leader somehow got my phone number and called me a few weeks later. He said he knew where I lived and was coming back for more. I told him that was fine, I would be waiting for him, he could have whatever he needed. He got frustrated and asked me where I went to church, I then told him about the life changing power of Jesus Christ. I shared with him my testimony. He got excited and demanded we meet to talk more about this Jesus. Unfortunately, our plans were changed.

When people see us ‘resist not’ it is so unusual it demands answers!

A local gang threatened to kill us all and burn our house to the ground if we didn’t give him a large amount of money. I do not fear these things but rather anticipate them, I know God is about to work! After telling him that if God allowed him to kill us all, that would be fine with us, we will not resist you. He had never run into something like that before, his whole live he took advantage of people using his guns and force, now he met his match, a follower of Jesus Christ. He told me to tell Jesus to come down, he would cut off his head, I cringed at the remark and warned him of the danger of a comment like that. A long story short, he was dead within 24 hours. Oh, that we would wake up to the reality of God!!

During the kidnapping a Haitian pastor asked me why the US military doesn’t come and kill those wicked men and free the missionaries. Let’s be honest, how many others were thinking the same thing? Shame on us! I told that pastor that would be a terrible ending to a great opportunity to show the power of God! I told him that I had been talking with the gang leaders and praying for them. I told him the gang leader ever told me that he loved me, that these evil men only need Jesus! 

He started to cry and gave me a big hug, he then told me he would be praying for me, because he would never be able to do that. 

We must realize that Jesus Christ is the only difference between us and them! Jesus Christ is the only difference between us and any evil man, American, Russian, Haitian, Chinese, your wicked neighbor, the local drug dealer or your worst enemy! How dare we put ourselves above them because of our culture or financial standing!

“Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord.” We as Christians are a separated people, the church has always been separate from the state. We do things differently and that is what separates us. The early Christians realized they could not be faithful to God, and civilized governments. So they refused to be involved with the government and its doings, they payed dearly for it. They knew that they could not both love their enemies and also kill them. Today our country is trying to do away with the separation between church and state, why? Because conservative Americans what the kingdom of the world to try to live by principles of the kingdom of God. This is impossible, the country of America, as great as it may be, will never be able to live for God. It will live for itself, protect itself, and live like unregenerate men live. Will we accept this separation? 

Gods ways are bigger than are ways! God is in control! We must simply trust in Him, leaning not on our own understanding. There will be wars and rumors of wars. 

We need not to defend ourselves when we have the King of Kings on our side!

Let me present two accounts that highlight the difference between the two kingdoms ways of resisting evil. 

I was walking home one day on our small dirt trail when I saw a man quickly approaching, at first I didn’t thing much of him, that changes rather quickly. I had never seen him before and the determination on his face was alarming. It all came together when I saw the pistol gripped in his right hand. A hitman was all I thought of, several people had threatened to kill me in the preceding weeks. As he approached me and aimed the gun what do you think when through my mind? One may assume my military training. I was trained how to disarm, take down and kill a man in 17 seconds, with my bare hands. Did I think of that? No, not once. I won’t forget the sense of peace I had, I will assure you that I thought my life on this earth was finished, however the presence of God was overpowering! I smiled at the man and asked him if he was going to shoot me. He got frustrated, dropped the gun and quickly walked away. Oh how I praised the Lord! I’m not sure what happened to that man, I never saw him again, however I trust he didn’t forget that encounter quickly. 

A local gang leader was terrorizing the community, he would target business owners demanding that they pay him a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time, or he would kill them. Because most of these people could not pay the large amount, they would succumb to the later and be found dead. 

My time came. He told me I had two weeks to pay him $5,000. We turned the situation over to God, after the two weeks was over I received a call from a neighbor, he told me the man was waiting outside my gate. I told the neighbor to let him wait, we were not home at the time. Unfortunately, my neighbor then called the authorities, a truck load of police charged onto the seen and the gangster was shot dead! I told my family, oh that I would have been home to talk to him! Forever in Hell! 

Dear friends, if we truly lay down our lives as Jesus teaches, we then will easily be able to resist not evil! Then this world once again can witness the power that is so much greater than the powers here on this earth, the power of the living God!