STANDING FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE

I'll never forget the following story told to me in a Sunday morning service at Jerusalem Baptist Church in South Wales. A man was leading the service who was a part of "Big Ideas", a group the Church were working with in the area. Their plan was to hopefully teach people about God and bring more people into the Church. The topic of the talk was being an attractive person - an attractive Christian. The good story he told concerning this was of a boy in an American High School who was walking through the school canteen and felt God telling him through his heart to go over to the table where the massive, hard, American Football Players were sitting and to tell them he was a Christian; because I don't know if you've noticed but in all those American films it seems that all the different groups of interest tend to be seated separately e.g. the science buffs, cheer ladies, and the sportsters.

So the boy said to himself, "Yeah, Ok God, if that's what you want I'll do it! I may feel ashamed but if that's your will I'll do it because I trust you. Besides, I feel I need to tell people that I am a Christian because nobody actually knows." So the boy, sweating from nerves, walked over to the table where these massive boys sat. Ignoring him, they continued in their own private conversation and so the boy banged on the table to get their attention and said, "Excuse me, I just feel I need to tell you that I believe in God, I believe he loves me, and that he loves you too!" Of course, the boys just laughed and sniggered at him and one of them said, "Ok then. If you really love this God, then stand up on this table and tell everyone here that you love him." 

The boy, really nervous now, replied, cleverly he thought, "I'll only do that if God tells me he wants me to". So he turns away thinking, "Phew, got out of that one!" But then he felt God telling him to be brave and that he wanted him to do this and so he stood up on a table and banged his foot so that everyone in the whole canteen was looking at him with judging eyes. The boy shouted out "I want everyone to know that I believe in God, I believe he loves me, and that he loves you too!" He got off the table and walked toward the exit amidst all the laughter of people aimed towards him. The boy thought to himself, "Well, I've had plenty of fun in my life, plenty of friends.until now, that's it for me, people won't want to know me anymore." But then the boy heard 5 loud bangs and as he turned a girl was standing on her table and said she loved God too. Then another boy, and another, and another, and then another girl and in the end about 40 people, who nobody knew were Christians before, stood up to say that they believed in God and that he loved them all.

Thanks to the bravery of that boy to ignore those who were bound to laugh, thanks to his strong faith, with which he decided to take a risk and stand up for what he believed in, many Christians became known that day and many people who were listening that day became Christians later as they went along with their friends to church. How amazing! Someone once said faith should be spelt RISK! If you truly believe in the Lord, God Almighty, then you should believe He'll look after you, no matter what you do and no matter where you go, when carrying out his Holy work. People won't know that you are a Christian unless you tell them and take a risk.