I’m reminded of the story of Nate Saint.  Going into a potentially dangerous position to share the Gospel with people known to kill outsiders, his son brings him a box as he is leaving their camp.  The box contained a gun.  Nate smiled and in a tender moment rejected his son’s implied request.  He lets his son down gently saying that he couldn’t possibly use the gun because they (the people he was about to go and offer the gospel too) didn’t know Jesus.  You see the people that Jim was about to evangelize to, they had killed nearly everyone that had approached them before.  Both Nate and his son were well aware of that.  The implied request of his son was, will you protect yourself?  Nate however knew that he couldn’t see them die without Christ and he most definitely wouldn’t carry the instrument of their death.  In his silent rejection he told his son that their salvation was more important than his life.

I have always been amazed by that story,  because you see Nate died that day trying to share the Gospel to those people.  Years later his son would return and the whole of those people would be saved.  Nate’s son would become friends with the very man that had killed his father.  But more importantly he became brothers in Christ with that man.  Forgiveness reigned supreme in this event. 

First the forgiveness of Nate, knowing his forgiven nature in Christ and understanding the condemnation that these people were under without that same forgiveness. 

Secondly, the forgiveness of his son.  Nate knew that his son would be taken care of by Christ.  Nate also knew that if he died Christ would help his son understand.  And boy did He help him.  He used Nate’s son along with others to see those people through to salvation.  Which leads us to the third point of forgiveness.  Which is

Nate’s son’s forgiveness of a killer.  Nate’s son went forth in Christ forgiveness to forgive and befriend that man.

Do you have that in you?   Let me tell you now.  You don’t have it without Christ’s intervention.  As Christians we are blessed with the knowledge of what forgiveness in its fullness really is…

Restoration… Redemption… Salvation…

Psalms 63:3 CSB
[3] My lips will glorify you because your faithful love is better than life.

Romans 8:28 CSB
[28] We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

Nate knew this and lived it,  his son learned it, lived it, and loved it, as well as a group of killers who also learned it and loved it.

I was reading Daniel 3 this week.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego allow themselves to be cast into the fire. 

Why?

Obedience?

Yes but not only obedience.  Confidence in the love, power, Majesty and forgiveness of God.  

Daniel 3:17 CSB
[17] If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king.

They were delivered from the fire.  And as a result everyone saw.  Please read Daniel 3.  Sometimes your trust is for their forgiveness.

We have to be willing to go through the fire for Christ.  We are called to be ready to die.

Revelation 6:9-11 CSB
[9] When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the word of God and the testimony they had given. [10] They cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, the one who is holy and true, how long until you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?” [11] So they were each given a white robe, and they were told to rest a little while longer until the number would be completed of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters, who were going to be killed just as they had been.

Look in verse 11.  Wait a little while longer until the number would be completed.  God has a number of those who are to die for the word and testimony.

I’ve given Christ my life.  I am willing to do what He calls me to do that everyone may be forgiven.

Are you?  Are you among the number?

Love in Christ

Colby