Grace and peace, Saints.

Yesterday, I was helping my son with his homework, when he suddenly became despondent and sullen.  I asked him what happened to his cheery attitude and, after considerable effort trying to find the words to describe what he was feeling and failing horribly, he finally told me that he didn’t know how long he could go on being nice to his classmates when they keep treating him so badly.

Saints if you didn’t know it by now, we are in a war.  And Satan, our great Adversary, does not practice age discrimination.  He will persecute our children just as hard—and oftentimes even harder—as he does us.  I speak from experience, as my son has been subjected to constant harassment and persecution by his Roman Catholic and Muslim classmates.  A couple of years ago, he was even assaulted in the school bathroom by three boys, and ended up getting stitches in his head.

My son is having problems not only because he is my son, which, unfortunately carries a great deal of weight, but because he witnesses to his classmates, who, are mostly, if not exclusively, Roman Catholics and Muslims. 

I have a great deal of respect for my boy.  He is only ten years old, yet he has a burden for souls.  On the first day of school this fall, he asked me if he could have some Gospel tracts to hand out to his classmates.  I did not want to discourage him from witnessing if that was his burden, but at the same time, I didn’t want to encourage him to do something that would doubtless make him enemies and ostracize him from his classmates.  I told him that if he tried to witness to his classmates, they were not going to like it one bit, and they might even get angry with him.  His answer almost brought tears to my eyes.  “I know they are not going to like it, but at least they will know the truth,” he said.  Saints, this came from a ten-year-old boy.  Ain’t God good?

So, with a joyful spirit, but a heavy heart, I gave him the tracts.  And the result was exactly as I expected.  They did not like it one bit.  Yet, my son was not discouraged.  He continued to ask me for tracts until he had given one to virtually everyone in his class.  I had to stop giving them to him because it was getting so that he was more concerned with spreading the Gospel than with making good grades. 

This has not been without consequences, of course.  Most of his classmates have ostracized him, and they reject his friendship no matter how many overtures he makes.   It hurts that I can’t do anything but encourage him.  I endure the same treatment from our neighbors and even many people on the street, and my son knows that.  But he also knows that, unlike him, I don’t have to sit in class with my tormentors for five hours a day every day of the week.

That’s why my son is one of my heroes and my best friend.  It takes a lot of courage to stand up for the Gospel of Jesus.  It takes guts to go north when everyone else is going east.  He looks up to me, but he has no idea how much I look up to him.  My son has guts—real courage.  And he already knows the meaning of sacrifice.  He already knows that to be a good Christian is going to cost you something.  He could very easily have decided not to witness to his classmates, so that he could have had an easier time in school.  But he was genuinely concerned with the eternal disposition of their souls: so much so, that the truth took priority over friendship.  Now who does that anymore?

By the way, one thing this has done for me is to really make me rethink the whole issue of homeschooling.  Many Christian parents elect to home school their children—and for good reason.  But if you think about it, if all Christian parents homeschooled their children, they would scarcely have an opportunity to witness.  I’m not saying that it’s a Christian child’s responsibility to witness, because I don’t believe that.  What I am saying is that even our children may be used of God. 

Someone once told me something that I will never forget.  She said that we Christians are the only Jesus many of the lost will ever see.  That was one of the most profound things I have ever heard, and, incidentally, it was said by someone who was raised in the church, but now serves Satan.  Notwithstanding, that was a profound statement.  

Think about it.  Many of the lost will never step foot in a church and don’t make it a point to hang around Christians.  Their only exposure to Christianity, then, may only be that Christian classmate of theirs.  If my son had not given his classmates those Gospel tracts, without God’s intervention, they could very well have passed the rest of their lives never hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  But, as God would have it, they heard the truth. 

That is why I believe and know for certain that everyone who comes before the Lord Jesus at the Judgment will have heard the Gospel.  They will be, as Scripture says, “without excuse.”

I have quoted many Scriptures to comfort my son in those moments of loneliness or sadness after being harassed by his classmates.  But the thing that I say to him most often is that if the Lord Jesus—God Almighty—had enemies, it is no wonder that we too, shall have them: for “the servant is not greater than his Master.”  As Jesus said in John 15:18, if the world hates us, we should know that it hated Him first.

So if you or your children are being persecuted for your Christian witness, don’t be discouraged.  Be encouraged.  You’re in good company.

“Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.

“Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for behold, your reward is great in Heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets” (Luke 6:22-23).

Amen.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man