Have Courage To Take A Stand, With Your Faith

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(9) One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision (in Corinth): “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. (10) For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”’ (Acts 18:9-10); ‘(8) Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. (9) Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.’ (Proverbs 31:8-9)

Recently, President Donald Trump provided a blanket pardon for 23 individuals convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (or FACE) Act for non-violent, anti-abortion protesting in front of abortion clinics.  One person was a subject of a blog post I did back on 30 April 2024; Eva Edl, a Communist concentration camp survivor from the former nation of Yugoslavia who is now 89-years-old and was facing an 11-year prison sentence (essentially a death sentence given her age) for non-violently blocking access to a Michigan abortion clinic.  Her sentencing was unusually harsh for such a non-violent action, politically motivated to shut down such dissent from others who hold similar pro-life viewpoints.

There is courage to stand and speak out against sinful acts and injustice, as those who stood on the sidewalks to silently pray in front of abortion clinics, or those who write letters or make calls to their government representatives expressing displeasure over improper legislation.  Each of us have ‘lines in the sand’; they differ in distance or stance, but eventually when that line is crossed, will you stand (or sit in the case of Eva Edl) to push back, or will you simply let the line-crosser go further?  That is a question only you can answer, and is only one that the Lord can advise you on.

The Lord in both talking to Paul in Acts 18 and through King Lemuel in Proverbs 31 provides we must be courageous and bold to stand for the Truth.  We are to speak the Word of the Lord without fear but with Faith & Duty as Paul did in Corinth; we are to speak against wrongdoing on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves, like the Uighurs in western China.  It’s true they are Muslim – for now.  But if we judge them on God’s scales, remember He loves them so much He sent Jesus so that they should not perish, but gain Everlasting Life with the Father in Heaven – but they must be given the opportunity to gain Faith and believe in Christ.  The Great Commission cannot reach them if persecuted and slaughtered by the Chinese government.

Does speaking out work?  Statistics show abortion rates in the US consistently dropped from 2000 to 2018, in part due to the efforts by Christians speaking against abortion and providing support for those women who became pregnant by giving them options other than feticide, as Pregnancy Solutions does in southwest Florida.  (Ironically, the overturn of Roe v Wade by the US Supreme Court, with abortion now determined in each individual state, has caused an uptick in the number of abortions nationwide.)  The Polish people spoke up against the Communist regime in their country in the 1980s and by the end of the decade helped bring down not only the Communist Party government in Poland, but the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain over all of Eastern Europe. 

We cannot placate sin; Neville Chamberlain declared ‘peace in our time’ acquiescing to Nazi Germany over part of Czechoslovakia in 1938.  Giving in to Hitler only emboldened Hitler into taking over the rest of Czechoslovakia and then in September 1939 started in European theatre of World War II when he invaded Poland, and later France and the Balkan states.  How can we prevent sin from taking a mile is easy; don’t start by giving evil an inch!