Back in the 150 AD --
more than eighteen centuries ago -- faithful
Christians faced murderous rage and deadly persecution for
their faith. For example, in Smyrna (in today's Turkey)
followers of Jesus were burned alive "on the stake" or fed
to wild beasts in the public arena.
Among of the victims
of that ancient holocaust was the faithful old Bishop
Polycarp.
When I first heard about Polycarp many years ago, his joy and heavenly focus motivated me to give my life
totally to
God. Like this brave saint, I wanted to be ready to face even torture and death for
the sake of my wonderful Lord.
I don't recall the exact words I heard -- nor can I verify this account, but here is the
short version of story as I remembered it when I wrote it
down about forty years ago:
Back in the
second century, Roman authorities told the Christian bishop Polycarp
to stop persuading people to turn from paganism and put their
trust in Jesus Christ. He refused.
"Then we'll take all your possessions," they told
him.
"Go ahead," he said. "My God has promised to
supply all I need according to His riches in glory. He will take
care of me." (Philippians 4:17-19)
"If you don't stop preaching, we'll take your wife and
children and kill them," they threatened.
"You can't take them away from me," he answered,
"for they belong to God. I will spend all eternity in heaven
with them." And he continued teaching about the love of
God.
They came back with a final warning: "Then we'll kill
you."
"That would be best of all," answered Polycarp,
for I would go immediately into the presence of my Lord. Nothing
could be more wonderful."
There is far more to this story,
and you can read a longer version here:
The Martyrdom of Polycarp. The
story ends with the faithful Bishop's victorious
death:
When they would have fastened him to the stake, he said,
"Leave me as I am; for He who giveth me strength to sustain the fire, will enable me also, without your securing me
with nails, to remain without flinching in the [fiery] pile."
Upon which they bound him without nailing him. So he said thus:
"O Father, I bless thee that thou hast counted
me worthy to receive my portion among the martyrs."
As soon as he had uttered the word "Amen," the officers lighted the fire. The flame,
forming the appearance of an arch, as the sail of a vessel filled with wind, surrounded,
as with a wall, the body of the martyr; which was in the midst, not as burning flesh,
but as gold and silver refining in the furnace.
A final word from Oswald
Chambers:
Have we begun to walk
the practical path in grace? Do we know
anything about the practice of pain?
Watch what the Bible has
to say about suffering, and you will find the great
characteristic of the life of a child of God is the
power to suffer, and through that suffering the
natural is transformed in to the spiritual.
The thing we kick against
most is the question of pain and suffering. We have
naturally the idea that if we are happy and peaceful we
are all right.
"I
did not come to bring peace but a sword,"
said our Lord -- a striking utterance from the Prince of
Peace. Happiness is not a sign that we are right with
God; happiness is a sign of human satisfaction --
that is all! And the majority of us can be
satisfied on too low a level.
Jesus Christ
disturbs every kind of satisfaction that is less than
delight in God. Every strand
of sentimental satisfaction is an indication of how much
farther we have to go before we understand the life of
God. It is the satisfaction of a smug self-interest
which God by circumstance and pain shocks out of us as
we go in the discipline of life.
(From Reading 188,
Oswald Chambers Daily Devotional Bible,
pp. 1116-7)
Oswald Chambers was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1874. He
founded the Bible Training College in London in 1911,
During WW1, he served and encouraged European soldiers
fighting in Egypt. Two years later, he was dying of a
ruptured appendix but refused to accept any hospital bed
that might be
needed by wounded soldiers.
