What is so important to you that you would
give up your life to protect the ideal of your belief?
Watch our Truth in Two to ponder the question for yourself (2 min vid + text).
#4 in our Summer 2024 series, “With What Will You Replace It When It’s Gone?”
Dr. Mark Eckel is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration at Liberty University. Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website) and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video).
Pictures: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
A new friend told me his story about getting out of the old Soviet Union when he was a young man. When he heard about the United States and the freedoms afforded to people here, he said to me, “If I was allowed into America, I would have gladly dug and hole, covering myself with dirt, just to be free.” My friend’s Christian conversion took him a step further from American freedom to freedom in Christ. And then he said something I will not soon forget, “Choose something to die for, then live for it.”
The idea of “choose something to die for” reminds me of warriors in our American military. But from a distinctive Christian perspective, I am reminded of Paul’s words in Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Knowing what he was willing to die for, made what Paul was living for, very clear. My concern for the future of our country, our institutions, our families, and churches is this: do you know why you would die for something? What is so important to you that you would give up your life to protect the ideal of your belief?
How we live in this life, giving ourselves to a mission beyond ourselves, has lasting consequences. “What are we willing to sacrifice?” is a question everyone must ask. The endurance of any nation or institution depends on what we are willing to give up, including our very lives. Jesus’ words in John 12 tell it all, “A grain of wheat must fall to the earth and die, then it bears much fruit.” Jesus goes on to say that giving up one’s life for His cause is the basis for our eternal life. My friend is right: find something to die for, then live for it.” Continuing our summer series, for the Comenius Institute, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration at Liberty University, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.