Illustrations about taking a stand
Practicing Courage
Courage. Some have it, and some don’t. Are courageous people simply born with more of it than others? Is courage part of an individual’s personality…or can anyone develop courage with…
Illustrations about taking a stand
Courage. Some have it, and some don’t. Are courageous people simply born with more of it than others? Is courage part of an individual’s personality…or can anyone develop courage with…
Once upon a time, a bishop got in the face of an emperor. One had immeasurable power behind him. The other had nothing but righteous indignation on his side.
The outcome of the standoff surprised everyone who heard the story.
“Hurt. Devastated. Crushed.” Those aren’t the typical emotions most newlyweds would use to describe their wedding day. But that’s exactly how Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson feel when they look back on their big day.
Sadly, it was a group of “Christians” who were responsible for their pain.
When you notice injustice, racism, violence, or some other form of evil, what do you do? Do you take strong action against it? Do you denounce it? Do you at least pray against it?
At all costs, you should avoid doing what Fred Craddock, the famous preacher, once did.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.”
Unfortunately, many people’s talk is cheap. They say one thing and then do another which makes their promises as empty as their integrity. If the commitments they’ve made might end up costing them something, they break them without any reservation.
But when Michael Jordan gave his word, he kept it…even if it could cost him millions.
The car had no sooner left its driveway when it was suddenly attacked by terrorists bent on assassination. The killers mercilessly sprayed the vehicle with gunfire as neighbors dove for cover.
When the smoke cleared, a powerful advocate for Pakistani Christians lay in a puddle of his own blood.
“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” declares Tolstoy in War and Peace. The truth – and consequence – of that statement has revealed itself time and time again throughout the travesties in mankind’s history.
Sadly, it was true of an entire church in Nazi Germany.