A T-Shirt I won at our church’s men’s breakfast had this list of names on the back:
Joseph – 1764 BC
Jeremiah – 594 BC
Daniel – 556 BC
John the Baptist – 29 AD
Apostle James – 44 AD
Apostle Paul – 59 AD
Apostle Peter – 64 AD
Apostle John – 95 AD
Justin Martyr – 165 AD
Saint Vibia Perpetua – 203 AD
John Wycliffe – 1377 AD
John Huss – 1414 AD
William Tyndale – 1535 AD
John Knox – 1547 AD
Lady Jane Grey – 1553 AD
Nicholas Ridley – 1555 AD
Hugh Latimer – 1555 AD
John Bunyan – 1661 AD
Donald Carghill – 1681 AD
Dietrich Bonhoeffer – 1943 AD
Richard Wurmbrand – 1956 AD
Ian Paisley – 1966 AD
Brother Yuen – 2001 AD
James Coates – 2021 AD
Tim Stephens – 2021 AD
The front of the T-Shirt said:
MOST OF
MY
HEROES
HAVE DONE
TIME
Whether or not you hold these men and women in high esteem or believe they took virtuous stands choosing the ‘right hill to die on,’ Christians have done time and will continue to because Jesus said as much. The people in the Book of Hebrew’s faith Hall of Fame, some named and unnamed did time and worse. (Heb. 11:36.) The contemporary imprisonment and fines of Canadian pastors may be just the start of greater persecution to come, but just think how God mightily used the heroes of the past. What might He do through the heroes of tomorrow?
May we be ready to count the cost when the time comes, encouraged by looking back to the faithful cloud of witnesses, while looking forward, resolved with God’s strength, to know what it means to die to self because we have been made alive in Christ.
