Where will you go today? You have handled Your servant well, O Eternal One, as You promised (Psalm 119:65). [I am your servant, LORD, and you have kept your promise to treat me with kindness.] I deserve hell. I have heaven! I deserve wrath. I have grace! I am unfaithful. He is faithful. Like Peter, I feel like crying out, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8) Nevertheless, He has never left me or forsaken me (Hebrews 13:5). I have wandered. He has forgiven. I have prayed. He has answered. I have trusted. He has fulfilled. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, (AD 70-155) had become a believer under the tutelage of John the Apostle. A group of Christians has just been executed in the arena at Rome. Having refused to leave Rome, he too was arrested. It was his turn to enter the stadium. Because of his age the Roman proconsul gave Polycarp a final chance to live. He just had to swear by Caesar (deny Christ). “Swear, and I will let you go. Reproach Christ!” Ploycarp turned to the proconsul and boldly declared, “Eighty-six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me”? As the soldiers prepare to nail him to the pole in the midst of the wood, he told them, “Leave me like this. He who give me to endure the fire will also give me to remain on the pyre without the security of the nails.” Polycarp prayed. The men lit the pyre, which sprang up quickly. But even the fire wouldn’t touch him as it formed an arch around Polycarp’s body. In the end, the Romans commanded an executioner to stab him. A great quantity of blood put out the remaining fire, and Polycarp bled to death. [Voices of the Martyrs] I’m going to church to worship this Faithful Savior. Where will you go today?
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 11:51:53 +0000
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