Brave

Maybe you’ve read the book Jesus Freaks, or heard other stories of people who devoted themselves sacrificially to Jesus Christ their Savior. Perhaps you know of Jim Eliot, who was eaten by the people he witnessed to, only for others to come back 20 years later to a people receptive to the Gospel, or Amy Carmichael who jumped at her “chance to die”. Well, until this weekend, they were just some incredible, inspiring stories to me.

I had a friend who I started hanging out with this summer. We went to Bible study with some of his friends and mentors, to a Hillsong concert. We talked about our lives, and found we even share the same life verses. We even thought about our futures, and thought that if God were to show us the way, that one day, we might court and maybe even get married. A little over a month ago, he responded to the Holy Spirit directing him towards Belarus, a place where evangelical Christianity is considered radical and illegal. After two weeks, one of the house churches they’d started was raided, and many of the leaders (including my friend) were imprisoned. On Friday, I got a phone call no one should ever have to hear about a 21 year old, passionate young man. The prison had been set on fire, and he died.

I wasn’t exactly surprised, as that morning I’d been reading verses about how the Lord delights in the death of His saints. But it’s still hard. I know he is so happy, and that he died in devotion to his Savior. Already, the remaining leaders have reported that the churches are growing tremendously. My friend will always be in my heart, and I will see him again one day, and we can praise our Lord face to face instead of in his pastor’s living room.

Knowing someone who literally gave his life to follow Jesus makes me want to go so much further. It makes me want to live with that total, complete, reckless abandon. He wrote a letter for me, left in his room in case he never came back, and he said from the first day he saw me he knew I loved Jesus, and always wanted more, just the way he did.

And I know that it is truly God’s grace that has propelled both of us in our lives. He is the one who not only makes us desire more, but is actually able to supply it. He is abundance, and we just need to step out of our comfort zones and come before His throne.



Lord, let me be brave. Your will does not include timidity. It is boldness, it is abundance, it is abandon. Lord, let Your love penetrate this heart and Your Spirit fill my soul. In Jesus’ name, Amen

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:15