Good point. I’m sure you’ve seen the famous, possibly apocryphal, anecdote about a church service in (fill in country undergoing turmoil). Armed men from (militia or revolutionary group X) burst into the church and announce, “We’re going to shoot everyone who’s a Christian. Counting to ten ... one, two ...”.
Many of the congregants hastily leave the church, but some remain. Then the gunmen lay down their weapons, approach the remnant of the congregation, and say, “We’re Christians, too. We don’t trust anyone to worship with us unless they’re ready to die for Christ.”
Great Story!
But muzzies are doing this very thing in churches in Africa and the Middle east this very day, and not a whole lot of people leave. In fact hardly any of them do. Sometimes the evil ones burn down the church with the entire congregation INSIDE.
So while that apocryphal story may have stirred hearts from the pulpit a few years ago, now it is the stories of the Copts, Catholics, Orthodox, and Evangelicals who die with Jesus on their lips that will inspire us to faithfulness.
Lukewarm, laodician churches need not apply.
BTW... here is a great “apocryphal” story from WW2. A bunch of hard-boiled soldiers land on an uncharted island in the South Pacific. A group of very ferocious looking natives meet them on the beach. The chief says “Are you Christians?”
The head of the military group says “Naw..we don’t believe in that old fashioned stuff!”
“Good thing for you, we old fashioned” says the chief. “Otherwise we EAT you!”
:-)