THE HIGH-RISE

Tebby looked at the different high-rise buildings in Bios City as his uncle drove him around the town. “These buildings are so high, how many floors does this blue one have ? One, two, three, four, hmm…”. He couldn’t continue counting as the vehicle moved along. In new cities of today, there are usually places with so many buildings. However, the high-rise buildings called skyscrapers stand out amidst these many buildings. We also expect our children to stand out in school with exceptional grades that offer them good opportunities. When public office holders perform exceptionally well, society is often aware of the impact of their performance. We, as Christ’s disciples are expected to stand out as glowing lights of righteousness to all around us.

The world is a sea of people and humans who were born in sin after the fall of Adam. Everyone in this present generation, the end-time generation, follows their minds, and their ways and does evil in an unthinkable way. They follow the mammoth crowd to do evil and do unthinkable things because they are unregenerate. Believers should live the life of Christ and shine His light into the dark world. We must be the candles on a bottle which is not hidden, we must shine our lights of righteousness for others to see.

Sometimes, because we stand for what is right going by our principle of holiness and righteousness, we are persecuted because of our infamous actions which sound unreasonable to the world. They lie and expect us to lie but we say no. They cover up their evil actions and we are objective and even tell others where we felt we went wrong. They think they can steal money meant for others with the confidence that they hold the power to get away with it. Believers are opposed to unrighteous deeds, but the world doesn’t and cannot understand the way of righteousness (John 16: 3).

Amidst all of these, believers must make up their minds to stand for truth even if what we stand for is unpopular. We must continue to stand on godly principles and live a life of righteousness. Despite the general hostility of the world to righteous living, some look up to us to show them the righteous way but won’t voice this out. We must have a pattern of consistent uprightness for such hidden followers, so they are not lost.

Amid persecutions, we are sometimes tempted to retaliate or pay back evildoers in their coin but we remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5:44 ‘But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. Even if you have the opportunity to retaliate and pay evil for evil, or to rejoice over your enemy when he falls, we must resist such temptations. David once had the opportunity to kill Saul who had been pursuing him and had sent him into exile, but he didn’t. The little cut he made on Saul’s garment to show how he let go of killing him later made him feel bad, thinking it was a disrespect to the anointed of God. We must not repay evil for evil but pray for our persecutors to turn to righteousness. Who knows if there are the likes of Paul the Apostle who would preach the gospel they once opposed very fiercely?
As this age turns to a close and as we expect the Lord’s return, may we be that shinning light that points this evil world to the Saviour (Amen).