This past Sunday I taught at both morning services. I do this usually a couple of times a year. We have been studying One Month to Live and this week it was about Leaving Boldly.

So the whole idea was basically: what are you doing today that people will talk about when you are gone? What difference are you making for the cause of Christ? Someday we will present ourselves before Him and answer for how we spent our time. Truthfully, much of the things we do will be “burnt up” as they are just hay (worthless). We must be busying ourselves with “gold” (things that matter – like our relationship to Christ and people around us!). After all, Jesus Himself said that there are only two things that matter – “Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and the second command is like it – love your neighbor as yourself!” That about covers it all, I guess. And the only two things that were listed as pure religion in James 1:27 were to care for the orphans and widows (once again, people who were helpless on their own). Hmmm, that seems pretty simple.

There is so much temptation today to just pee our lives away on things that don’t really have any eternal significance.

One of the definitions for “boldly” was “defiant”. Defiant against mainstream culture! Mainstream says, “Make yourself comfortable, don’t worry about your neighbor, infact you needn’t even worry about your kids – after all – it’s all about you! Indulge! Make yourself happy! Enjoy life!” And so anything that questions that is frowned upon.

Anyway, at the end of my message I spent the last 15 minutes or so telling about 6 people that I would nominate to God’s Hall of Fame. They are each just ordinary people who decided not to pee their lives away, but do something DEFIANT with it! They have gone against what “mainstream” culture says and made a difference and I applaud them with all my heart! I kept crying as I was talking about each one and before long people all over the place were wiping their eyes also. Each of these are my heroes and they so totally rock!!

1. My first nominee is Pastor Zhang Rongliang. He is currently in prison in China for pastoring a house church. He has been tortured and even given shock treatments. He has diabetes and high blood pressure. His story can be found at http://www.prisoneralert.com/ . I cannot even look at his sweet picture without starting to cry. The Bible tells us that we are to care for the prisoners as though we ourselves were imprisoned. There is an address to write this courageous pastor on the site. My kids and I will be regularly writing to him to encourage him and tell him that we are praying.

2. My second nominee is Kristi Burton. She is the defiant young woman who stirred up Colorado and this coming November’s elections as Coloradoans will be voting on the Personhood Bill 48. It clearly states that Personhood begins at conception. Vote yes! She is only 22 years old! No one is ever too young to make a difference for eternity! Here’s a short video about her life and the Personhood Bill: http://www.coloradoforequalrights.com/

3. Third I nominated Capt. Scott Southworth. A single man, who didn’t own a home, but was stationed in Iraq. While there he would visit an orphanage run by nuns. He met a little boy on his first trip to the home and before long became convinced that, despite the odds, God was calling him to adopt him. God indeed moved mountains and they are now father and son. Their story is found at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318237,00.html

4. The last (but not least) person I would nominate for God’s Hall of Fame is a little girl named Lizzie. She passed away at just 13 years old in May of 2006. Lizzie spent her last years of her all-too-brief life spreading the word for the need for batteries by our troops stationed overseas. She had Cystic Fibrosis and Juvenile Arthritus and instead of focusing on herself she said, “The troops are doing so much for me, it’s the least I can do for them.” Wow Lizzie – what a selfless life – in the midst of your own pain you cared more about others! You leave behind a life worth talking about! (Here’s the link to her life: http://msunderestimated.com/2006/11/23/in-memory-of-lizzies-troop-batteries-video/)

Yes all of these people had the opportunity to gaze at their own navels and indulge in their own dreams, but instead selflessly gave it up to minister to the people they saw as having need. There are obviously bunches of others I could have nominated…..
And then I posed the final question: Who will choose to live defiantly with me?