by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of Jesus’ death, there were Jewish leaders who were glad to be rid of Him. They thought they shut down His voice and His followers for good, but soon found out that they had only stoked a fire that soon burned out of their control and changed the world.<\/p>\n
I believe we wrestle against forces of darkness (Ephesians 6:10-18) that celebrate when the righteous die. Satan is a liar and a murderer (John 8:44), and his people show their true colors when a voice of reason and truth gets murdered.<\/p>\n
I have to self-reflect about “letting your light so shine<\/em>” that people know which side I am on! Can they tell? Are there evil people who would celebrate my removal and righteous people who would mourn it? Am I hiding my light under a basket, afraid to take a stand, fearful that someone won’t like me?<\/p>\n While Jesus did not intentionally make enemies or cause people to hate Him, we must remember that He was perfect in goodness and righteousness. The darkness hated the light, no matter how kind and loving and gentle He was! (John 3:19-20). We cannot do better than Jesus and be so good that everybody loves us. We should be concerned about the reality and strength of our light if nobody knows what we stand for and hates us for it! Our goal is to win people over if we can, but we must also be realistic enough to acknowledge that some people love darkness and hate light. We can do no better than Jesus in changing their commitment to the darkness of evil and sin.<\/p>\n Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you!<\/em>” (Luke 6:26). We need to make such a difference in this world that evil celebrates when we are gone, and the righteous mourn, but heaven welcomes our victory! Stand up for Jesus no matter what!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton In the aftermath of Jesus’ death, there were Jewish leaders who were glad to be rid of Him. They thought they shut down His voice and His followers for good, but soon found out that they had only stoked a fire that soon burned out of their control and changed the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[109,1458],"class_list":["post-90572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-death","tag-remembering"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2982,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-christians-celebrate-birthdays\/","url_meta":{"origin":90572,"position":0},"title":"Can Christians celebrate birthdays?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 27, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Questions: Do you guys celebrate birthdays? Why or why not? Why do Jehovah's Witnesses not celebrate birthdays? Answer: The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that birthday celebrations originated in pagan customs, such as blowing out of the candles on a birthday cake. They reject anything connected, however remotely, to pagan practices. They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34782,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/death-and-eternity\/","url_meta":{"origin":90572,"position":1},"title":"Death and Eternity","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Royce Frederick What happens when a person dies? On day six of creation, \"the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being\" (Genesis 2:7). Death occurs when the \"soul\" or the \"spirit\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29734,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-does-god-say-not-to-celebrate-jesus-birth\/","url_meta":{"origin":90572,"position":2},"title":"Where does God say not to celebrate Jesus’ birth?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where in the Bible does God tell us not to celebrate Jesus' birthday, but His death, resurrection, and return? Are we really not to celebrate Christmas as Jesus' birth? Answer: \"Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar\" (Proverbs 30:6).","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27754,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-righteous-before-jesus-have-to-wait-for-jesus-death-to-receive-the-promise\/","url_meta":{"origin":90572,"position":3},"title":"Did the righteous before Jesus have to wait for Jesus’ death to receive the promise?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does Hebrews 9:15 teach that those that God chose as righteous under the old covenant also had to wait for the blood of Christ for the promise to come into effect? Answer: Salvation to mankind required the offering of a perfect sacrifice for mankind's sins. \"For it is impossible\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15008,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-bible-say-we-will-be-greeted-by-our-loved-ones-after-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":90572,"position":4},"title":"Does the Bible say we will be greeted by our loved ones after death?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, You, so far, are the only person I trust to tell me the truth of the Bible. I am so confused trying to understand it. But, anyway, when we die does it say in the Bible if we will be greeted in Paradise by our loved ones who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1347,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-covenants-for-the-israelites-only\/","url_meta":{"origin":90572,"position":5},"title":"Were the covenants for the Israelites only?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The New Covenant is made with the House of Judah and the House of Israel only (Hebrews 8:8). Indeed, the New Covenant could not be made with any people who did not first have an Old Covenant. Answer: The reference to\u00a0Hebrews 8:8\u00a0is a part of a quote from\u00a0Jeremiah 31:31-32\u00a0which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}