What Do We Value Most?

Excerpts by Andrew Brunson, pastor

Two years in a Turkey prison

     "People are driven by what they hunger after. Once they have it, they are driven by fear of losing it. Individuals compromise and conform. 

     "What do you 'covet'? What are you afraid to lose? The answer reveals something about how vulnerable we may be to pressures that followers of Jesus are going to face in the near future. 

     "I think social and financial persecution is coming to our country, and it will be enough to cause an exodus from the church in this generation. This may seem alarmist, especially when many evangelicals are euphoric about the political change in the last election.

     "But I think this is a temporary delay. Most of the institutions in our country are led by progressives who are increasingly anti-Christian. The rise of the political right...is not leading to an increase in church attendance or conversions. Significant numbers on the right mirror the progressive left in having no Judeo-Christian moral foundation...driven by the raw will to power. 

     "Faithful followers of Jesus are in the minority - an increasingly despised minority. 

     "How to change what drives me? I need to retrain my heart to most value what most matters - loving God - so that I do not covet what they covet. I do not love what they love. I do not fear what they fear."