We all have a Bible, one we often take for granted. Humor me for a moment, if you will, close your eyes and picture a man tied to a stake surrounded by fodder and as a crowd looks on, now imagine him being strangled and set on fire, his last words spoken on this earth having been a prayer, that God would open the eyes of the King of England.
That is the price William Tyndale paid. He was fluent in eight languages and it was his soul desire to bring the true word of God to the smallest of the world.
Despite constant adversity and the destruction of his work, he carried on.
The last seventeen months of his life spent in prison diligently translating the Old Testament into English, a work which was completed by a friend after his death.

So much of the true roots of the church and sacrifices made by others to give us the freedom we have today have been all but forgotten.
Replaced by agendas of man-made doctrines, and denominational bickering over who is going to hell, because they hold a slightly different view. I’m still pretty, pretty sure that only God has the authority to make that judgment.

Picture again, if you will, a man driven to near madness after the murder of his wife, and  with his people enslaved to England he decided to lead a revolt against their oppressors.
Being quoted as once having said “Fight and you may die, run away and you will live at least for a while, and dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies, that they make take our lives but they will never take our freedom”
Picture this man tortured, disemboweled, and emasculated while still alive, his tormentors repeatedly offering him a quick death if he would renounce his acts.
Sir William Wallace would not. He died for his beliefs and because of his thirst for freedom and his love for his people he endured.
Just as Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:22 “Ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake: but he that endureth to the end shall  be saved.”
It is time for us to follow that burning in our souls. What is your hearts desire today? What group of people whose suffering brings tears to your eyes and breaks your heart?
What is the still small voice of the Lord prompting you to do?
The world will always smash your dreams, that is why you don’t look at the world. Some of the wisest words ever spoken were “Anything that is worth having is worth fighting for.”
What if Tyndale had just given up,  and said “Oh, well, sorry” and never translated another word or destroyed his own work.
What if Wallace had pledged allegiance to England and surrender a breath of God save the King?
We would be at the mercy of someone else concerning our salvation, we would be told only what they wanted us to believe.
Scotland would now be a distant memory, a land only visited in history books.
The sad reality is the “church” as it was created to be is also in danger of becoming a memory, a place to be visited in history books, well actually secular schools would never want to acknowledge churches existed, so maybe passed down through folklore.
It is time to stand up against false doctrines and blatant sin that has opened up shop under the guise of a “church”.
If we never breathe a word against injustice, whether it be human rights, animal rights, or the false doctrines hiding behind the misuse of the word Christian, we all become guilty by omission. Not to speak against it is as the same as condoning it.
Jeremiah could not stop that fire in him, you shouldn’t either, let it out, “If God be for you, who can be against you?”
And if they refuse to listen, take it as a compliment!
” For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves, teachers having itching ears (ones who tell them what they want to hear) And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables (believe lies) But WATCH thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
                                  2 Timothy 4:3-5
God had us warned throughout the New testament that these days would come, the false teachers would come and the false prophets and at the time of Paul’s writings, he said they were already here! Imagine now.
Stand for the truth, let it be known, Let the lord lead you and guide you and stay in his word.
Share the truth and if it falls on deaf ears, don’t worry, you have done your job and while they are still here praying to their God of gumdrops and lollipops we will be at the biggest Jewish wedding the universe will ever know!

Original Date: 12/29/2013.FOWC/Avenue Rev. Nina Brown Johnson 2015 REVISITED 02/05/2022 Φλογιζω  also listen as podcast at: https://anchor.fm/phlogizo

For other two posts in this series: OF MADMEN, MARTYRS AND MAIDS/ PART1 and OF MADMEN, MARTYRS AND MAIDS/ PART1

Post note: I realize the Wallace quote was used in the movie, but it is nevertheless listed with quotes accredited to him.