Truth Worth Dying For

Passage: Acts 20:23-24; Acts 21:12-14; 2 Timothy 4:6-8

Two weeks ago yesterday, on Saturday October 16, kidnappers abducted 17 Christian missionaries, including five children, in Haiti.  The missionaries are part of a Mennonite group called Christian Aid Ministries, which has been working in Haiti for years.  This time, they were rebuilding an orphanage destroyed in the recent earthquake.

Haiti has been in political and social chaos for decades.  The country’s people suffer under inept and corrupt governments, crushing poverty, natural disasters, and increasingly violent gangs.  When news breaks of a shocking abduction like this, it prompts a question: why would a group of Mennonite missionaries from rural Ohio – or anyone – keep going back to a place like Haiti?

In the eyes of the world they are either naïve or stupid.  But there is another answer, a more compelling one.  They are there because Jesus rose from the dead, the Gospel is real, and Christ has called us to be His hands and feet to even the most vulnerable.  These courageous brothers and sisters are ministering in the name of Jesus to the suffering people of Haiti.

They want to share the impact their faith has had on their own lives.  “We want others to enjoy the joy, peace, and redemption we have experienced.”

This raises another question.  Is there truth worth dying for?  Paul certainly believed there was.