WE HAVE TO “FIGHT”…
February 24, 2022DAVID and HIS VICTORY
February 26, 2022The Apostle John, writing in 1 John 3:13, exhorts the first century believers facing intense persecution – “13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.” The reason for such a hate is recorded by him, in the words of Jesus, in John 15:18-19 “18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
On this day, 25 February in 1536, Anabaptist leader Jacob Hutter – from whom the Hutterites take their name – a gentle person, is hunted down and burned to death in Austria. He was tortured, whipped, and immersed in freezing water to mock baptismal practices, before He was burnt at the stake.
Jakob Hutter was defiant at the stake. He cried out to his tormentors saying, “Come closer, those of you who contradict me! Let us test our faith in the fire. This fire will harm my soul as little as the fiery furnace harmed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.”*
How wonderful to read about such witnesses of Christ! What an example of commitment to Christ, and what courage to be His witness, in the face of death! May we draw inspiration and strength from Jacob Hutter for our walk with the LORD.
