It’s Time To Make Some Noise!
“Who do you think you are,” Pharaoh shouted, “distracting the people from their work? Get back to your jobs!” Exodus 5: 4 – 5
“Just who do you think you are?” If you’ve ever had those words directed towards you, then you understand that it was more of a statement than an actual question. A statement intended to put you in your place, to advise you of your comparative inferiority, and to remind you of your relative lack of power. But for Christian’s it’s even more. It’s also a statement that serves as both an indication and an opportunity….
Here, in Indiana where I live, there was a headline in the local newspaper last month that read `Indiana Coach Won’t Pray With Team Anymore.’ The headline was accompanied by a picture of a middle-aged man and several preteen girls, all holding hands in a circle with their heads bowed. The girls were members of an elementary school basketball team in Shelby County, and the man was their coach.
The players asked to pray, as they traditionally did before every game – a practice that had taken place, involving the coach and his players, for years. But not anymore. The American Humanist Association – whose motto is “Good Without A God” – saw the picture of the coach praying with his team, and immediately took action.
The coach was put on notice by the Legal Director of the AHA – stating that “coach-led prayer circles are an endorsement of religious activity at a public institution, and the practice must be stopped.”
The coach – with some prompting from the school Principal and school district Superintendent – politely obliged. As a result, there will be no more coach-involved prayer prior to games in Shelby County moving forward.
“The coach graciously agreed he would step away,” The Superintendent stated. “I appreciate the coach not wanting this to be a distraction for (the teams).”
I don’t! My response:
`If standing up for your beliefs, and demonstrating Godly obedience, even in the face of resistance and opposition, is being a distraction for your team, then be a distraction for your team. They will learn something much more valuable and long lasting from your example of standing up for your undeterred convictions, regardless of the consequences, than they will ever learn from your best pregame pep talk or your most dynamic halftime speech. Now is not the time to bow down in the face of threats and accusations.
It’s time to make some noise!
Making Noise! Three Defiant Hebrew Boys That Refused to bow down
King Nebuchadnezzar was the powerful king of Babylon around 600 BC. So powerful that no one would dare go against his commands. As was common at the time, King Nebuchadnezzar built a huge golden image and commanded all the people to bow down and worship it whenever they heard the sound of his musical herald.
Anyone who failed to bow and worship the image would be thrown into an immense, blazing furnace.
In Daniel chapter 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were determined to worship the One true God only, not the golden imagine, and thus were reported to the king.
Courageously, they stood before him as the king pressured the men to deny their God. They said, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
Can’t you hear King Nebuchadnezzar, the exalted and feared King of Babylon, looking down at these 3 young `nobodies’ from the tribe of Judah, who had the audacity to defy his demands:
“Just who do you think you are?”
The elementary school basketball coach in Shelby County, Indiana was not alone. Two days after the first newspaper article was published, another headline appeared: “Are Coaches Praying With Teams?”
The subtitle of the article said it all: “Coaches across the state said praying with a team is just fine, but few said they do it — or at least admitted to doing it.”
In this article few coaches would admit to praying with players. However, one coach stated that he incorporated this practice for over 30 years. With this particular coach, participation during team prayers was strictly voluntary.
“Those that didn’t pray with me knew I was certainly not going to hold that against them when it came to game decisions and playing time,” stated the coach.
But the AHA disagreed, stating that coach-led prayer not only violates the part of the First Amendment that mandates separation of church and state, but discriminates against those in the religious minority — and could easily lead to a coach showing favor to the kids who pray.
“If there is a Hindu student or a Jewish student or atheist student and everyone else on the team, including the coach, is gathering for a Christian prayer, that certainly excludes that minority,” said the AHA Legal Director. “And that’s unfair.”
But not only is it fair, it’s constitutional. My response:
`Everyone has the right to not participate in a belief that I practice and/or endorse. But that doesn’t override my right – supported by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 18) – to practice and/or endorse that belief, or my First Amendment Constitutional rights to verbally express that belief. Nor should a presumption of guilt necessitate action on the sole basis that `an environment that could lead to discriminate’ may exist. Nowhere else in this country does the presumption of guilt outweigh the mandate for proof of that guilt.
Another coach said that he believes it’s good for teams to pray, but that he hasn’t promoted team prayer. “The main reason that I haven’t suggested team prayer is due to the politically correct, hot-button issue and not wanting to risk any trouble with parents or our school corporation.”
That’s a pretty passive approach to a very pertinent cause! My response:
Go ahead, risk trouble with parents and the school corporation. `Trouble’ can be an effective instrument leading to change. Go ahead, disregard political correctness, when political correctness contradicts your spiritual convictions. The fear of conflict can also be the conduit that leads to submission to contrary beliefs. Now is not the time to shut up. Now is the time toshow up, stand up, and speak up.
It’s time to make some noise!
Making Noise! Two Roman Missionaries That Refused to Shut Up
Silas was a leader in the early church, and a fellow missionary with Paul. When Paul set out on his second missionary journey, he chose Silas to accompany him.
On this journey, Paul and Silas traveled to Greece to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The first convert was a business woman by the name of Lydia. She and her household were baptized into Jesus Christ, and negativity started to spread throughout Greece about these evangelizing Christian foreigners.
In Philippi, the missionaries were warned about spreading their message of salvation. When they refused to stop they were arrested, beaten, and imprisoned.
But Acts 16:25 states that “about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them”. Paul and Silas still refused to be silenced – even while behind the walls of prison.
Can’t you just hear the jailer? Here were these two unwelcome evangelists from Rome, disrupting and disturbing the Philippians with their message of salvation and hope – then refusing to stop even in the face of threats and dire consequences. Now, even in prison, they were defiantly singing and praising the name of Jesus, ignoring all orders to cease and desist.
“Just who do you think you are?”
In the early days of the gospel there were many examples concerning men of God, defiantly standing up for their beliefs, while obediently remaining true to their convictions. And, yes, there were consequences for doing so. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace, Daniel was thrown into a lion’s den, and Paul and Silas were thrown into prison. But in the end their faith, and God’s faithfulness, prevailed.
So what has happened to us? Where have our fearless spiritual warriors gone? What happened to the bold men and women of God that were unrelenting when it came to refusing to compromise their faith, just because someone of power suggested it – required it – demanded it?
I believe Christian coaches throughout Indiana should re-emerge from their hiding and absolutely refuse to discontinue their practice of praying with their teams. And I believe fellow Christians throughout the state, and the country, should firmly stand behind them.
We accommodatingly stepped aside and allowed mandated prayer to be removed from our schools over 50 years ago. Now we’re being told that we can’t even engage in voluntary prayer with voluntary participants – and once again we’re quietly and passively acquiescing.
When is enough, enough?
We, as Christians, have rights too. Our constitution mandates freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of religious beliefs. These are the kind of freedoms that our forefathers fought and died for.
But today too few of us are willing to fight. Instead we silently and obediently adhere to the arbitrary whims of our dissenters – falling in line at their command.
We have become nothing more than Christian Marionettes with painted on smiles of conformity, dancing and swaying as our detractor Puppeteers pull the strings – while laughingly lauding our harmonious submission.
In our history – both biblically and nationally – no injustices are ever addressed until the meek and powerless finally take an eyeball to eyeballstance with the powerful, the mighty, and the feared, and defiantly proclaim “No, not anymore!” And when they do, they are certain to hear these words:
“Just who do you think you are?”
At the beginning of this article, I referenced a scripture from Exodus 5. The passage captures the first time that Moses confronted Pharaoh.
Moses was eighty years old when God spoke to him from the burning bush and told Moses to return to Egypt to go before Pharaoh and speak God’s words to him. But Moses didn’t want to go, and offered five excuses to keep from doing what God instructed him to do.
“But I’m a nobody”…..”What if the Israelites ask me who commanded this?”….. “What if they don’t believe me?”…..“But I don’t speak well”…..“Why don’t you choose someone else?”
Finally Moses agreed to do what God wanted him to do. During his first meeting, Moses told Pharaoh that God required him to release the Israelites from bondage.
Now, here was Moses, a Hebrew slave, sitting face to face with the mighty King of Egypt, and having the nerve and audaciousness to command Pharaoh to `let my people go.’ Pharaoh’s response was very predictable, in Exodus 5: 4:
“Who do you think you are?”
Men and women of Christ, it’s time for us to reclaim the freedoms that are rightfully ours. It’s time to say “No, not any more” to those that purpose to mute our voices and harness our Godly power. It’s time to thumb our nose at political correctness and worldly righteousness, when they contradict Godly truths. It’s time to fight back!
“Who do you think you are?” It’s more than a question, it’s a statement. A statement designed to define and reiterate our hierarchal position. But’s it’s also a statement that serves as both an indication and an opportunity for us, as Christians, residing in this fallen world shrouded in iniquity.
It’s an indication that we are no longer politely relenting to contrary views and values. It’s an indication that we are no longer being subservient to demands that are counter to our divine beliefs. It’s an indication that we are finally fighting back!
It’s also an opportunity. An opportunity for us, as born-again believers to actually answer the question at hand, and set the record straight once and for all:
“Who do I think I am?” `So glad you asked. I am a glorious child of God;cleansed by the blood of Jesus, freed by His death on Calvary, redeemed by His resurrection on the 3rd day, forgiven by the grace of my Heavenly Father,directed by His Holy Spirt that dwells within me, and empowered by His strength vested in me. Any more questions?’
Because as Christians, it’s not who we think we are, it’s who God has ordained us to be – Undeterred Warriors Doing Battle For Godly Righteousness.
And it’s about time that we started making some NOISE!!