Pious Obstinacy

Ezekiel 3:9  I have made your forehead as hard as the hardest rock! So don’t be afraid of them or fear their angry looks, even though they are rebels.”

When God called the prophet Ezekiel, God told Ezekiel that people wouldn’t listen to the message God gave. God was sending Ezekiel to speak to a rebellious, hard-headed people. God also told Ezekiel that he was singularly gifted for the task ahead. Ezekiel was even more stubborn than the Israelites were!

In the year A.D. 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued a decree which he hoped would extinguish the spreading flames of Christianity. One of his primary objectives was the seizure and destruction of the Christian Scriptures.

Later that year, officials enforced the decree in North Africa. One of the targets was Felix, Bishop of Tibjuca, a village near Carthage. The mayor of the town ordered Felix to hand over his Scriptures. Though some judges were willing to accept scraps of parchment, Felix refused to surrender the Word of God at the insistence of mere men. Resolutely, he resisted compromise.

Roman authorities finally shipped Felix to Italy where he paid for his stubbornness with his life. On August 30, as the record puts it, "with pious obstinacy," he laid down his life rather than surrender his Gospels.

We need that “pious obstinacy” in our world today. A quick glance of the headlines will tell you that the world is a rebellious, hard-headed place. We need to share the gospel with a stubbornness that will not allow us to water down or change what the Bible teaches, even when it goes against what the world believes.   

Today’s Readings: Ezekiel 1-3; Revelation 2