Young Mother Put To A Test Any Parent Hopes And Prays Not To Face

When we decide to take a stand against evil and for what is right and when we take the bold move to proclaim what we know to be truth, challenge and even discredit what we know and understand to be a lie, and when we set ourselves to live in accordance with the dictates of morality, principle, and that of our own conscience, we must be prepared and ready to pay whatever price required of us and to endure whatever it is that we may be called suffer in the name of all things good, right, noble, honorable, honest, and truthful because we will meet opposition by evil powers and principalities, seen and unseen, who will do everything they can to discourage and demoralize us so as bring us under their cruel and oppressive servitude and at their hands we must be prepared to face ridicule, rejection by friends and family, discrimination, loss of a job or livelihood, punishment by civil authorities, violence and even death itself, and worst of all, threats against the people and things we hold near and dear to us including our own children.
 
Some time ago, Rebecca Flirit, a young mother residing in the Chicago vicinity was stripped of her parental rights for refusing to get vaccinated.  Her ex-husband currently has custody of their son and despite the fact that she has not been banned from having contact with her son, she, for refusing to be vaccinated, is prohibited from being able to see him in person. [1]
 
Our hearts go out to this young mother and despite this cruel injustice done against her, we can only hope and pray that, if she has not already capitulated, that she will, in spite of missing her son and longing to see and hold him again, continue to remain resolute and stand firm against what might be a potential hazard that could either prove deadly to her or cripple her to the point of rendering physically incapable of being the mother to her child that she needs to be and that in doing so, she might show by example to her son and to others what unwavering courage in the face of wickedness, injustice, and tyranny looks like.
 
It is one thing to risk and lay down everything else for what we profess to believe in and it is one thing to be willing to risk and lay down even our very lives for a cause we deem worthy of such sacrifice, but what then when those of us who are faced with the agonizing decision to choose between the people we love, including our children and grandchildren, and the principles and beliefs we profess to hold to.
 
It is that agonizing choice that could come before any of us and the one for which most of us are the least prepared and yet we must be prepared to face, however much we might hope and pray that we will never have to face.
 
If the young mother who lost her visitation rights due to her opposition against the dangerous COVID-19 vaccines capitulates and takes the vaccine, she might very well get to see and hold her son again, but she will have failed to be an example of unwavering courage to him. 
She will have failed to show her son what it takes to remain true to one’s cherished principles, convictions, and everything they profess to believe in. 
Those who might have been emboldened to take an unwavering stand themselves will be demoralized. 
And the powers that be who are using her son as leverage to pressure her into taking the vaccine will only be emboldened all the more to use the same method of coercion against others.
 
If she remains firms in her stance then she may very well risk never seeing her son again and her arms may ache for him, but she will be showing him what unwavering courage looks like, what it is and what it takes to remain true to one’s principles and convictions, inspire others to take the same unwavering stand that she has, and show how ineffective such cruel means of coercion are so as to disincentivize those wicked powers from using those same kinds of measures against others.
 
Now, I do not know what her religious, political, and philosophical leanings and convictions may be, but I do believe that the greater the sacrifices required of us to triumph over evil, the greater the reward and vindication because I believe that there is a God in Heaven who looks upon those sacrifices made on behalf of all that is honorable, good, and pleasing in His eyes and who is able to reward and provide vindication that can supersede even the most painful of sacrifices if we are willing to trust Him for it.
 
Victory can require of us a tremendous cost, but any cost required of us will never be any more or less than what has been required of generations before us.  Has anyone considered what it has taken for previous generations to preserve our freedoms? 
Has anyone ever considered what civil rights activists have had to endure to ensure that all people would be treated equally under the laws of our land in accordance with our Constitution and the precedent set for by our Declaration of Independence?
Does anyone have any idea what it took for the founders of this nation to establish a country in which men could live in peace, where each person could follow the dictates of their respective faith and conscience, and enjoy those liberties necessary for a safe, prosperous and productive society where people can pursue their God-given dreams and ambitions?
Or what about the reformers?  Does anyone ever consider the sufferings they endured to liberate western society from the spiritual tyranny of the Papal Caesars?
Or what about the Apostles and the early Church and the immense amount of persecution and perils they faced to bring a message of light and hope to a world in darkness?
 
We might all say that they laid down their lives for what they believed in and that is true.  Many did lose their lives and suffered cruel violent deaths for the honorable causes they gave themselves over to, but many lost more than just their lives.  They lost livelihoods, friends, family, spouses, and even children and yet we benefit from their sacrifices in more ways than we know and so how can we ever refuse to pay what price may be required of us?  How can we do any less than they?
 
But does anyone consider what it took for God Himself to turn His face away from His only begotten Son as He was crucified upon a cross? 
Does it anyone ever think about how it must have grieved the heart of God the Father to watch His Son be violently tortured and then finally killed?
Does anyone understand why that was necessary and why the Father sent the Son to be put to death?
 
It was necessary so that we ourselves might be set at liberty; a liberty not beginning with being liberated from prisons, concentration camps, rock quarries, chain gangs, occupation by foreign powers, wars, poverty, illness, famine, natural disasters, or handicaps, but rather a liberty beginning with the cleansing of the soul and the transformation of the inward man.
 
Once it is understood what our souls need to be cleansed of and what reformation our inward man needs to undergo, only then will we understand what it is that God the Son came into the world to offer Himself up for but in order to understand that, we must understand how things were in the beginning.
 
When God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, He created everything to be in harmony and at peace with one another.  None of the miseries, evils, sufferings, and hardships we know had yet entered into the world.  But just as the choice between life and death are set before us today, the choice of life and death was place before the first man and woman God created as well in the form of two trees:  The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:9) The tree of life would have enabled man to live forever (Gen. 3:22) but instead, they chose death when they had eaten the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thinking that its fruit would somehow make them more enlightened and when that happened, sin entered into both of them and with sin came the sentence of death upon them just as they were warned if they ever ate of that forbidden fruit. (Gen. 2:16-17, 3:3)
 
But neither sin nor the sentence of death were confined to that first couple, but was then passed down to all of mankind because all of man is descended from that first couple and because we are all descended from that first couple, we are all inherently sinful before God and therefore, we all sin and as a consequence, we all die (Rom. 5:12) for as it is written, the wages of sin is death. (Rom. 6:23)
 
But not only did death come to mankind as a consequence of sin, so all of creation was subject to sin’s curse which is why it is filled with so much pain and hardship. (Rom. 8:19-22)
Sin is not merely a bad deed, inappropriate behavior or conduct, or cruelly and carelessly spoken words.  It is much more than that; it is the corrupted condition of our very nature and though therein lies the capacity in us to do good and live morally upright lives, our goodness, even at its best within the best of us still falls short of what God requires of us (Rom. 3:23) because of sin ever present within us influencing not only our actions and what comes out of our mouths, but also our thoughts, intentions, motives, and the attitude of our hearts.  It is not just the outward performance that God takes into account, but it is also the nature of the inward person that He takes into account as well.
 
Sin affects, taints, perverts, and corrupts more than we can fathom.  It stands opposed to God’s perfect design for creation and man and it is for this reason why, when it reaches a certain measure, that sin must face eventual punishment and that means they who remain in their sin must also face eventual judgment as well.
 
When we take the time to examine ourselves not just on the basis of our outward performance but also examine the condition of our inward person as well, it can be the most humbling experience as we begin to understand just how morally fallible we really are, even at our best, and yet also the most terrifying knowing that even one sin is enough to subject us to a fearful punishment required of all sins and one that lasts for all eternity and it is only at that point when we realize that our own goodness is not good enough to reconcile us to our Creator from whom our sin has estranged us nor sufficient enough to save us from eternal damnation, that we also then understand why it is that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God was sent into the world to suffer a cruel and agonizing death.  It is only then do we begin to understand why at the moment Jesus was hanging upon that cross that God the Father had to turn His face away from Him.
 
The reason for the coming of Christ into the world was to set us free from eternal damnation and to reconcile us to the Father and this was done when He offered Himself up for our sins; the sinless Christ dying for sinful man. (2 Cor. 5:21, Heb. 4:15)  He was the only one who was tempted in all points yet never sinned and was able to keep the entire law of God perfectly and without fail and it was His moral perfection that made Him that much needed and perfect sacrifice required to be offered up on our behalf and it was in His death that our redemption was purchased and it is in His sacrifice that the demanded penalty for sin on our behalf was satisfied and mercy shown to all of mankind and it is in His resurrection that our faith in His redemptive work upon the cross on our behalf is justified. (Rom. 4:25)
 
It is only in Christ that the forgiveness of sins is made possible and it is only in Him alone that salvation from what would otherwise be a fearful eternity of torment is made possible and it is only His victory over death that makes our forthcoming liberation from death assured (1 Cor. 15:51-55, 1 Thess. 4:13-18) and that even creation itself will be liberated from the curse and taint of sin when it is made anew into a world in which there is no sin, death, curse, decay, nor any of the evils, pain, sufferings, hardships, griefs, and sorrows that we presently contend with but only life, light, joy, peace, harmony, and happiness before the Lord God Almighty. (Rev. 21-22)
 
But if God had not sent Christ Jesus His only begotten Son to offer Himself up on our behalf, we would still be under sin, death would have no end, and the world would remain under spiritual darkness but it is in Christ that we are granted liberty from eternal damnation through the forgiveness of sin.  We are liberated from being servants of sin by way of a new spirit that we receive in Christ; (2 Cor. 5:17) a nature instilling in us the desire to please, honor, and glorify God in all things out of appreciation and gratitude for the forgiveness of sins and everlasting salvation received and no longer desiring those things that we have been called to turn away from and which bring us into condemnation.  We then look forward to the day when we are liberated from bodily death itself when our corruptible forms are changed into forms incorruptible and also to the day when we who have embraced this spiritual liberty will enter into a new world free of the miseries and evils that abound in this present one.
 
And it is this very spiritual liberty that eventually brings forth the outward liberties that we long for; liberties that come from God and not from man such as the right to follow the dictates of one’s own conscience, to defend one’s self and those held dear from those who would do them harm, to raise up our children the way we see fit, to associate with whom we will, for a man to choose what wife he deems right for himself and for a woman to choose for herself a husband she deems right for herself in accordance to the law and counsel of God Almighty, to pursue the purposes and ambitions that God has placed in each and every one of us, and to reap the fruits of our labors.
 
It is because of the willingness of Christ to offer Himself up on our behalf that we are made free in Him from what would otherwise be a fearful and terrifying punishment, free from despair, free from spiritual darkness, and liberated from a meaningless existence.
 
It is because of the willingness of the Apostles and others of the first century Church to make the sacrifices required of them and to endure various forms of persecution and many others after them that resulted in the deliverance of Europe out of spiritual darkness thus leading to the formation of western civilization as we know it to be.  It was the willingness of the reformers to risk everything they had, including their own lives to confront the wicked practices of a corrupt papacy that liberated many from the spiritual tyranny of Rome and restored to men the ability to know God for themselves rather than rely on the unbiblical and heretical teachings of the Papal Caesars.  And finally, it was the willingness of men longing to be free to lay down their lives and even everything else they had to throw off the shackles of an increasingly oppressive empire that we now have a nation in which we can enjoy those liberties and freedoms that many people in many other nations around the world have only dreamed and longed for.
 
None of those brave souls ever relished or looked forward to the prospect of being ridiculed, shunned, rejected, discriminated against, losing their livelihood, their friends and loved ones being threatened, being subjected to violence, torture, imprisonment, or even a cruel death, but it is because they faithfully stood firm in their convictions and trusted in a God who is able to reward and provide a compensation either equal to or even greater than the price paid to achieve victory over evil and oppressive powers that we are able to inherit and enjoy the fruits of their labors and sacrifices.
 
Christ laid aside His full glory in Heaven to become one of us.  How then can we not be willing to lay aside the pursuit of worldly honors and riches for the honors and rewards that He desires to be bestowed upon all who will faithfully obey and serve Him in any and all given circumstances?
 
Christ laid down His life to take away the sins of the world.  How then can we not be willing to lay down our lives for the sake of making known to as many as possible, that very Gospel of salvation so that any willing to turn away from their sins may be assured a place in Heaven and in the world to come?
 
Christ was offered up by God the Father to suffer the demanded penalty for sin in order that we could be assured liberty from what would otherwise be eternal damnation.  How then, if we are placed in a position to choose between faithful service to our Lord and King and the people we love, no matter who they may be, whether they be parents, friends, a boyfriend or girlfriend, fiancée, a spouse, or even children or grandchildren, can we not choose to remain faithful to the God who lovingly offered up His Son on our behalf?
 
Christ suffered for His faithful obedience to His Father in Heaven and many of His followers have and still endure immense suffering in various forms for their faithful obedience to Christ before whom all men will one day stand to give an account for all things that they have done in this life.  How can we not be prepared to endure the same at any given time?
 
What does it profit any of us if we should gain the whole world and yet lose our very souls?
Or what good does it do us to hold on to our lives at the expense of our souls?
What does it benefit us to exchange liberty for any degree of safety and security?
What have we really gained if we should acquire worldly wealth and honors only to leave it all behind and enter into Heaven in shame and penniless?
And what comfort is there in seeking the favor and love of men and to hold on to the love of family and friends if it only causes us to stand in shame on the day of judgment?
 
The reason why evil seems to prevail is because not enough people who could otherwise be victorious against are willing to pay the price required of them. 
They fear the loss of worldly goods too much. 
They fear the loss of prestige and livelihood too much. 
They fear “cancel culture” or a “bad social credit score” too much. 
They fear being mocked and ridiculed too much. 
They fear being criticized and castigated too much. 
They fear being shunned by society too much.
They fear losing those whom they hold dear too much. 
They fear civic reprisal too much. 
They fear war and violence too much. 
And they fear death too much.
 
They fear all of these things which are but temporal sufferings, however severe they may be than they do the God who is able to cast both body and soul into Hell for all eternity but if we all feared the God who is able to cast both body and soul into Hell for all eternity more than anything that man can do to us, then how much more victorious we could be over the forces of evil and what blessings might we experience in partaking in the victory that is found in Christ Jesus Himself.
 
They who have paid such tremendous cost and have made such great sacrifices in the name of liberty, justice, in the name of all things good and honorable, and most importantly, in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord did so trusting that their sacrifices, however immense and painful would one day be vindicated and that the reward to come might at least be equal to, if not greater, than the price that they paid.
 
They trusted that God was able to do for them what might otherwise be impossible apart from Him.
They trusted in God to provide for their needs, even in the midst of their suffering.
They trusted in God to bring them the peace and comfort to surpass their agony.
They trusted in God to surround them with the right people.
And they trusted in God for that unwavering courage needed to remain true to Him and to their convictions in the face of such fierce evils and oppositions.
 
And in doing so, they were able to demonstrate to all that there was nothing that could ever silence their voices or cause them to betray the virtues, convictions, morals, principles, and faith that they held to and in doing so, they were able to set forth an example to future generations of what it takes to triumph over evil and what it is to be victorious even in the midst of what may appear to be defeat.
 
I pray that none of us in this generation and that none of you reading this post will ever have to be put to such agonizing and grievous tests yet I fear that some of us will be and we need to be prepared in our minds, hearts, and souls for that, and should such a day come upon us, may God grant us the faith, the strength, and the courage needed to past those tests and that we will trust that any given cost required of us to remain firm in our convictions will be vindicated and rewarded by Heaven on high and that such will supersede any cost we endure and I pray that we will also succeed at demonstrating to all what true faith looks like and what victory in Christ looks like even in the face of impossible odds and again, what might appear to be defeat.
 
Perhaps one, if not more of you, reading this post today may currently be finding yourself in the agonizing position in which you are being forced to choose between remaining faithful and true to your heartfelt faith and convictions and your job, livelihood, a friend or even a loved one and you know that if you continue to stand firm in your convictions you may suffer a great deal of grief and heartache, but if you give in to the demands, pressure, and coercion to violate the dictates of your faith and conscience, you might very well save yourself a lot of misery yet at the same time, you also understand that there are consequences, even grave consequences to that choice as well that go beyond yourself and household; those consequences being having to contend with the guilt and shame of betraying your professed principles, demoralizing others who might have otherwise been inspired by a firm unwavering stand, and emboldening the wicked to use those same methods bend others to their will which may ultimately result in the loss of all those things we hold dear.  You might even know what the right thing to do is, however painful and costly it may be and yet cannot find within yourself the power to do so.
 
There is a God in Heaven who is able to grant the resolve and courage needed to do that which is right and good in His eyes regardless of the cost to us, and who is able to reward and compensate for any sacrifice made on behalf of those things good, honorable, and right.  Will you call upon Him for help to do what is right in His eyes today?  Will you rely upon His unfailing strength and power today to stand firmly for what is right?  Will you throw yourself at His mercy? Will you trust in His ability to deliver you from evil and to sustain you during difficult times and in difficult situations?  Do you desire victory in Him today?  If so, then call upon the name of Jesus today:
 
 
"Lord Jesus I need you.
 
 
I realize that I am a sinner
who has fallen short of the glory of God
and that my goodness falls short
of your standard of Moral perfection.
 
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
Come into my heart and into my life
to be the Savior and Lord of my life.
Make me into the servant and follower
that you want me to be.
In your name Lord Jesus, I pray.
 
 
Amen."
 
 
Know that God is not concerned with the words that you use to call upon Him forgiveness, but with the attitude of your heart and if you have, with all sincerity, have asked Christ to forgive you of your sins, placing your trust in Him only for your salvation and in nothing else, then your sins are forgiven and your place in Heaven is certain.
 
 
 
End notes:
 
 
 
1.  Cullen McCue, “Chicago Judge Strips Mother Of Parental Rights Because She Hasn't Taken COVID Vaccine,” National File, August 28, 2021
https://nationalfile.com/cook-county-judge-strips-mother-of-parental-rights-since-she-has-not-been-vaccinated/
 
 
 
Scripture references:
 
 
 
1.  Genesis 2:9
 
2.  Genesis 3:22
 
3.  Genesis 2:16-17
 
4.  Romans 5:12
 
5.  Romans 6:23
 
6.  Romans 8:19-22
 
7.  Romans 3:23
 
8.  2 Corinthians 5:21
 
9.  Hebrews 4:15
 
10.  Romans 4:25
 
11.  1 Corinthians 15:51-55
 
12.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
 
13.  Revelation 21-22
 
14.  2 Corinthians 5:17