This is a post from Shane Willard (Shane Willard Ministries) that I found interesting and challenging…
 
Is It Worth Dying For? 
When we read about the apostles, we see that their whole lives were a response to anochy. There is a story in church history about how Phillip died. Domitian, who exiled John to the Island of Patmos, was the last Roman emperor who declared himself as a god. He decreed that because he was a god, people had to make an offering to him before they could buy and sell. To set up a way that the officials could tell who had made their offering and who hadn’t, they would put a mark on the forehead or the hand to tell the merchants whether a person had made their offering so that they could buy or sell. The Jews didn’t like that because they believed there was only one God and that His name was Jehovah. So they called Domitian ‘the Beast who comes from land and sea’. It follows that in order to buy and sell you had to take the mark of the Beast. John wrote about it in the Book of Revelation. 

Domitian set up columns and decreed that in order to honor him citizens had to walk through those columns. Phillip was the apostle in charge of that area, and he was married with children. He refused to walk through those columns. The officials told him that if he wouldn’t walk through they would kill his children. His children’s response was to tell their father not to walk through them because they knew they were living for something that was worth dying for. The followers of Domitian killed Phillip’s children one by one, and then they killed his wife. Finally they killed Phillip. But church history records that what happened in that city was the greatest revival known to man at the time. Why? Because Phillip’s life was a response to God’s wishes. He willingly died in order to restore dignity to the people that Domitian had taken it from. 

It’s all about you if you can’t forgive somebody. Maybe they said something to you in anger, and you have held onto that until it became bitterness. What if we died to that feeling in order to restore dignity and love to that situation? What if we were willing to let our pride and hurt go because God is here to save the day? 

This story is not just about apostles and heroes of our faith. It is about me and you. It is about you if you’ve struggled with depression for years and you just can’t seem to shake it. Maybe deep down inside you are scared to trust God. God is here to save your day. 

What are you going to do about it? It’s all about your response. God has declared his intent – whatever your slave driver was, He is here to save the day. We are living for something that is worth dying for.