One Story of Sacrifice

August 18, 2023

What does it mean to give up the things we love, for the things we love even more? While some may see this kind of sacrifice as burdensome and painful, those who know the overwhelming worth of Christ see it as something different altogether. When someone has a true encounter with the living God this kind of sacrificial love is the only natural response.

Farah’s Story

One of our disciple makers, Farah, is one of these people. In her own words, “I was very depressed because the government had fallen, our country was no longer a republic, and my husband was a soldier in the previous regime. He was wanted by the police and his life was in danger at every given moment because if they found him they would kill him since they viewed him as the enemy.

I became tired of living a life on the run. I lost my way and had no hope for my life…”. She is not alone. All over the world people face impossible circumstances just like hers and find themselves overwhelmed with the burden of pain, anxiety, and depression. Without a solution to the immediate problem, is it even possible to experience peace?

Peace that Surpasses Understanding

Soon after, Farah met a couple different from anyone she had ever known before. In the midst of heavy trials and difficulties, they radiated peace. Farah was desperate to know more and they told her they had heard stories of God and been changed. Farah begged them to share the stories with her, and something inside her shifted almost immediately. With no change to her circumstances: her country still war torn, her husband still on the run, her life still on tenuous ground- she experiences the fullness of the peace of Christ. The kind that is independent of all circumstances. The kind that surpasses understanding.

A Greater Love

A few stories in, a miracle happened. Farah’s husband was able to escape to a country where he was safe. This is what they had been waiting for, hoping for, desperate for, but something had changed. Farah had encountered the living God and what she had once wanted desperately now paled in comparison. In her words “whether or not I leave (to join her husband) I will be happy because God has changed my life from the inside and my faith in God has changed. Now I want to share the stories and peace I have with everyone.”

This is what it means to give up that which we love, for that which we love more. Farah experienced the truth of the living God, that when you have Him you need nothing else. Of course Farah still loves her husband. Of course she still wants, desperately, to be with him. But even more than that she wants to hold on to her new faith, her relationship with a living God, and share it with all those around her. Christ’s greatest desire has become hers: that people would know and make him known on the earth.

The One We Love

Could this very principle be what Jesus meant when he said we must hate our mothers and fathers, sisters, spouses, and children (Luke 14:26)? Not that we would hate them with the human emotion of hatred but that we would love Christ with everything we are and everything we have; so much so that any other love we feel looks like hate in comparison. Here at GCM, we believe that truth and therefore it is our honor to give up that which we love for the One we love even more.

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We believe the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, are inspired by God and are the revelation of God to man, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct. (2 Timothy 3:15-17, 1 Peter 1:21)

We believe that there is one God, eternally existent who has revealed Himself as embodying the principles of relationship and association as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Deuteronomy 6:4, Luke 3:22)

We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for us, in His present rule as Head of the Church, and in His personal return in power and glory. (Matthew 1:23, Luke 1:31)

We believe in the creation of mankind in God’s image, and the fall of man, resulting in universal guilt and total depravity; and the necessity, therefore, of redemption and restoration; that all men and women are lost spiritually and face the judgment of God, that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, and that repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for regeneration by the Holy Spirit. (Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:17)

We believe salvation is received through repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, being justified by grace through faith, man becomes an heir of God, according to the hope of eternal life. (Luke 24:47, John 3:3)

We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; the saved unto the resurrection of eternal life in the presence of our Lord, and the lost unto the resurrection of damnation and eternal punishment. (Matthew 25:46, Mark 9:43-48)

We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ and that all true believers are members of His body, the Church, which has the duty to preach the Gospel to every person. (Ephesians 1:22-23, Ephesians 2:22)

We believe that we must dedicate ourselves to prayer, to the service of our Lord, to His authority over our lives, and to the ministry of teaching, preaching, the prophetic, the apostolic, and evangelism. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

We believe in upholding the ordinances of the church of water baptism and holy communion.

The ordinance of baptism by immersion is commanded by the Scriptures. All who repent and believe in Christ as Savior and Lord are to be baptized. Thus, they declare to the world that they have died with Christ and that they also have been raised with Him to walk in newness of life. (Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:16, Acts 10:47,48, Romans 6:4)

The Lord’s Supper, consisting of the elements—bread and the fruit of the vine—, is the symbol expressing our sharing the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:4), a memorial of His suffering and death (1 Corinthians 11:26), and a prophecy of His second coming (1 Corinthians 11:26), and is enjoined on all believers “till He comes!”