I am “N”. Are you?

Just a quick thought for you to ponder, but a very important one.

If you’ve watched the news at all, you’ve heard some of the atrocities going on when ISIL Islamic terrorist butchers take over cities in Iraq and Syria.  I get daily reports of men and children being tortured and killed, beheaded, crucified and everything else imaginable. Teenage girls and young women are sold into slavery – yes, in 2014, human slavery is going on. And there are people buying girls for sex slaves.

In the recent past, residents of Mosul in Iraq,who were Christians, were given 4 choices: convert to their version of Islam, leave and forfeit everything they owned, or pay a huge tax – or be killed. Just so everyone knows which homes are housing Christians, an Arabic letter “N” (or the Arabic equivalent) is spray-painted on their house walls. The Arabic “N” looks like a 2/3 finished circle with a little dot at the top.  Sometimes they spray paint a complete circle around that – making it strangely look like a smiley face.  You may find it interesting to note that Mosul is the modern city where ancient Nineveh once stood.

Why “N”? 

Click on “Continue reading” to learn all about this and how it applies so profoundly to you.

That was ISIL’s way of telling everyone that this home belonged to a Nazarene – a follower of the Messiah from Nazareth, in other words. Doesn’t it remind you of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s when Jewish businesses and homes were marked with “J” – JEW, Juden?  How brave are those believers in Yeshua over there. I don’t care, at this point, if they worship on Sunday or Sabbath.  I’m just making the point:  they are brave.

No doubt some Christians – like Peter in his time of danger – may have denied being a Nazarene, a Christian, a follower of the man from Nazareth. But I also know thousands upon thousands are refusing to convert to Islam – and are being tortured and killed as a result. 

So imagine what it would be like for YOU to be faced with that choice:  Become a Muslim, deny your Lord and Savior – or be tortured and then beheaded, but only after you first watch your daughters being taken away and ravished by those terrorists. 

Would you and I be so brave? 

I subscribe to a newsletter from “Voice of the Martyrs” and I learned of this from them.  But all over the Middle East, I’m glad to say people by the thousands are coming out with their version of saying “I am N” to show who they are. There are Facebook pages and Twitter sites set up by the thousands to support “I am N”. Folks, there’s a new Christian holocaust going on and whether you agree with all their theology or not – they deserve your prayers and applause and support.  It’s not the Jews this time – but Christians. We know in the last days there will be a time of Great Tribulation, greater times of stress and woes than the world has EVER seen. So it’s coming to a city near you, sooner or later.

Some of you will be tempted to say, “so what? They’re not true Christians like we are.”  Maybe they believe differently, but would you be so brave in your faith? Who am I, and who are you, to judge our brother or sister? We each will have to stand before Christ’s judgment seat, Paul said – read Romans 14:10-12 – as he warns us not to be condemning of others.

Matt 2:23

And he [Yeshua] came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene."

Paul was accused of being a ringleader of the Nazarenes. Good for him!

Acts 24:5

“For we have found this man [Paul] a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes”.

Stand up.  Declare to all – “I am N”—that you’re a follower of the Messiah from Nazareth.  It reminds me of the original movie “Spartacus”, where at the end, as the Romans tried to identify Spartacus the leader of the rebel gladiators who were in revolt – that one by one, and soon hundreds or thousands, were all standing up as they shouted “I  am Spartacus.” 

Make no doubt about it. Your allegiance to Yeshua or Jesus or Christ or Messiah – or whatever you call our Savior -- is going to be tested. Those testing you won’t care if you call him Yeshua or Jesus, or keep Sabbath or Sunday. They won’t care if you keep the traditional calculated Hebrew calendar or the non-postponed one. They won’t care.

All they will care about is – are you willing to boldly proclaim you are a Nazarene in the face of death?

You know what?  Yeshua stood up for you and me, and died for you and me. The day is coming when we will be faced with the opportunity to do the same for him;  to not deny him; to profess with our lives – I am N.  Some of us will be martyrs – witnesses to Yeshua as the coming King.  Others may be protected from the time of trouble coming upon the whole world. But I contend that only those whom Yeshua already knows will go all the way for him stand any chance of being protected.  But whether we live or whether we die in the coming tribulation, let’s openly profess – I am “N”.

In the meantime, stand up for those who bravely admit they are “N” – and pray for them and maybe find ways to help them any way you can. You may be hoping thousands are praying for YOU someday.  What goes around, comes around.

I am “N”.  I hope you’re “in” too.