What will it be like when we get to heaven and we are surrounded by people who gave their all for the kingdom of God?  Imagine you sitting there in heaven at the marriage supper of the Lamb and a little girl asks you to recount your salvation through the Lamb.  You tell your story to those around you and then you ask the little girl to tell her story.  She tells you that she is from Rome and died in A.D. 64 under the leadership of the Roman Emperor Nero.  She tells how her family had become disciples of Jesus and were persecuted for their faith in Jesus until finally they were arrested by Roman soldiers and taken to the prisons.  Her family was then taken to the Colosseum and sent out before thousands of people.  Suddenly the doors open and lions appear.  She tells you that her mother and father took her by the hand, knelt down in the dirt and begin to pray to the Lord Jesus to receive them into His kingdom.

What will you say as you realize that you never gave your all for the kingdom?  What will you say about all the wasted hours you wasted watching sports and movies?  What will you say about how you lived your life for your own pleasures and your own glory?  What did you sacrifice for the Lamb?

John Huss gave his all for Jesus.  Huss, along with William Tyndale and John Wycliffe, laid the foundations for the Reformation.  It was their influences that inspired a monk named Martin Luther to study the Scriptures.  Huss can best be described as a rebel for God.  His conviction that the Scriptures are to be obeyed above all things (take heed church!) led to his death.  Huss strongly preached that the Church must listen to the Scriptures above any human beings including the Pope himself.  This act led to his own government abandoning him and allow the Roman Catholic Church to persecuted and kill him.  However, the murder of John Huss led to the flames of reformation.

I quote the following:

With that Huss lost the support of his king. His excommunication, which had been tacitly dropped, was now revived, and an interdict was put upon the city of Prague: no citizen could receive Communion or be buried on church grounds as long as Huss continued his ministry. To spare the city, Huss withdrew to the countryside toward the end of 1412. He spent the next two years in feverish literary activity, composing a number of treatises. The most important was The Church, which he sent to Prague to be read publicly. In it he argued that Christ alone is head of the church, that a pope “through ignorance and love of money” can make many mistakes, and that to rebel against an erring pope is to obey Christ.

In November 1414, the Council of Constance assembled, and Huss was urged by Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund to come and give an account of his doctrine. Because he was promised safe conduct, and because of the importance of the council (which promised significant church reforms), Huss went. When he arrived, however, he was immediately arrested, and he remained imprisoned for months. Instead of a hearing, Huss was eventually hauled before authorities in chains and asked merely to recant his views.

When he saw he wasn’t to be given a forum for explaining his ideas, let alone a fair hearing, he finally said, “I appeal to Jesus Christ, the only judge who is almighty and completely just. In his hands I plead my cause, not on the basis of false witnesses and erring councils, but on truth and justice.” He was taken to his cell, where many pleaded with him to recant. On July 6, 1415, he was taken to the cathedral, dressed in his priestly garments, then stripped of them one by one. He refused one last chance to recant at the stake, where he prayed, “Lord Jesus, it is for thee that I patiently endure this cruel death. I pray thee to have mercy on my enemies.” He was heard reciting the Psalms as the flames engulfed him.  He continued to sing until finally the flames burned his face though his lips continued to move until he breathed his last.  

His executioners scooped up his ashes and tossed them into a lake so that nothing would remain of the “heretic,” but some Czechs collected bits of soil from the ground where Huss had died and took them back to Bohemia as a memorial.

The exception between the death of John Huss and John Wycliffe is that the Catholics hated Wycliffe so much that the Pope ordered that Wycliffe’s body be dug up and burned as a sign of their hatred for this “heretic”.  How Satan hates the true warriors of God!

Oh brothers and sisters let us sacrifice for our Jesus!  What are a few hours on your face in comparison to eternity?  What is a few laughs at you for standing for holiness in comparison to what Jesus did for us on the cross?  Who cares if they like us so long as we are chosen by God!  Let us give our all for Jesus since He gave His all for us (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

© 2011, Matt. All rights reserved.