By Ronnie Boulware

These are exciting times we live in! I just read on the Internet that “head transplants” would be possible by 2017. Isn’t that great? It must be so because everything on the Internet is true. Right?

But think about that for a moment. Suppose your head was transplanted onto another body. You walk down the street and see a friend. By what name are they going to call you? The name that goes with the head or the one that goes with the body? Suppose your head is transplanted onto the body of the opposite sex? How is that going to work? It can get hilarious if you think about it very long. What’s not hilarious is losing your head. Unfortunately, some people do, both metaphorically and literally. I suppose we have all lost our head metaphorically, but none of us reading this article have ever lost our head literally, yet.

I know you have been watching and hearing news about Christians in different parts of the world being persecuted and part of the persecution includes beheading. I can’t think of anything more heinous than that. We see pictures of Christians on their knees in front of people with masks standing behind them with machetes, ready to chop the head off, just because they are Christians.

They think that confronting people with a choice of either denying Jesus or being beheaded, they would choose to live. But obviously, these brave Christians believe the “truth” is something worth dying for.

Opposition to the truth and the threat of having your life taken away is not anything new.

Mark 6:28 says, “And brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.”

John the Baptist, the forerunner, the prophet of God sent to announce the coming of the Messiah had his head cut off because he dared tell the truth that Herod had no business marrying the wife of his brother. This made her mad and when the opportunity came she used her daughter to persuade Herod to cut John’s head off.

The “truth” cost John his life. He died for his faith, as did most of the original disciples of Jesus. In fact, in the book of Revelation, one of the visions the apostle John saw included the “souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God…” Revelation 20:4. They reigned with Christ! Those who are beheaded for Christ have a special place in the future.

Of course, “truth” is and has always been under attack.

We may not be threatened with beheading, yet, but if you dare speak the truth or stand on certain truth, you put yourself in a position of being harassed, ridiculed, talked about, called names, disliked and marginalized. It has never been truer than in this debate going on today about marriage. That subject is not the only area where truth is being called into question. But truth does not change. Truth is not determined by “culture”, judges, politicians or the Supreme Court.

Is standing on “truth” worth being harassed, and vilified? Is standing on and believing certain “truth” worth losing your job or your head? Are we willing to stand by truth, no matter the cost? What do you believe that’s worth losing your job, if it comes to it? What do you “believe” that’s worth dying for? What kind of convictions do you possess that you are not willing to give up when the pressure is on? That might tell us something about ourselves that we need to know. The core values of our lives give direction, and if “truth” is not one of those core values, then we wander around with no “center”. As the old saying goes, ”The truth shall set you free”. The originator of that particular saying is the one who claimed to be “the way, the TRUTH, and the life”, Jesus Christ.