How Important Is Jesus To You?

"Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:10-12).

     During the ecumenical Council of Constance in 1415 A.D., Jan Hus, the rector of Charles University and a prominent reformer and religious thinker, was sentenced to be burnt at the stake as a heretic.  The verdict was passed despite the fact that Hus was granted formal protection by Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg prior to the journey.  Hus was invited to attend the council to defend himself and the Czech (Bohemia) positions in the religious court, but with the emperor's approval, he was executed on July 6, 1415.  The execution of Hus, as well as five consecutive papal crusades against followers of Hus, forced the Bohemians to defend themselves.  Their defense and rebellion against Roman Catholics became known as the Hussite Wars.

On June 10, 1415, Hus wrote to his followers in Bohemia:

           Master John Hus, a servant of God in hope, to all the faithful Bohemians who love and will love God, praying that God may grant them to live and die in his grace, and dwell forever in the heavenly joy. Amen. Faithful and beloved of God, lords and ladies, rich and poor!  I entreat you and exhort you to love God, to spread abroad his word, and to hear and observe it more willingly.  I entreat you to hold fast the truth of God, which I have written and preached to you from the holy Scriptures.

          I write this letter to you in prison, bound with chains and expecting on the morrow the sentence of death, yet fully trusting in God that I shall not swerve from his truth nor swear denial of the errors, whereof I have been charged by false witnesses.  What grace God hath shown me, and how he helps me in the midst of strange temptations, you will know when by his mercy we meet in joy in his presence. Of Master Jerome, my beloved friend, I hear nothing except that he too, like myself, is in a noisome prison waiting for death, and that on account of his faith which he showed so earnestly to the Bohemians.

 

I entreat this too of you, that ye love one another, defend good men from violent oppression,and give every one an opportunity of hearing the truth, I am writing this with the help of a good angel on Monday night before St. Vitus's Day.

Twenty-six days, later, John Hus died at the stake.
Morgan, Robert J.: On This Day: 265 Amazing and Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs & Heroes. electronic ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000, c1997, S. June 10

"In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.  In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:11-14).

We need not fear, we only need to be obedient to our salvation and live not for this world but for the world to come, the promise of everlasting life with our Savior and God.

Daily Prayer:

Father those faithful saints who have left us/me the legacy of faith even unto an unjust sentence of death.  Their faithfulness drives me forward to serve You in a greater and more faithful way.  Let those saints, you have never left us nor will you and in that I find comfort.  Help me Holy Spirit to live my faith under any and all circumstances for Your glory.                                                                                 Amen