36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
37 "For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him."
39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.
Opposition to our deeply-held beliefs, rooted in the Scriptures, can cause us to retreat, if we're not careful, and be less-than-bold in expressing our own convictions. He does not want us to cower, but to be confident in the Lord. He has provided the antidote to fear - He gives power over it, He has extended His love, that casts it out, and He wants us to think in accordance with the Scriptures. 2nd Timothy 1 says that He hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but we have power, love, and a sound mind. We can be brave in Christ because of these effective resources.
God calls us to be brave in Him, and He equips us in order to walk in confidence in His abilities.
Joshua, as he was called to lead the people of Israel, was reminded of this; we read in Joshua 1:
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."
Brendan Eich could be considered to be a technological wizard. He created the tool known as JavaScript, and he is the co-founder of Mozilla, which developed the Firefox browser. But, in 2014, he was forced out of the company he founded. Why? Maybe you remember this...because he had made a political donation - $1,000 - to support the marriage amendment in California defining marriage as one man and one woman. Oh, and the amount doesn't matter - it could have been a dollar or a million - this man should not have lost his company because of his political views.
According to a piece on the LifeSiteNews website by Mark Hodges:
The LifeSiteNews piece states:
I would say that the use of the name, Brave, is indicative of a demand by consumers for a better browsing experience, it is also ironic that it has been launched by someone who took a principled stand on a social issue and was ostracized for it. Of course, who knows if it even occurred to him that he would receive so much flak for a political donation.
So a few thoughts on being "brave" today:
First of all, even for the believer in Christ, bravery may be counter-intuitive. Bravery involves taking a bold step in the face of danger or opposition. We may feel like we need to be comfortable and cower in fear, but we remember that God has not given us a spirit of fear, according to 2nd Timothy 1; rather, we are given power, love, and a sound mind. Our minds will put up resistance - we will talk ourselves out of taking bold steps. But, the Lord will give us the capacity to speak and act with bravery.
We also recognize that bravery may be counter-cultural. What Brendan Eich experienced - losing a job because of a principled stand he took - is something that he shares with a number of people these days. For Christians, we are living in a culture where the predominant wave is to accept a variety of forms of expression, without regard of right or wrong as defined by the Scriptures.
Finally, we acknowledge that God wants the very best for us, but sometimes we are fearful of stepping out; therefore, we can recognize that lack of bravery may be counter-productive. We are not called to be people who hold back when God is calling us forward. In some situations, the best course of action is to deal with issues head-on, relying on God's power. But, if we give in to fear, we may not experience what God is wanting to do in and around us.
+++++
God calls us to be brave in Him, and He equips us in order to walk in confidence in His abilities.
Joshua, as he was called to lead the people of Israel, was reminded of this; we read in Joshua 1:
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."
Brendan Eich could be considered to be a technological wizard. He created the tool known as JavaScript, and he is the co-founder of Mozilla, which developed the Firefox browser. But, in 2014, he was forced out of the company he founded. Why? Maybe you remember this...because he had made a political donation - $1,000 - to support the marriage amendment in California defining marriage as one man and one woman. Oh, and the amount doesn't matter - it could have been a dollar or a million - this man should not have lost his company because of his political views.
According to a piece on the LifeSiteNews website by Mark Hodges:
Eich was publicly shamed because he believed in natural marriage and family. He was openly called a racist, Nazi, and inhumane.
But the tenacious techie didn't give up. Without apology, Eich continued to innovate and ultimately came up with a whole new concept in web browsers: the ad-free, tracking-free, fast internet browser Brave.
In November 2015, Eich raised $2.5 million to create an advanced super-technical team. By August 2016, the company had raised $4.5 million in seed money to launch the browser.Michael Brown writes for The Stream:
Brave is called an entirely new way to browse the web without being intrusively tracked, and without time-consuming download ads.
In reality, in all his years at Mozilla, no one had ever accused him of acting in a bigoted way, and the influential gay journalist Andrew Sullivan commented that “there is not a scintilla of evidence that he has ever discriminated against a single gay person at Mozilla” and so the whole episode “should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society.”Brown pointed to the millions that corporate leaders like Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Tim Cook of Apple have poured into promoting the homosexual agenda and discussed how Eich's donation was made in 2008, when President Obama, as a candidate, "unequivocally stated that, for him as a professing Christian, marriage was the sacred union of a man and woman, and he rejected gay marriage outright."
The LifeSiteNews piece states:
Because of Eich’s history, Brave was opposed before it was officially launched. Major media websites took legal action to stop it, sending a cease and desist letter, claiming Brave was illegal because it blocked advertisements.Eich countered by saying that, "We do not tamper with any first-party publisher content, including native ads that do not use third-party tracking." Catherine Corre of Brave told LifeSiteNews, "Brendan picked the name 'Brave' because we need users who will take a stand and fight back," adding, "We see third party ads and tracking as toxic, and we block that by default."
I would say that the use of the name, Brave, is indicative of a demand by consumers for a better browsing experience, it is also ironic that it has been launched by someone who took a principled stand on a social issue and was ostracized for it. Of course, who knows if it even occurred to him that he would receive so much flak for a political donation.
So a few thoughts on being "brave" today:
First of all, even for the believer in Christ, bravery may be counter-intuitive. Bravery involves taking a bold step in the face of danger or opposition. We may feel like we need to be comfortable and cower in fear, but we remember that God has not given us a spirit of fear, according to 2nd Timothy 1; rather, we are given power, love, and a sound mind. Our minds will put up resistance - we will talk ourselves out of taking bold steps. But, the Lord will give us the capacity to speak and act with bravery.
We also recognize that bravery may be counter-cultural. What Brendan Eich experienced - losing a job because of a principled stand he took - is something that he shares with a number of people these days. For Christians, we are living in a culture where the predominant wave is to accept a variety of forms of expression, without regard of right or wrong as defined by the Scriptures.
Finally, we acknowledge that God wants the very best for us, but sometimes we are fearful of stepping out; therefore, we can recognize that lack of bravery may be counter-productive. We are not called to be people who hold back when God is calling us forward. In some situations, the best course of action is to deal with issues head-on, relying on God's power. But, if we give in to fear, we may not experience what God is wanting to do in and around us.
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