What is the Color of Brave?
As the weather started to shift, I was taking a break from the regular things I do. Happy with the progress I have been seeing on Substack as compared to the other platforms. I was… content with several articles all finished and scheduled for the next month.
I got one apple tree pruned and I was considering when to do the others. As well as putting a few roosters in the freezer. Because of this, I thought about doing very little for a while when the Lord decided to ask a question. “What is the color of Brave?”
That made me stop, think, and realize I had no idea. I mean I am decently versed, but not deeply in biblical symbology… but I just had no idea of the answer. So I did a simple search. There are a lot of scriptures that either speak directly or indirectly to the issue of bravery but little is mentioned to imply a color.
Many scriptures seem to deal with the issues of the heart like Isaiah 35:4 “Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.”
So this caused me to start pondering Bravery itself, and in some ways, we are now seeing it in various corners of Christianity popping up right now. People are willing to stand up, draw a line in the sand, and say NO MORE to corrupt systems of manipulation. And in this simple observation, I realized something. Bravery gives birth to more bravery.
It’s almost like in some ways to have bravery, you need to personally chase it down and tackle it. Wrestle it to the ground for a while until you can handcuff it to yourself. And then look it in the face and yell, “I’m not letting go of you!”
This got me thinking about stories, old stories. I remembered an old family story from over a thousand years ago. It is a story about one of my descendants at the Battle of Acer during the days of the Crusades. He was on a high vantage point and could see the Muslim army was circling around and would have overtaken and killed his king who was suffering from scurvy. Knowing the king was unaware of what was happening, my relative gathered the lancers and attacked, saving the king. As a result of this, the king knighted him on the battlefield for showing bravery in a royal manner.
So this got me thinking of other things, other stories as I started to realize some of the qualities involved. Take for instance the requirements for the US Medal of Honor. Each person who receives it must demonstrate four basic qualities, Bravery, Courage, Sacrifice, and Integrity.
So then I started to look deeper as echoes of various scriptures came to mind like… Matthew 9:2 “And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”
Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
1 Samuel 16:18 “One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.”
Psalm 78:72 “And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.”
So all this got me thinking, pondering, and wondering. Bravery seems to be a condition of the heart to pull something forward, greater than is normal. To act and live in a royal manner worthy or greater than your calling. As soon as I realized this another scripture came wandering in… 1 Peter 2:9. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
I really want to say that the color of Bravery is purple because it would seem to be a royal quality. But I think it is more, I think it is two colors together Red and Purple because it is a condition of the heart that produces royal characteristics.
There are many people in some of the bigger ministries who are trying to keep the lid on current events. They don’t want the full story of Mike Bickel, Todd Bentley, John MacArthur, Ravi Zacharias, Mark Driscoll, Alan Scott, and many others to come out. These people twist and manipulate their followers into silence with fine sound arguments.
But the brave are rising, they are not looking at the leaders, but the victims, the weary and worn out and they are speaking up for them. They are coming to the defense of those who can not, and that is honorable, noble, and brave.
These people are generally not well-liked but secretly loved by the broken. Although they are causing waves in one area, they are bringing a measure of peace to broken souls.
These people are like modern-day versions of Jehu, and John the Baptist, and they are sometimes rough around the edges. Basically say it another way in a more modern, humerus context, “they are not housebroken.” Or you could also say, “They don’t play well with others!” The others I am speaking of course would be the leaders, the leaders who are no longer walking in a broken and contrite spirit before the Lord. Some (not all) actually fit the descriptions mentioned in Ezekiel 34. “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock.”
If this section of scripture is now being played out in a modern context, then the ending of the chapter can also be seen playing out as well. Meaning… the Lord is coming to Shepard His flock. In some ways, we are seeing shadows of this playing out now. Many are feeling the call to step away ( V.13) from traditional mainline fellowships for a variety of reasons. And some of the broken who stepped away years ago are now being directed by the Holy Spirit to safer places (V.16) To make much of this happen in this day the Lord also seems to be raising up, and working through the Jehu, and John the Baptists characters to bring forth his message of Holiness and repentance (V.20)
Both Jehu and John dealt with the issues of weak leadership. In Jehu’s case, it was Jezebel and Ahab who had to be dealt with. These leaders had to be taken out so that freedom may come to the Lord’s people. In John’s case, it was declaring that the Lord himself was coming to deal with the ultra-religious, of those the most senior leaders were Annas and Caiaphas. These two senior leaders paid the highest price historically as Caiaphas a few years later after Jesus was raised, was dragged out of Jerusalem by the Romans and killed. Annas eventually realized that his actions resulted in the death of the promised messiah and head-butted himself into a stone wall, killing himself.
These men were not brave, but cowardly. John the Baptist on the other hand was considered by Jesus to be the greatest of all the prophets for his actions. But why are these modern Jehu and Johns to be considered brave?
They are brave because they are standing up and demonstrating the Lord’s heart to protect the weak. This is something that is at the very core of Jesus’ ministry, consider his words in Luke 4 “And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
Many within the Charismatic quickly zero in on the power side of this scripture, the healing of the blind. But if your ministry is running over the top of people, creating victims, well then it does not matter how powerful your ministry is because you are violating the very core of what Jesus came to do. There is an old saying that says, ‘it is better to fall on the rock and be broken than to have the rock fall on you and be ground to powder.’
May the Lord raise up many more to challenge the system. Perhaps, now is your time?
Here are some links to a few brave people
