The Christian's Decision at the Guild Feast Now, we left our young Christian man last week, with the sun going down behind him, and with no city walls to protect him, workshops are closing on the left and right along the narrow streets of Thyatira, hammers are ringing across the streets against the bronze that they were banging against all afternoon, but they're now falling silent one by one, the dyers are at home trying to rinse the purple and the scarlet stains from underneath their fingernails, at least they're trying to, the bakers were pulling the last loaves of bread from their oven, smoke was hanging above the roofs and settling into the streets, it was carrying the mingled smell of charcoal, tanned leather hides, lamp oil, cooked meat, sweat, and a day's worth of sacrifices that were being prepared as meals in the trade guild that afternoon, and somewhere in the midst of all of the hustle and bustle of the Thyatiran city, a flute begins to play inside of the guild hall, men begin to gather, they begin to go inside, they begin to laugh and drink and enjoy the festivities, and from somewhere inside of that hall, someone spots that Christian lingering outside of the door, in their moment of decision, are they gonna go in or are they gonna stay outside, are they gonna go home or are they gonna sacrifice, are they gonna compromise, someone sees them and then they beckon them to come in, and here's what would have been so interesting about this scene that we're talking about, because the man looking in, the Christian looking in, would have known everyone in the room, they would have been friends, they would have been people who maybe sat in that room who taught him the trade when he was just a young lad, there would have been others in there who would have sent more customers to him than anyone else because they were friends, they were throwing customers his way, getting him business, maybe there was someone in there who loaned him money when his youngest child was sick, these were men, not like painted villains in a spaghetti Western crouching in the shadows waiting to attack, these were actually neighbors, these were people who knew him and knew his wife, they were people who had held his children after they had been born, they were people that had worked alongside of him and beneath the same brutal summer sun as he had, people who had eaten in his homes, there are people who stood with him in his grave when his father died, these are not strangers that are inside this guild hall as the Christian is outside making a decision on what he's gonna do, he's a newly converted Christian maybe, and he's now challenged with what he's always known, what he's always done, and what now he knows by the spirit he must do.