Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. -- Hebrews 12:3
I cannot say that, as a Christian, I have encountered a lot
of direct, personal hostility. I have
lived all my life in a majority-Christian nation, associating mostly with
people who were, at the very least, cultural Christians. There does seem to be a sort of sea-change
right now, and growing animus aimed at the heart of the Church. If this anti-Christ movement gains momentum,
we should not become discouraged.
I think I would have a hard time welcoming serious
persecution, yet, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all
kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice
and be glad, for your reward is great
in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
I don’t know if I can do that.
Should it become, in what remains of my earthly journey, a
crime to follow Christ, to speak His Name, to speak the truth in love, or to
live in obedience to the Bible and the dictates of my conscience, the best I
could hope is to follow the admonition from Hebrews. If I cannot rejoice in hostility and
oppression, perhaps I can endure without fainting and giving up.
Christ was victorious. He will always be victorious. Those who might hope to eradicate Christianity or,
worse, neutralize and pervert it, will find their efforts backfiring on
them badly. They might demolish the churches
but the Church will stand stronger and taller than ever. They might set fire to a building, but we are
baptized in fire and the Holy Spirit. It
is our native element.
3 comments:
Aye, endiring and rejoicing persecution is something I can't say for sure I will do. To tell the truth, I hope I never hafta find out, but more than that I hope our children and grandchildren are spared from this.
In any sense, now more than ever in my lifetime, we all need to trust in the Lord and ask that He give us strength, courage and the ability to rejoice in Him no matter what happens to our bodies.
As opinionated as I am I find I have a hard time discussing issues like these other than pointing out obvious facts. All I can say is that in the end they must violate the Constitution in order to persecute us more. That may not seem like much but it carries a huge weight in some circles and give us not only the word of God but those of earthly beings as well.
Good words, guys. Thank you. Yes, I think we are better off with the First Amendment being so explicit than some countries.
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