Home / Posts tagged 'Persecution'

• Would You Respond This Way? Would I?

  In SeriousFaith / 2 March 2013 / 0 comments

  

  Below is a letter from an imprisoned Christian Pastor in Iran. While we grumble about the coffee quality in Sunday school, the music in the worship service or the Pastor’s sermon, much of Christianity around the world is suffering for their faith. I don’t really go for the “guilt trip” stuff, and that is not what this is meant to be. Call it a “perspective adjustment”.  If you were in prison being tortured, humiliated and pressured for simply being a Christian, how much would these other things matter that seem to bother us so much about Church or other Christians?  If you were the spouse of a Christian jailed and persecuted, what would really matter to you? Would you respond like the letter below? Would [...]

   

• Ten Thousand Against Me

  In Faithful, SeriousFaith, Teaching / 26 August 2009 / 1 comment

  Psalm 3:6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around. (NKJV) There have been many times in my life when I realize how thankful I am to be a Christian. Not only for salvation and God’s blessings, but also for what I’m NOT because of being a Christian.For example, I’m prone to being intensely affected by the pathos of life… the sadness, the hurting world, the awfulness of sin and how it destroys lives. It really gets to me. Maybe it’s the artsy, creative side of me. Maybe God just built me that way (obviously he did). If I were not a Christian, I could easily go from being compassionate about a hurting world, to [...]

   

• Come To The Water

  In Faithful, SeriousFaith, Teaching / 26 August 2009 / 0 comments

  Isaiah 55:1 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. (NKJV)As an American especially, there is MUCH to be concerned about in these increasingly troublesome times. The world in general is a dangerous place for the faithful as evidenced by the TENS OF THOUSANDS of Christians every year who are beaten, tortured, imprisoned, mistreated and martyred for their faith. Traditionally safe places like America are fast approaching a time where only the “non-offensive” portions of Scripture will be grudgingly tolerated. However, as history clearly dictates, that toleration will soon be followed by complete intoleration of anything authentically Christian.While the world cries “peace and safety”, [...]

   

• It Made Me Stop and Think

  In Faithful, SeriousFaith, Teaching / 26 August 2009 / 0 comments

  Psalm 69:26 For they persecute the ones You have struck, And talk of the grief of those You have wounded. (NKJV) This weekend I was at a Missions Conference and something I witnessed really made me stop and think.A young, petite, Caucasian female got up and gave testimony about her ministry work in North Africa. The area she works in is 95% Muslim, 5% Buddhist. She knows of 10 other students (that’s who she ministers to) that are professing Christians. TEN. A female. American. White skinned. Young. Single. 95% Muslim population. Getting the picture? She just spoke of her work there with the students as if she was talking about working with the local youth group at the Baptist church down the road. I was [...]

   

• This But Not That

  In Faithful, Happy, SeriousFaith, Teaching / 26 August 2009 / 0 comments

  2 Corinthians 4:8-10 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (NKJV) Life is hard. Even on the very best of days we are never far from understanding that life in general is difficult and complex. That doesn’t mean it’s not joyful. That doesn’t mean it’s not satisfying. At any given time there are usually several difficult aspects or circumstances in life.Have you ever wondered why God allows life to be this way? I mean He could simply snap His fingers and we can [...]

   

• Christian Persecution

  In Faithful, SeriousFaith, Teaching / 26 August 2009 / 0 comments

  Acts 7:59-60 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (NKJV)(Previous devotionals can be found at www.seriousfaith.com)The Death of Stephen, the First MartyrActs 7:54-60 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of [...]