Good Morning Friends,
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted
and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that
time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,
and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the
increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm
to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in
the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
(Matthew 24:9-14)
Jesus predicted a time when fierce persecution
would overtake the church and many would desert the faith they said they had
embraced. Has that time come? I don’t know if the particular time Jesus was
speaking of has come or not, but many times like that have come in the 2,000
year history of the church and we are in a time like that today. Worldwide the
church is experiencing as much persecution as it ever has. More Christians died
for the faith last century than in any other century in history.
Two important lessons strike me from Jesus’ words:
We have to hang on to Him. Whether life is comfortable
or we are threatened with torture and death, we need to cling tightly to Jesus.
There isn’t any magic formula or any hidden secrets that can be shared about
how to do that. It’s a matter of staying in the Word, maintaining a life of
prayer, being in fellowship with other believers, and walking in obedience to
the Lord. These have always been the keys to a strong and growing relationship
with Jesus and they always will be.
Even in the midst of the persecution, the
importance of spreading the gospel remains. Before the end Jesus promises that
the Gospel will be preached in the whole world. Persecution can never halt the
spread of the Gospel and we must never allow it to.
The Second Coming may well be around the corner
or it may be another thousand years away. Whichever, the truths remain the
same: hang on no matter how tough it is and keep being involved in spreading
the Gospel.
His, by Grace, Steve
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