Persecutions Will Come

"But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you will bear testimony to me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life. (Luke 21:12-19 NIV)

I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about the most recent attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt. Jesus said that those who follow him will be persecuted. (John 15:20) Sadly, Christians in many countries are. They are persecuted and killed for their faith.

But, something else bothered me. It is that in the western world we are not persecuted by those who are outside of the church. The persecution is a very crafty model the devil would use against us. The visible church in the western world, if and when it is persecuted, is most often persecuted by members of the church. While people in other parts of the world are being killed for their faith, Christians in the western world tend to quibble and even attack one another over worldly things. Disputes over the color of the carpeting is not a wives tale. They actually occur. It is amazing to me how things that should make no difference (adiaphora) can cause division within a congregation and become such a distraction that the real mission of the church comes to a standstill. I sometimes wonder if Jesus looks at the church in the western world just as he looked at the Pharisees and Sadducees when he walked on the earth as true man.

While Coptic Christians; as well as others, are dying for their faith; much of the western church is not willing to let their self-wills die to follow Jesus; in order for God's will be done. We have pretty much made gods of ourselves. I have seen many models for the church and for church growth. I have sadly heard the proposition that in order to grow we should not treat the church like a family; but, more like a business. The church is most definitely a family! We are the children of God! Sadly, as Jesus predicted that family members will betray one another. This seems to have come to pass for Christians in their birth families as well as in the family of God.

Today, I grieve and pray for the faithful who have been injured or murdered on account of the name of Jesus. But, I also grieve and pray for a dying church in other areas of the world, in the western world, where the church and it's members are often more worried about making a name for themselves rather than standing firm and decreeing and declaring the love of God for all people in the name of Jesus.

May God help us all to stand firm, both living and dying for the love of God in Christ Jesus.

God's Peace - Pr. J