Praying for the Persecuted Church

In many other parts of the world, Christianity is viewed as a threat. Here in the western world, Christians don’t quite understand what real persecution is like. Christians in the western world pray that the persecution would stop for believers in other countries. However, as many believers from other countries have told, they have exited their persecution in jails or torture with a strengthened faith. If it is true that these believers are stronger in their faith after the persecution, should Christians in the western world really be praying for the persecution to stop?

In many African countries and Asian countries, Christianity is viewed as a threat to the government. If the believers in these countries truly believe that Jesus is Lord over their life, it would appear as a threat to the governments control over the Christians. In modern-day Russia, many believers have opened up about the torture and time they spent in jail during the days of the USSR. Even after these pastors and other leaders had been imprisoned for three or more years, being tortured every day, they find that their faith is stronger when they leave than it was when they entered jail.

In the western world, our only grasp of so-called “persecution” is when our family or friends sometimes disagree with our beliefs. We have not been imprisoned for praying in public, sharing the gospel, or teaching others about the Bible. It is very hard for us to understand what true persecution is like. What we don’t seem to truly understand is that Go never promised to bring us home to our families, he simply told us to go and tell others about him. The reason we don’t fully grasp that belief, is because we never have to face the reality that we may not live past sharing the gospel with someone.

As Christians in the western world, churches constantly talk about the persecution and tell how bad it is in other countries. What if Christians missed the whole point of the persecution? Christians are told to pray that this persecution will be stopped. Instead of the all familiar prayer asking for God to put a stop to the persecution, shouldn’t Christians be praying that these believers would stay strong and keep the faith in the middle of the persecution?

It seems that modern-day, western Christians have missed the point of the prayer for the persecuted church. Believers in the persecuted countries don’t wonder if the persecution will come, but instead, they wonder when it will come. They k now the persecution is coming. So Christians should instead pray that the believers in these circumstances will remain strong in their faith in the middle of persecution and torture. In conclusion, Christians in western countries should revive their views of persecution, and should adjust their prayer life accordingly.

How to Stand Against Other Christians

Possibly one of the hardest challenges I have ever faced is having to stand up for what I believe. Many of us have faced this trial but the one thing I can think of that is even harder is standing up for what you believe when you have been confronted by another self-proclaimed “Christian”. Don’t get me wrong here, I understand many Christians believe different things than I do, but it is seriously hard to stand against them when they bring judgment upon your beliefs.

I am a part of a very small Boy Scout troop near my home. I have known many of these guys for a long time, and every single one of them claims to be a devout follower of Christ. This is great! Especially in this time where Boy Scouts are under fire for lifting the ban on gay scouts. However, during the time that I have been in this Boy Scout troop, I have had a few spiritual changes in my life that have led to me becoming more and more involved with my home church, and other churches in the area. It doesn’t sound like a problem at first, especially since all of the other guys claim to be Christians, but that is not so true after all.

In roughly the last year and a half, the guys will be talking about scheduling another campout for the troop. They will say a date and count how many can make it. In most situations, I can’t go because it has been planned to late and I already have a church commitment. Then the guys started giving me grief because of it. “You never come on Scout outings anymore because you’re too busy with your church.” At one point, they planned an outing and I was already signed up to work at the middle school retreat as a high school leader that weekend and one of the scouts firmly told me that I was “shoving God down peoples throat,” and that, “Your church is too focused on dragging more people away from other things and cramming the Bible down each others throat.” That seriously stopped me in my tracks. I was depressed that a so called “Christian” was saying such a thing, and angry because he would say it. So I started thinking about it and came up with several conclusions.

1. Sometimes Christians are so focused on doing the “churchy things” that they start to neglect other functions. When we as Christians start to neglect outings and functions with other people who might not be Christians, we aren’t able to spread God’s light to them. It is a good thing to have a friend group that is firm in their faith, but that doesn’t mean that you should spend every waking moment with them and no one else. Is it a good thing to be involved in your church? Yes! Absolutely! But occasionally it is better to spread the light with someone who might not be a Christian, and miss a church event. Where are you more likely to convert someone? In a church, or outside the church?
2. I couldn’t back myself up against this other person, and I should have been able to do that.When you can’t even back yourself up against another Christian, it really shows how devoted you are to your time with Christ and how much time you spend in His Word. After this incident, I spent hours looking for verses in the Bible to help back myself up. My overall favorite verse to help is Acts 20:24 “But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.” This verse literally explains the reasoning behind me trying to be devoted to my church! All I wish is to do what God calls me to do! But sometimes that involves leaving your comfort zone and going to a place where your friends may question you about your faith. If you completely stop doing things with your lost friends or Christian friends who have different beliefs, they will stop associating with you completely, blaming it on the fact that you are just another stuck up, snobby, “too busy” Christian. God’s will is not for everyone to stay hidden in their church families all the time.
3. As Christians, we should listen to the hidden message behind what people tell us. Whether it is another Christian, or a non-Christian friend, people are always watching our every move. Whenever we slip up, even though it is natural, they will take note of it, I guarantee. That night I finally, genuinely listened to that scout. Yes, it was to late, and I have lost that friend. Next time I won’t wait that long though! When I started thinking about it, I realized that a lot of the scouts had been trying to tell me that same exact message for a few months! Sometimes it was through a subtle comment, and sometimes it was even in the form of a joke! Instead of hearingthe people around us talk, it should be our duty to be listening to the message behind what they say without becoming cocky or arrogant because we think we know better than they do.
4. When we stand for our belief, we should handle it firmly and not be moved in our belief, but at the same time, be as gentle as a dove with no anger. What caused me to lose this friend, believe it or not, was not the fact that our beliefs disagreed. Instead, it was that way I handled it. When I found that verse I just about shoved it in his face. I was angry, and that is not the correct way to handle the situation.
5. Lastly, when you don’t have anything to back yourself up, you can be firm in your belief with a simple answer to the questioning. Wait for it! This is like the best thing I have heard from one of my role models in a long time! This great man said in a sermon recently that if you can’t back yourself up with scripture, simply answer this way. “This is what I believe about my God, and that settles it; I will not be moved.” This doesn’t excuse you from finding something to help back you up. In fact, you should be more excited and anxious to find something to back you up in the Word, so that you can stand firm in the face of adversity the next time you are asked the same question. Although no one will ever have all of the answers, knowing a few answers is better than knowing none.

God taught me a lot through this test of my faith. He showed me that my belief was a little off, and showed me that even if my belief was exactly what he wanted, I couldn’t back myself up. My belief could have been 100 percent correct, but if I couldn’t back myself up, what good was it going to do? It’s a hard lesson to learn, but thank God for His wonderful grace and mercy and that he wouldn’t be angry with me even though I didn’t have the answers and even though I didn’t handle it correctly. Oh yeah, there’s the last part!

6. You should know beyond any doubt that God’s grace provides for you individually. So when you don’t have the answers, or you mess up, God is faithful to forgive the child that is following him and is open to repentence and help.

 

Romans 6:22

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and it’s end, eternal life.”

Romans 5:8

“but God shows His love for us that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.”

2 Thessalonians 3:13

“As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.”

Psalm 40:8

“I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

Galatians 2:20

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

-Sincerely,

John

“Bruce Jenner Is Not a Hero”-Illuminating Truth Blog

I must be honest here, I do not take any credit for this post. The author of the original article has her own blog that can be found from the following link. I will resist from posting anything that you can read on her blog. Please follow this link to read the article. Thank you to all of my readers and to the author of this blog!

-John H

https://emilysuzanne11.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/bruce-jenner-is-not-a-hero/

God’s Timing is Totally Relevant

I can’t begin to explain how it feels to learn something in your everyday walk. It’s so much better than hearing it from a pastor or teacher!

Recently, I have been learning, along with my mom, what it truly means to fully trust God, and His timing, and His ways. I’m just gonna be honest by saying that this might be labeled one of the hardest lessons to actually learn, especially since everyone will deal with it until the day we die.

For several months, mom and I (we worked together) had been experiencing some tough times at our workplace. It seemed like it was one thing after another that we didn’t agree with or appreciate. Mom was getting stressed, which in turn, caused me to be just the same, and it had begun to get even worse in the past few weeks. One thing led to another, and to keep from dragging this out, we both quit our jobs last week. For me, being that I live with my parents and I’m not even in college yet, it wasn’t very hard to quit. Will I miss many of my co-workers? Yes! I will miss them dearly!!! However, I was not relying on my income to provide for my needs, and my mom was. After my dad took a large pay cut last year, my moms income became a need to keep us on our feet. We were facing an extremely hard financial time.

Mom prayed and simply told God that if she was supposed to quit, he would have to give her the strength and peace to do it. And guess what, she did it. And I followed in her footsteps.

Now let me take a minute to give some back story. Mom has been looking at one certain place for employment for several years and they have never been hiring. She logged onto their website the day we quit and found that they are hiring for two positions! I don’t believe that it was a coincidence.

To continue with a little background, my family only owns one car and currently we can’t drive it. It’s almost as old as I am and has 208,000 miles on it. We didn’t know how we were going to get another car but it seemed that it was our only option. Two days after we quit, a van became available to us, and boy it was a steal! 2005 car with 42,000 miles on it for $4,000??? Once again, I don’t believe it was coincidence.

What does this go to show? If we will only trust God, and take the first step of faith (like quitting your job!), he will do wonderful things! Now I’m not saying that if you go quit your job, God will give you riches and jobs, but he will provide when you follow his lead.

One last thing before I go! And it’s the best part!

Mom was stressing and very upset over quitting. But why should we be afraid and upset over doing what God has led us to do? James 1:2 says, “Count it all joy my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,”. We should instead rejoice in our hard times and rejoice when the adversary takes hold of our lives!

I will leave you with a quote that a wise man brought to my attention when I was telling him about all of this. “If we do anything to further the kingdom of God, we may expect to find what Christ found on that road – abuse, indifference, injustice, misunderstanding, trouble of some kind. Take it. Why not? To that you were called. In Latin America someone who feels sorry for himself is said to look like a donkey in a downpour. If we think of the glorious fact that we are on the same path with Jesus, we might see a rainbow.” -Elizabeth Elliot

What Other People Think

As I prepare for this summer to take on a huge change in the way I see my world, I have gotten a lot of different responses from other people. Pretty much, most people think that I am wasting a perfectly good summer by filling it full of things to do. I’m serving at VBS, a kids camp, and a mission trip to the Philippines. I’m spending a week at youth camp. And believe it or not, people are giving me a hard time about not “resting” this summer. Their philosophy is “it’s called summer BREAK for a reason right?”

I don’t see it that way. I believe that if God wants me to be a part of all these things this summer, they will happen. So far, the funds have been provided and I don’t seem to have any reason to stay back. Unless God tells me soon that I should not go on these trips to serve him, I will continue through with my plan to serve him this summer.

Anyone else have this problem? It’s okay. People don’t understand why we want to serve Christ in such a non-selfish way. But we do. Press on with your heart to serve Christ.

The Silver Lining

Some of you may recall me talking about my dad losing his job. He wasn’t fired, he was laid off due to new company restrictions. That was a hard blow for my family. We knew God was doing something but naturally this caused a lot of stress in our house. Where there is stress, you can rely on the fact that my mom and dad will end up arguing over anything and everything. So for the past few weeks, our family has seen the worst side of each other. 

My dad got a job though and all is good. The only bad part is that he is only making about half of what he was making. Instead of barely making 50,000 a year, my dad is now only making approximately 20,000 per year. Things are going to get tight around the house financially. But what could be good about the situation? 

Well, we know that in Romans 8:28 God says that all thing work together for something good in the outcome. My dad has a job now. Even though he isn’t making as much, it is a blessing that he has a job. And to add onto that…

My family has been praying that my dad will get rid of his tobacco addiction and stop using it all together. Well, this company has a no tobacco on campus policy and that means he wont be allowed to have tobacco on the property while he is on the clock. What’s so good is that he has decided that instead of just going without the tobacco during his work hours, he will give it up all together!! 

So no matter what you may be going through right now, don’t forget that God has it all under control. There will be something good in the end. 

“Like David did…

“Like David did with five stones, take some of God’s promises and slay your Monday giants today.”

God’s Word Speaks

God’s word spoke to me last night. My mom was screaming and yelling at my dad, we lost our tax papers, I had problems with my scout troop. The list could go on. When I got to the church I have scout meetings at, I went to the men’s room, locked myself in the bathroom stall, and prayed. The only thing I could think to pray while I was crying out to God was “God help us”. Then he gave me a novel idea.

I picked up my iPod and pulled up my Bible app. It just so happens that my friend had been reading some out of James a couple days ago. That’s where my eyes landed. James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

God spoke to me in a mighty way through that verse. God’s word is always there when you need it. I think you should have a paper Bible in church ans such, but a Bible app works well too. But, really, it would have been nice if I had that verse already memorized. If God’s word can speak in such mighty ways, maybe we should take time to memorize that Word and have it available when it is needed.

Just remember, you cannot do this life by yourself. You need help. God is always listening to prayer. God’s Word is always speaking.

That’s Real Inspiration

You know who inspires me the most? The people that keep pressing on through the hard times. The ones who will work their butt off just so they can get behind in other areas of their lives, which they then have to catch up on. I know right now, I am behind on my schoolwork. I try my hardest to get caught up. I really do. But at the same time, I am trying to pay for a mission trip to the Philippines this summer. So, I have a job right now, and between my job, church, my scout troop, guitar, and these camps and things I’m trying to do this summer, I have gotten behind in my schoolwork. 

This morning, my mom asked me the hardest question I have had to answer all week. She asked me if I wanted to work today at the school, or stay home and try to get caught up on the schoolwork I will be doing all summer. Well… If I went to work, I would be earning money to go toward my trip. If I stayed home, I wouldn’t have to do as much schoolwork over the summer. I’m always behind on something. 

But the one thing that has been going through this over-imaginative brain of mine all day is that God has it all under control. I don’t have to beat myself up because I am getting behind. God knows what is going to happen. As long as I stay true to him and his work, I won’t have to worry about these things. 

When I see someone in the same situation, trying to honor God with their all, it inspires me to continue what I am doing. It’s encouraging. It’s totally a God thing. He is with me. He is with you. In all circumstances. When you’re scared to the core. Joy will always come. 

“The hardest pa…

“The hardest part about sharing the gospel, is the fact that most people will lie to you, and tell you they are a Christian, just to get you to stop bugging them. It’s sad, but it’s true.”