Fred Sanford didn’t avoid talking about “the big one” whenever sudden stress went over the top.<\/p>\n
Most of us don’t talk about heart attacks—OR—emp’s—OR—stock market crashes—OR—<\/p>\n
persecution ! ? ! ?<\/p>\n
PERSECUTION, really, for me ?
\n– – –
\nIf you are not a serious Christian, you do not think about it.
\nIf you are a serious Christian, you choose a theology that says we’ll be gone.
\nDoes the last three fourths of Revelation somehow not apply to us reading it now ?
\nThen why read it ?
\n– – –
\nWhy don’t Christians in America talk about persecution?<\/p>\n
Because persecution is so foreign to us.<\/p>\n
Because we’ve had it so good in America, without serious persecution.<\/p>\n
Because we don’t know how to talk about persecution.<\/p>\n
Because we might get “persecuted” by our friends if we talk about persecution.<\/p>\n
Because we’re so busy talking and dealing with other things.<\/p>\n
Because we heard theology that says we’ll be out of here before persecution.<\/p>\n
Because we don’t listen to the stories of fellow Christians persecuted around the world.<\/p>\n
Because we don’t pray for those persecuted Christians.<\/p>\n
Because persecution hasn’t struck close to home.<\/p>\n
Because persecution hasn’t affected us yet.<\/p>\n
Because we hope persecution won’t really happen here.<\/p>\n
Because we have the first amendment to protect us from persecution.<\/p>\n
Because we’re not ready for persecution.<\/p>\n
Because our pastors don’t talk about persecution.<\/p>\n
Because our pastors aren’t preparing us for persecution.<\/p>\n
Because we don’t like the words, “All who live Godly in Christ will suffer persecution.”<\/p>\n
If you are a Jesus follower, what if His words come true for you and me?<\/p>\n
“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.<\/p>\n
Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.<\/p>\n
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven; for so they persecuted the prophets which were before you.”<\/p>\n
Today, many Christians around the world are reporting joy in a special, closer relationship with Jesus, experienced only during severe persecution.<\/p>\n
Very soon, Americans who call themselves Christians will get serious about Jesus, or get out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fred Sanford didn’t avoid talking about “the big one” whenever sudden stress went over the top. Most of us don’t talk about heart attacks—OR—emp’s—OR—stock market crashes—OR— persecution ! ? ! ? PERSECUTION, really, for me ? – – – If you are not a serious Christian, you do not think about it. If you are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,7,9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-inspire_lifter","category-political-cultural","category-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3694"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3694"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5575,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3694\/revisions\/5575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}