A Challenging thought...

I thought I would share something that has been a incredible challenge in my walk with God lately. I have made it a point to study the persecuted Church across the globe, and I made a very startling discovery: I think we're one of the few countries that does not experience what most of the Christians in the world experience!
I've been SO challenged to read testimonies of Christians who are suffering; who are counting Christ - alone - as more precious than life, family, belongings. They're living and dying for Christ, every day. They know what it is to fear for the lives of their families, their children.
It's really changed the way I look at life. The little trials I walk through are very small in comparison to the trials and challenges our brethren overseas face. I've been provoked to much prayer for the Church - of which we are a part - that is suffering so greatly for their faith in Christ. Let's not forget them.
I also read a book by Brother Andrew, "Secret Believers", that is excellent, provoking reading. It details numerous very real lives of Christians who are persecuted - and brings reality very close to home.
I hope this isn't too long and boring, but I've been inspired, and challenged, and wanted to share it with you all. Let's pray for our brothers and sisters overseas, and let's let God challenge our hearts by their testimonies. I think we're missing out, because of the comfort and freedom that we enjoy. It has helped me tremendously to widen my world and to realize that for many, following Christ means loosing everything else. Is He that precious to us?

yes jessi...putting things in perspective makes a "trial" here like rebellious teen, wayward spouse, jobs, bills etc. pale in comparison to what the church worldwide experiences daily. I hope we're ready when its our time to choose Jesus or our ____________....

I have asked the question as to why the persecution seen in other countries isn't seen here in the U.S.A. I think part of the answer is because America is a little more civilized in action? Yet, I have been amazed by the passion of those who are persecuted for their faith to the max and wondered what the difference between them and people here are.

I heard a program this week with a guy in India who used to be a hardcore communist who is now a christian. He says the difference is hunger. People here are not hungry for Jesus whereas people in these other lands are because they have nothing to their name but Jesus whereas here we have 'stuff'. That is sobering if you sit back and allow that to sink into your heart.

wow martyr that question hit me at my heart.....

Good challenge, brother. I have to think of Leonard Ravenhill: "How is it the world couldn't get on with the holiest man that ever lived, and it can get on with us?" That's a good question! Quite possibly we're not living lives that radically show the grace of God till it startles the world!

I fear more for those who are not in constant danger of persecution, including myself. It is not that I don't pray for those in immediate physical danger, or acknowledge their constant witness to those around them. They win souls by their bravery, and their committedness to Yeshua, and their willingness to die. All their trust in Adonai is on display hourly, and they do great works, and gain much fruit. They live and die in the moment, and must live their lives deeply and vibrantly, in the constant danger of an open battlefield.

For us in the West, the battle is a more subtle one, and to me, the more dangerous to the pilgrim who walks in it.

The West is a jungle of complicated choices, made all the more difficult by the lack of a good witness being visible, even to ourselves. Who do we influence? Are we even noticed in our fumbling attempts to live a Godly life when there are no barriers to hold us back from doing so?

Yet Adonai has ordained that we live here, in constant danger of drowning in the sea of lies around us. We, who are gifted with wealth, and a full belly, are in far more danger than the loss of our lives.

Those martyrs-in-waiting have an easy path, and perhaps a better life. They say yes or no to life eternal, because that is the question they live in, and are faced every moment with only the simplicity of dying.

If you are raised in the faith, and have only the open choices of yes or no to Yeshua all your life, while being buttressed about with a company of Believers who hold you up day to day, and in whose love and companionship you rest, the choice between your daily life and a possible death is plain.

Here, where there is an abundance of subtle mockery and mildly open jeering, a peer pressure of conformity to small evils, and so little reward in the living of a Messianic life, is it not strange that death because of Yeshua is a thing to be longed for? To long to be so bounded about with a simple yes or no to Yeshua, and to have the comfort and companionship of a family to worry for, and not that they might slip and fall on the path they cannot see clearly, nor even know whether they could withstand a question of belief that results in only a gentle shunning.

Yet what do our young ones face as they enter the world with so much option to sin, because the penalty seems so far away? Not a clear choice between right and wrong, and a yes or no to death, but a tangle of options that all can lead to sin and away from Yeshua, unless you choose the lonely pinnacle of an open belief.

Yet we were placed here in the wealth and ease of the West for reasons we cannot know, not what the effect of our immmediate witness might be, nor whether that witness will noted, and filed away for some future death that will seem all the more lonely and painful for the loss of the life we have had so bountifully. We have instead a struggle with the unseen, moment by moment, and in danger, not of losing this life, but losing eternity.

Q

Not an easier life, since persecution often brings with it poverty, but an easier choice of how to live, with appropriate support systems in place, and a reward of intimacy both with family and community, as well as with Yeshua.

Our smaller towns have good support systems still for following the faith, and walking with Yeshua, and will in time be the first ones to stand up to the more definate persecutions of the faith. And those persecutions will come, and cause the great apostasy that is yet to come, for many with a lightweight commitment to haMeshiach will become evident.

I worry most for the pre-trib rapturists, for their churches promise them no tribulation beyond shunning or less opportunity for wealth will be their portion in future. Such a Western notion, to ignore that there are those who die daily elsewhere in the world, yet be confident that facing such a choice will never be presented to them.

Martyr and Questor these are questions that deserve examining. For those fearing how scripture qualifies a true life in Christ, I would think many should be asking these same questions. So is this bit of scripture somehow nullified due to the religous freedom enjoyed in the U.S.A.? I know it is even possible to sit in church being one who was unsaved, but not knowing it, and asking this very question concerning persecution. How much more pressing should it be among those who know the truth?

The sword of religious freedom does seem to brandish two edges; one good and one bad. To worship freely should be considered a great blessing of the Almighty. However, one edge that we see consistently cutting its way through history is corrupted and in its blindness sees itself the standard. So many will look at the current state of the church in America from which they sit and see the limelight spotlighting the corruption in others while being blind in their very own vision. What Satan has conquered he need no longer attack being that which he has already defeated.

So for the most part, since religion in America enjoys such freedom, the persecution will have to come from a source other than the Govenment (at least for a while longer). What falsly believes itself Christianity should not coexist well with that which represents truth. There should be a great uncomfortableness with those who do not share the common compromise. So as scripture speaks there should be persecution in varying degrees and at varying times for those who would follow in the footsteps of Christ. Not all the churches were persecuted alike. Not all Christians were persecuted by the same people or group and not all were persecuted at the same time, but what is true is that all will be persecuted who are Christ indwelt. Not to make little of the intense persecutions of brothers and sister condemned by foreign government or religious groups bent on their demise, for Christ will richly reward those who have not retreated from such maltreatment, Yet conditions for persecution should be found in a largely religious country like our own. Christianity claims majority status in America. It was in a simialr atmosphere that Christ received his greatest persecution from religious people. Rome did to the Son of Man as Christ's fellow countrymen demanded. It may be that religious freedom for the most part enjoys the refrain of Government because of what is not being stood for. Reverse that and see what happens. It would not take long before government would begin it's effort to silence such contrarians. The true in Spirit cannot stand within or amongst a religious people and not bear some form of consternation caused by their unadulterated message of an uncorrupted Christ. That is not unless those who say they are of Christ are truly of Christ, but if one cannot discern that then evangelism is pretty much dead in America.