Our rights... Persecution.
Sadly, these days, those words seem to go together.
A lot of what we used to think of as no big deal, is being 'taken' right out from under us. We have 'lost' the 'right' to pray in schools, they're trying to take 'In God we trust' off our money, trying to come up with a new pledge of allegiance... And what have we done?? we complain about it! About how un-fair it is, how this shouldn't be happening, what have we done to deserve this??. But if you ask me, we're the one's to blame. It isn't so much a question of what we've done to deserve this, it's more of what we HAVEN'T done. Maybe if we hadn't taken advantage of all that we've been given, it wouldn't have come to this, we wouldn't be complaining about how our 'rights' are being 'taken' from us!, or at least instead of complaining, we'd be doing something to make a difference, change things.
And really if you think about it, nothing has been legitimately 'taken' away... we have every 'right' to keep praying in public places, every 'right' to trust God, and what better way, than with our money!! afterall, many of us refuse to even think of giving that up. Goodness forbid that we give away a couple pay checks, even when we know that next month, or week we would be able to earn it back, knowing that God has promised to take care of us, and our every need. When you are younger you really don't have any appreciation for money, you crumble it up and stick it in your pocket, share it with your friends, play with it in the dirt, maybe accidentally tear it, put it in our mouths, etc... Money is NOTHING of importance to children! and adults think to themselves “if only they knew the value of a dollar...” Well guess what? They have more of an understanding of it than you do!! money is just that, it's nothing when you compare it with Christ. We have started to worship money, and the false security it gives us. Especially with the way the economy is. We have all tightened our grip on our money a little bit. And I'm sure, Yes, even in the Church, if we asked for a show of hands, for how many people would clear out they're accounts, just last months' paycheck, or retirement funds... and just give it away to a charity of some sort, there wouldn't be many show of hands, if any at all. Money isn't the best thing for us to put our trust in, it's here one minute, and gone the next. There have been several different people who had lots of money, and not too long after that, it was gone, and they were bankrupt....
-Now back to our 'rights' we whine so much about them being 'taken' away from us, but ask yourselves, what have we done to fight for them? What have we done to deserve them?... Nothing!. How many articles in the newspaper have you read about a teacher being arrested for teaching that evolution is false? Or a kid praying aloud at school? Someone teaching the word of God in times square?. I've heard people say that they don't want to disobey the law! That shouldn't even worry us, that's just an excuse, quite frankly, first of all, it would kinda make me happy if I saw something in the news, about government officials getting upset over someone standing up and telling them to keep 'In God we trust' on our money! And second of all, which would you rather obey, God's law, or man's law??... The Bible says that we are to follow God's law, and if the world's law contradicts God's law we are STILL to follow God's law! We are always to hold God in higher esteem than man, we are ALWAYS to do that.
Now, I don't know about you, but I haven't heard anything in the news about someone being arrested under such charges. I think the martyrs and those suffering in prison, would be ashamed of us...(I know I am!) They gave they're lives, for the cause of Christ. And not to be vulgar or crude, but if you haven't read the stories, they didn't go in the most pleasant of ways, and it wasn't quickly either.They were arrested, and tortured for the very thing that we should be doing! Fighting for what is rightly ours, the right to pray, teach, read our Bibles, give medical aid to those who are sick, visit and encourage those in prison, hand out Bibles, feed the hungry! Etc. And if we go to prison for it, so be it!.
Another thing that I think our country has started to worship, is FOOD! We place soooo much of our thoughts on our next meal, so much of our money of fast food restaurants, so much of our time and effort is put into food. You know it's amazing to me, I've read the books 'Jesus Freaks' and 'Sister Freaks' -Books about Christian martyrs that gave up their lives for Christ. And these people up to the minute of their deaths, were thinking about Christ, the strength and joy he had given them, and his love, their love for him... they weren't thinking about money, or food, or a shower, a change of clothes. I'm sure they could have used some if not all of those things, but No, they were thinking about Christ. And his love that was so amazing, so divine that it was worth being tortured to death for.
Another thing I think is interesting, is that a lot of these christian martyrs hadn't been Christians all their lives, they didn't grow up in church, hearing the word of God, or in Sunday School, learning Bible stories. A lot of these martyrs were converts from different religions, they were once in charge of killing the very things they became; Christians. Many times the only thing they knew about Christ was that He loved sinners like them, and His love was so amazing, it was worth these people, who had the rest of their lives in front of them dying, singing 'Amazing grace'. That's all they knew, and that's enough for them. That's enough for them to live their lives doing the very thing that they watched someone else do. Die for Christ. How much more then should we be encouraged to fight for our 'rights' to Pray, and keep our pledge of allegiance, keep 'In GOD we trust' on our money, to fight for the sanctity of life... the list goes on!
“Many times your example is the picture others need, to be more committed”.
We are living in such an exciting, new, young generation... but at the same time, it's digressing with every passing day. We are growing less and less Christian, and more and more worldly. How sad is it, that we have more ways now than we've ever had to share the gospel, and yet we aren't taking advantage of that. We're too selfish to give our money, too busy to give our time, too scared to leave our comfort zones, too prideful to fight for our 'rights', too dependent on food to pray and fast,
we're even too ashamed to truly worship!! Yes! even in church, we're too busy thinking about what we need to get done when we get home, or the person next to us, passing notes, worrying about what the week will bring, catching some zz'sss... that we can't even quiet our hearts before God, and thank him for all He's done for us, for a short hour-to an hour and ½ . All it takes to move mountains is the faith of a mustard seed, the size of a crumb... How sad is it that we don't even have that? We can't even shake things up in the white house, we can't fight for our freedom. We would much rather place our trust in money, food, doctors, scientists..Etc. Well how about for once, we place our trust in God, and fight for what He's given us. While His gifts are free, we should be a good steward of them. So, let's start showing them what we Christians are made of! Let's fight for what we've been given, let's make a difference. Let's prove our worth. Let's be that example that those around us need!
-please don't throw tomatoes at me, I know that a lot of what I'm trying to say here, could have been said in a lot nicer way... I have some of my dad in me, straightforward and honest, bluntly so!. Just remember these things, though they are hard to swallow are true, and as always, they are said with much love!!! (though it's hard to tell at times...)
Sadly, these days, those words seem to go together.
A lot of what we used to think of as no big deal, is being 'taken' right out from under us. We have 'lost' the 'right' to pray in schools, they're trying to take 'In God we trust' off our money, trying to come up with a new pledge of allegiance... And what have we done?? we complain about it! About how un-fair it is, how this shouldn't be happening, what have we done to deserve this??. But if you ask me, we're the one's to blame. It isn't so much a question of what we've done to deserve this, it's more of what we HAVEN'T done. Maybe if we hadn't taken advantage of all that we've been given, it wouldn't have come to this, we wouldn't be complaining about how our 'rights' are being 'taken' from us!, or at least instead of complaining, we'd be doing something to make a difference, change things.
And really if you think about it, nothing has been legitimately 'taken' away... we have every 'right' to keep praying in public places, every 'right' to trust God, and what better way, than with our money!! afterall, many of us refuse to even think of giving that up. Goodness forbid that we give away a couple pay checks, even when we know that next month, or week we would be able to earn it back, knowing that God has promised to take care of us, and our every need. When you are younger you really don't have any appreciation for money, you crumble it up and stick it in your pocket, share it with your friends, play with it in the dirt, maybe accidentally tear it, put it in our mouths, etc... Money is NOTHING of importance to children! and adults think to themselves “if only they knew the value of a dollar...” Well guess what? They have more of an understanding of it than you do!! money is just that, it's nothing when you compare it with Christ. We have started to worship money, and the false security it gives us. Especially with the way the economy is. We have all tightened our grip on our money a little bit. And I'm sure, Yes, even in the Church, if we asked for a show of hands, for how many people would clear out they're accounts, just last months' paycheck, or retirement funds... and just give it away to a charity of some sort, there wouldn't be many show of hands, if any at all. Money isn't the best thing for us to put our trust in, it's here one minute, and gone the next. There have been several different people who had lots of money, and not too long after that, it was gone, and they were bankrupt....
-Now back to our 'rights' we whine so much about them being 'taken' away from us, but ask yourselves, what have we done to fight for them? What have we done to deserve them?... Nothing!. How many articles in the newspaper have you read about a teacher being arrested for teaching that evolution is false? Or a kid praying aloud at school? Someone teaching the word of God in times square?. I've heard people say that they don't want to disobey the law! That shouldn't even worry us, that's just an excuse, quite frankly, first of all, it would kinda make me happy if I saw something in the news, about government officials getting upset over someone standing up and telling them to keep 'In God we trust' on our money! And second of all, which would you rather obey, God's law, or man's law??... The Bible says that we are to follow God's law, and if the world's law contradicts God's law we are STILL to follow God's law! We are always to hold God in higher esteem than man, we are ALWAYS to do that.
Now, I don't know about you, but I haven't heard anything in the news about someone being arrested under such charges. I think the martyrs and those suffering in prison, would be ashamed of us...(I know I am!) They gave they're lives, for the cause of Christ. And not to be vulgar or crude, but if you haven't read the stories, they didn't go in the most pleasant of ways, and it wasn't quickly either.They were arrested, and tortured for the very thing that we should be doing! Fighting for what is rightly ours, the right to pray, teach, read our Bibles, give medical aid to those who are sick, visit and encourage those in prison, hand out Bibles, feed the hungry! Etc. And if we go to prison for it, so be it!.
Another thing that I think our country has started to worship, is FOOD! We place soooo much of our thoughts on our next meal, so much of our money of fast food restaurants, so much of our time and effort is put into food. You know it's amazing to me, I've read the books 'Jesus Freaks' and 'Sister Freaks' -Books about Christian martyrs that gave up their lives for Christ. And these people up to the minute of their deaths, were thinking about Christ, the strength and joy he had given them, and his love, their love for him... they weren't thinking about money, or food, or a shower, a change of clothes. I'm sure they could have used some if not all of those things, but No, they were thinking about Christ. And his love that was so amazing, so divine that it was worth being tortured to death for.
Another thing I think is interesting, is that a lot of these christian martyrs hadn't been Christians all their lives, they didn't grow up in church, hearing the word of God, or in Sunday School, learning Bible stories. A lot of these martyrs were converts from different religions, they were once in charge of killing the very things they became; Christians. Many times the only thing they knew about Christ was that He loved sinners like them, and His love was so amazing, it was worth these people, who had the rest of their lives in front of them dying, singing 'Amazing grace'. That's all they knew, and that's enough for them. That's enough for them to live their lives doing the very thing that they watched someone else do. Die for Christ. How much more then should we be encouraged to fight for our 'rights' to Pray, and keep our pledge of allegiance, keep 'In GOD we trust' on our money, to fight for the sanctity of life... the list goes on!
“Many times your example is the picture others need, to be more committed”.
We are living in such an exciting, new, young generation... but at the same time, it's digressing with every passing day. We are growing less and less Christian, and more and more worldly. How sad is it, that we have more ways now than we've ever had to share the gospel, and yet we aren't taking advantage of that. We're too selfish to give our money, too busy to give our time, too scared to leave our comfort zones, too prideful to fight for our 'rights', too dependent on food to pray and fast,
we're even too ashamed to truly worship!! Yes! even in church, we're too busy thinking about what we need to get done when we get home, or the person next to us, passing notes, worrying about what the week will bring, catching some zz'sss... that we can't even quiet our hearts before God, and thank him for all He's done for us, for a short hour-to an hour and ½ . All it takes to move mountains is the faith of a mustard seed, the size of a crumb... How sad is it that we don't even have that? We can't even shake things up in the white house, we can't fight for our freedom. We would much rather place our trust in money, food, doctors, scientists..Etc. Well how about for once, we place our trust in God, and fight for what He's given us. While His gifts are free, we should be a good steward of them. So, let's start showing them what we Christians are made of! Let's fight for what we've been given, let's make a difference. Let's prove our worth. Let's be that example that those around us need!
-please don't throw tomatoes at me, I know that a lot of what I'm trying to say here, could have been said in a lot nicer way... I have some of my dad in me, straightforward and honest, bluntly so!. Just remember these things, though they are hard to swallow are true, and as always, they are said with much love!!! (though it's hard to tell at times...)
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