It's Personal

Do you know what it means to "wear your feelings on your shoulders?"  If you're overly sensitive to the looks or comments of others, you might need to check your shoulders.

 

It hard not to take it personally, but religious persecution isn't really personal.  Clearly foretold in Scripture, the offenders aren't Christians themselves, who hold Biblical Truth as the Standard; no, it is Truth’s Author Who offends.  Jesus said, "If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." (John 15:18-19).  While most Christians [I know] don't agree with worldly truths, they are willing to "live at peace with all men" (Romans 12:18) as best they can.  Unfortunately, that's not how those who hate Jesus play the game.  Holding fast to Godly principles is becoming more and more difficult in today's climate, and the live-and-let-live days are in the past.  The spiritually astute see and understand the dangerous intersection fast approaching!  In his blog this week, Jim Denison wrote: "The time to decide that we will endure persecution for Jesus is before persecution begins. Challenges don't produce character -- they reveal it."  The atrocities of the Faithful in other lands may not come to America, but loss of religious freedom looms.  The days when we need not answer the call to stand firm are passing quickly.  The hatred may not be personal, but how we answer Christ’s call to be diligent and faithful will certainly be personal.  What will this challenge reveal about you?