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Following Hard or Finding It Hard to Follow?
Dr. Tuck Whitaker / EvenSoCome.org
So you say you are a Christian, and in fact you can point to a day in your life in which you acknowledged your sinfulness, repented of your sinful nature, and asked Jesus to be your Savior and the Lord of your life. Undoubtedly, every day since has been filled with ease and pleasure, right? What? No?
Is it possible that your faith has brought suffering rather than the happiness you expected? Have you been rejected by family members or friends? Has your relationship with Jesus Christ caused you to have to sacrifice something or someone important to you? Have you been reviled or persecuted because of your faith in Jesus Christ?
Did you know that Jesus Himself told us this would happen? In John 15:18-21 we read;
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.”
Remember, Jesus was mocked, lied about, beaten, spat upon, scourged, stripped naked, and in fact, Jesus Himself was abandoned by all of His disciples except John when He was nailed to the cross.
So, there is something here that we all need to understand as followers of Christ; we need to be prepared to face the fact that in all likelihood, sometime during our life, we can expect to suffer for our faith in Christ. Many of our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ in various parts of the world today are in fact doing that very thing; suffering rejection, persecution, vile depredation, and even death. We may not all be required to face death for Christ, but the Apostle Paul warned Timothy;
“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” (2 Timothy 3:12)
After Christ’s resurrection and ascension, when the Holy Spirit was given to indwell the disciples, they began to recall all that they had been taught by Jesus when they walked with Him, and so began to speak boldly all the things that they had learned and witnessed. In Acts 5 we have recorded the story of John and Peter’s persecution for having refused to obey the edict of the Sanhedrin not to speak about Jesus. And Acts 5:40 records the fact that they were beaten and once again instructed not to speak about Jesus. However, in Acts 5:41 we read;
“So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.”
Read more at EvenSoCome.org:
http://evensocome.org/2015/01/14/following-hard-or-finding-it-hard-to-follow/
Faith in the unsubstantiated, while that may be rather idiotic, is harmless in itself. What is harmful is people evangelising their ‘faith’ as being superior to everyone elses, vilifying others for disagreeing, which is violence that can only generate more violence.
If you want peace in the world, then shut that violence spewing hole in your face. Walk your talk by all means, but keep it to yourself.