I think God must have had a hand in keeping me from posting this sooner, because my message has changed twice now.  I believe God gave me the one I was planning, but apparently it’s for another day.  In this time of the year when we rejoice in our blessings, I believe God has a message for us.  It’s not far from what I have wanted to speak about for several weeks now that I think about it, so thank You Lord for revealing the best way to share it.

I’ve been reading stories like the one in the link below for several months now.  Many of them involve violence and persecution on a far larger scale than this, but for some reason this morning my heart was caught by this young man’s story.  Occasionally you may hear an American Christian speak of persecution.  It is not unknown here and I do believe it will increase; but we hardly know the meaning of the word in this country.

We speak of the problems we have here.  They are real.  Our church exists to address a small part of them.  My thought this morning is that if ever there was a definition of “one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them” (Matt 25:40) it is the persecuted church around the world.  Explore the site where this story is from.  See what is happening in China, India, North Korea, Viet Nam, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Indonesia, and the list goes on.  People who didn’t have much to start with are losing family, home, and livelihood for the sake of Jesus’ name.  We should be doing what we can to help everyone who is in need, but I believe we have a special responsibility to these who have given all to follow Him.  In a nation so rich that even our homeless can find enough to live on and in some cases have cell phones and Internet access, are we doing enough to help our fellow brothers and sisters who have been driven from their homes, crowded into squalid refugee camps, and tortured for their faith?  I don’t think so.

I’m writing this paragraph on Sunday morning.  God keeps expanding the message.  I’m not a prophet.  I’m not even that much into studying prophecy.  I believe everything in the Bible was put there for our benefit.  That means we should study the prophecy scriptures, but those which tell of times beyond the one we live in make up a small part of the whole.  We should not focus on end times to the exclusion of the things that show us how to live in the present.  Yet I feel that we are being warned.  Whether this is the time for all of the future prophecies to be fulfilled I will not guess, but it seems that our nation continues to move away from God.  He will not allow our wickedness to continue forever.  Real persecution is on the rise in this country, and I believe it will increase dramatically as judgment falls.  If we will heed the warning and repent there is still hope, but I believe that we must endure a time of tribulation in order that we may turn back to Him.  Today’s message is in part to make us aware of what is going on around the world and call us to action, but it is also to prepare us for what is coming.  God tells us clearly that the faithful should expect persecution.  Our faith is about to be put to the test.  Are you ready?

Compass Direct News

In February Jehanzaib Asher, 22, was working in a barbershop his family jointly owns with his cousin in Wana, South Waziristan – a Taliban stronghold in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan’s northwest – when the Islamic militants showed up to try to convert him to Islam.

It was not the first time the Taliban’s Noor Hassan had delivered strident sermons to him and his relatives, and this time Asher decided not to listen silently. He defended Christianity by citing verses from the Bible, and Hassan and another Islamic militant viciously beat him – breaking his left leg and some ribs and leaving his left hand non-functional.