"How long will you (plural) judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?" (Psalm 82:2)
We are watching this very passage being played out in the United States of America today.
As Sarah and I were having some lunch, I was about to say that the Church has lived and is living most of its life in a hostile, even violent atmosphere, when she said, "Maybe we'll have to learn to live in a post Christian culture."
The question is, and it is a very large question for the "five fold" folks, as well as the whole Church, a question taken from the prophet Ezekiel, "How can we then live," or as the NLT says in context, "You are saying, 'Our sins are heavy upon us; we are wasting away! How can we survive?'" Well, we live in Jesus Christ and He in us. We live in and by His Words. We continue to live, as Charles Wesley said, "lost in wonder, love, and praise." We continue to pray for the lost, the sick, the possessed, take care of widows and the poor, the aged. We continue to fellowship, which means, "participate," in the Godhead.
We have outlived the Roman, Byzantine, Carthaginian, Ottoman, Empires. Yes, followers of Jesus are being persecuted in most of the world. They are being murdered, their meeting places burned and destroyed, their families turning against them when they surrender their lives to Jesus, and all this in much, if not most of the world. All this is, however, what our Lord Jesus Christ promised to those who would take up the cross daily and follow Him. Remember: "These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to live in the reality of Your Universe. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
