Standing Up for the Truth Even In Persecution

In Mark 8:34, Christ tells us that if we are to follow Him, then we must
deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.  The life of a
Christian is a life of sacrifice.  That's what denying ourselves is about -
living for Christ instead of for ourselves.  When He tells us that we
must take up our cross, this is telling us that things won't always be
easy following Him.  We may encounter persecution.

In 2 Timothy 4:2 we see that we should be ready in season and out of
season to preach the word.  In other words, no matter what happens
we should be ready to speak of God's word.  This would apply to times
of persecution as well.

Many times the Apostles were persecuted or thrown into jail for
preaching the Gospel, and yet they continued to preach the Gospel no
matter what was done to them.

In Acts 5 the Apostles were put in jail and ordered not to preach about
Christ.  They were brought before the religious athorities, and Peter's
response was that they must obey God rather than men.  Ultimately
they were beaten physically and told again not to preach Christ, and
they went away rejoicing because they were considered worthy of
suffering for Christ.  They didn't stop preaching the word of God.

In Acts 16:16-29 Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in jail, and yet
they were singing in prison.  When they were released by an
earthquake, they didn't run away, but they ended up preaching the
Gospel to the jailer and his family.  The end result was that the jailer
and his family were saved.

In Paul's letter to Philemon, we see that Paul preached the Gospel to
Onesimus while again in prison, and as a result Onesimus was saved,
and a situation that was wrong was made right again in that Onesimus
returned to Philemon, whom he had run away from.

We may never find ourselves in prison for preaching God's word,
although sometimes the way our society is going I wonder if it might
reach the point where Christians are put in jail for standing up for the
Bible and what it teaches.  Our lesson in all of this is that no matter
what our circumstance, we should be ready and willing to preach the
Gospel.  We never know when what we say or do might lead someone
to Christ.  We never know when the person we are talking to might be
receptive to God's message.  It's our duty as Christians to be ready at
all times to spread the Gospel.



Weekly Article Archive
Weekly Article - 10/17/07
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