First Thoughts for the New Year Know yourself

Just After Christmas Jesus Early Days

What Happened at Jesus' Birth

Mary Mother of Jesus, the Son of God

Theres a Reason He is Called Emmanuel

Mercy Part 2

Mercy--Matthew 5:7

God’s Miraculous Gift of Righteousness

When God gives you what you didn’t earn Matthew 5 6

Sometimes, there's a reason...

We all know the old proverb: "I shouldn't criticize someone until I've walked a mile in his shoes." The idea of our experiences contributing to our understanding of our fellow humans is not new. We've all heard it. When I read, however, that sometimes I need my pain, my problems, my mistakes to help someone else, that brings to mind all sorts of criticism of how life goes for me..."you mean (I say), that I went through all the garbage I did just so somebody else could get help?" No, not quite. However, God is a wonderful economist. He doesn't necessarily "do things to us" just so we can make someone else feel better, but He does use things that happen to us so that we CAN help someone else.
Here's what He says about that:

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;  Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, by the same comfort we received from God.
2 Cor 1:3-4

With God, nothing is "for no reason." He does what He does with purpose, and it always has meaning. In pain? Suffering? James says "Pray." Why? So thst God can use what has happened to you, to give you the ability to help someone else. Why pray? Because, as James says, God is there to help you through your tough times--"you have heard of the end result of the Lord's dealings; that the Lord is merciful and compassionate..." this is reference to Job, and What the Bible says about God restoring Job's fortunes. God is good. Even when you don't see it, even when you suffer--He will take care of you and use you to give the same grace to other people that He has given to you. And He WILL restore your fortunes.

"When I Awake, I am still with Thee..."

The quote is from Psalm 139:18. It is first, one of the great theological statements of the Bible:
God is always present;
and second, one of the greatest personal statements anyone can make: God is always there, and I am always with Him.

This is one of the most amazing truths in Scripture: God is right here, and I am with Him. This is such a commonplace truth for most of us Christians that we don't process it adequately. We know He's present, and we are present with Him. So what? But think for a moment about the rest of the world. God is present, because He's ubiquitous ($1.00 word, meaning He's everywhere at once), but they are not with Him. He is not present to them. This is horrible. It's Adam and Eve cast out of the garden, separated from God. It's a world without hope of anything but the present life. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." And then what? It's a world of sickness, pain, violence, with no hope of something better in the future.
But you...YOU, when you awake, if you're a child of God, you're always with Him. He never goes away, never leaves you, you don't have to search for Him, He's THERE!
This means many things, not least that your present is never lonely, even if you are alone, separated from friends and family; Jesus said it: "Yet am I not alone, for the Father is with Me." And so He is, with you. Right beside. Close. Within. The Infinite, the One whose greatness is unsearchable, He is WITH YOU and you are with Him..
It also means that you cannot die. Bear with me a moment while I explain. You cannot die because you are connected to God, and HE IS ETERNAL. Your connection with Him is eternal as well. Yes, your body wears out and dies, but you are more than a body. Your body is like your house, and just as houses grow old and wear out, so will your body. But as for you, the real you, you will live forever. Jesus said, "He who lives and believes in Me shall never die." Sick? No hope for the future in this life? (I'm not making light of human tragedy, just pointing out that you are more than your body)...you are more than the life you have right now. You are eternal.  It's amazing how the Bible points this out sometimes:
God says, "I am the First, and with the last." What do you suppose that means? Well, one thing it certainly means is that YOU will be there, if you're a child of God; you will be with the Father when time is no more, when the stars have all winked out, when the earth and heavens have departed, YOU will be there. With Him.
"He who believes in Me shall never die."
"I am the First, and with the last." On the one hand, you are mortal, subject to death and all its processes. On the other hand, you are eternal, and you literally cannot die. This, as everyone knows, is completely beyond our realm of knowledge, in the sense that we can prove it, but we have His Word, His witness in ourselves, His Presence, convincing us.
When I awake, I am still with Thee--whether you awake here or in heaven, that's true. Still with Him.

Christian Evidences and Christian Experience...

Every thinking Christian is interested in the evidences for their faith. We do want to know if the historical documents (i.e., the Bible) we trust are factual. We want to know if the accounts of Jesus' ministry are true, and certainly we want to know if God created the world, or if we are merely the product of a mindless "big bang" and subsequent evolution.

On the other hand, those who don't believe the Bible have a bunch of arguments against our faith. They say things like, "Religion has existed as superstition from time immemorial. It's an invention of man," and things like, "Geology proves evolution," and, "belief in Christianity or any other religion is an aberration of the mind."

Christians approach these viewpoints in two ways:

1. They try to provide evidence of such things as the Creation; they try to show that the documents surrounding Jesus birth, death and resurrection have historical roots--that they are at least credible in that way;
2. They point to the experiences of other Christians, and invite the unbeliever or atheist to experience that for himself. 

For some, the idea of evidence that "proves" Christianity is incredibly important, and they spend their lives learning that evidence, debating unbelievers, and so on, in an attempt to bring people to at least consider believing in Jesus.

For others, they point to the potential for experiencing God--the God who IS there, in real time, and point to the possibility that the atheist or unbeliever himself can experience God.

Here's what I've found, in over 50 years of study and thought.

1. Ultimately, everyone who uses "evidences" to promote the idea that becoming Christian is not just an aberration of the mind comes to a point where evidence no longer works, and the people with whom he's talking have to open their minds to the fact that God at least could be real, and Christians are telling the truth about their experiences and about Him.
2. If a person wants to retain a closed mind about the subject, and hold on to his faith that evolution is the process by which mankind came into existence, he will. There is no arguing with someone who is determined to reject every evidence you provide, and every experience you discuss. 
3. Those who open their minds to becoming Christians because of "evidences" ultimately have to have a real encounter with God, which they invite, or they will never change. 

So what I'm saying is that Christian evidences may "open the door" for someone to believe, may break through the barriers of irrationality presented by the unbeliever's mind, but in the final analysis, a man or woman who becomes a Christian does so personally, individually, and because of an encounter with the living God.
As far as I'm concerned, I was "blindsided" by a simple Gospel presentation over 50 years ago, and I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Since that moment, I have always believed in Him. I have often doubted myself ("am I really a Christian?" "How can I be so sinful and be a real Christian?"), and wondered about the tremendous rejection Christians face in our world, but as for me, I cannot not believe. He is for me the "Way, the Truth, and the Life," and I know that "nobody comes to the Father" except through Him. How do I know this? It was (and is) a personal revelation of Himself to me, though why He would pick me I have no idea. I hope you get the same revelation, and you can. It's quite simple, really. You begin by asking God to show Himself to you, and promise that when He does, you'll follow Him (John 7:17). Or you simply invite Jesus Christ to enter your life and make His home there, and you will see (Revelation 3:20). You will.

WHY is the Bible so important?

Good question. The answer is actually fairly complicated, but a good beginning is in 2Timothy 3:16-17: "All Scripture is given by inspiration from God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect (complete), thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

So there are three clauses in this set of verses, and each has its own special value when we are considering how the Bible might be important to us.
First is the source clause. Where did the Bible come from? (I might note that Paul was discussing the Old Testament in this particular passage). The ultimate answer, offered up by Paul, is that the Bible came from God. This is in stark contrast to today's common view that the Bible is a book written by mere men, to explore their religious beliefs (or fantasies, as the case may be). Jesus, in case you're wondering, said the same thing as Paul:

Matthew 5:17-18: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

"The Scriptures must be fulfilled." (Mark 14:49)

"Thy Word is Truth." (John 17:17)

There are many people, as John Walvoord once said, who believe that the Bible is full of lies, that it depicts man's search for God through one race (the Jews), instead of God's revelation to man. However, what Paul says goes beyond the ideas of fulfillment, and even of truth:
He said: "All Scripture is given by inspiration from God."  Theologians and scholars have long pointed out that the words "given by inspiration from God" in English is ONE word in the original language, theopneustos, or, "the breath of God," or . "God breathed." So the book that you hold in your hand, Paul asserts, is literally from God, in the most intimate sense. It's what He has to say to mankind, and to you. It is lifegiving (if you listen), it is life-sustaining. It is how you define and understand your relationship to God. It is how God speaks to you. It is the objective measure by which all of God's self-revelation must be understood, and it is alone among human literature in its eternal influence and impact. No other words match it. No other words can be understood to do what the Bible does for the human mind, heart and soul. It stands alone, mighty, invincible as the One who created it, and who "magnified His Word above all His name." (Psalm 138:2). I could go on, but one passage will be sufficient to give you the idea:

Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is living, and power-filled, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 

In short, you don't judge the Bible. It judges you.

So what is this "Walking in the Light" thing, anyway?

It's difficult to define, since it's all internal and connected mostly to our individual experiences. Here's what I can say about it, though:
1. It's a ministry of the Holy Spirit, and it goes beyond "conscience," or "guilt." Many times people identify the Christian's experiences with "guilt," or a "moral compass," but it really goes far beyond that. Here are some passages that might help you understand how this works, remembering that "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all..."in order to tap into HIS light, there has to be a connection with Him. That connection, that hard wiring, is the Spirit of God who comes into our lives when we believe in Jesus Christ and receive Him as our Lord and Savior.  NonChristians often scoff at this (and at us), but any true Christian can tell you that the contact he has with God is the most precious thing in the Christian life. We all know it, and it's a shared experience, so we talk about it amongst ourselves as a known reality, but if you're not a Christian, it all sounds like gibberish.
Here are some passages that describe parts of that experience, although its totality has to be experienced to be understood:
Jesus said:
(John 14:16-17) And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Helper, that he may abide with you for ever; That is, the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but ye know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you.
This "other Helper" is GodWithUS, present in our lives always and constantly. He is also the Holy Spirit (as Jesus tells us); interestingly, Jesus refers to this "coming" of the Spirit in another way in the same passage (14:22-23):
Judas said to him, (not Judas Iscariot), Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to him, If a man loves me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him. This is the same thing as the presence of the Spirit, and it defines the connection we have with God--it is all three Persons of the Trinity making their (His) home with us. The point is, if He's always there, the connection is automatic once we believe. It's just...there. On the other hand, Jesus is answering a question from the "other Judas," which reads, "How will you show yourself to us, but not to the world...?" that being the question, and figuring that Jesus must have answered the question He was asked, we are hit with the reality that a nonbeliever simply doesn't have the equipment to understand and know God. An unbeliever may ridicule us as "crazy," or try to find other explanations for our experiences with God, but the fact remains, He can't know. It's as if you're trying to explain a sunset to a blind man, or the sound of the ocean to a deaf man. The equipment for understanding is not there.
So when you walk in the light, the lines of communication are unbroken. You are listening to God, and even if it seems he's silent, you know He's "in the room." Right there. When you stop walking in the light, He doesn't go away, but He tells you about it, in a very real fashion, so that you know.

Watchman Nee, the famous Chinese Christian, tells the following story (I've paraphrased it and I'm repeating it from memory). "There was once a man who used to drink wine with every dinner; he usually drank too much, and got drunk. He became a Christian, and shortly after his conversion, his wife asked him if he wanted his usual bottle of wine with dinner. He said, 'No. Resident Boss doesn't want me to drink.'"

And it's really like that. He directs. You can't fully explain, but you can say, "The Lord wants me to..." or, "The Lord wants me to stop," or, and you know what He wants, because you're connected with Him.

Now I need to add a caution here, because you'll find all sorts of people saying, "God told me to do this," when it's obvious to everyone around that they were not listening to God but to some other voice.

The caution is this: "Know something about the Scriptures." God is not going to tell you to kill your children. He is not going to encourage you to rob a bank.

Normally people who do this crazy stuff have been unbalanced for a while, and the voice they are listening to is not God's.

However, you CAN walk in the light, and enjoy His presence and direction in your life. Mostly, it's just listening. Jesus had a wonderful word on this, regarding His own miracles:
(John 5:19):

"Then Jesus answered and said to them, Verily, verily (Truly, truly), I tell you, The Son can do nothing of (from) himself, but what he sees the Father doing: for whatever things the Father does, these also the Son does in the same way."

In other words, Jesus, having emptied Himself of the independent exercise of His divine powers, and having become a Man like us, allowed Himself to be guided just as He wants us to be--by the Father, who lives in us.

The Light...

Almost at the end of the Bible, there is a marvellous little book, which is named "1John." It's different from the Gospel of John, which is toward the beginning of the New Testament (4th book), but it's like a twin.  While John's Gospel shows you why you should believe in Jesus Christ (20:31), 1John shows you how to walk, how to live once you have believed. 1John begins with a proposition about God in 1:5: "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." Not one speck of darkness. Not a bit. None. He is all light. Light, in John's works, is typically opposed to darkness, as God is opposed to evil, to the Devil, to sin. Darkness is evil. Light is good.
It's worth noting that John uses this expression differently from, say, Isaiah, who said, "Who is the one who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the LORD..." John usually means "darkness as opposed to God," "Darkness as without God," "Darkness as hiding from God..." and so forth. Isaiah meant the word as "Don't know my path," or "confused." So always look for context when you study words. It's important.
As we move on down the chapter, we arrive at 1John 1:7, my target for today:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. 

This is opposed to 1:6, which says,

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not do the truth:

So there are these two lifestyles, with two results, two paths, two internal realities. We can either walk "in the light," the light of His will and of His presence (we will always BE in His presence of course, since nobody can hide from God), or we can walk "in darkness;" that is, in evil, in sin, in avoidance--the first response of a guilty heart is to avoid God, when what we need the very most is to come clean with Him and return to Him--he will always receive us.
But if we "walk in the light, as He is in the light," in other words, following the path of truth, of right, of His will, allowing Him to direct us, guide us, speak to us, certain things happen to us:
1. We have fellowship with one another: John uses this word (which normally means "to share") in a special way here, suggesting by it that "we are friends;" we have the same goals, interests, desires, and we walk along the path of life that way, always in communication and happy with each other. This applies to our relationship with God, and also to our relationship with others who are like us: they are on the same path, have the same goals, interests, desires, and their fellowship with God unites them with us.
2. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. This is quite a statement. It goes together with 1:9, which says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins...and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. When we don't "walk in the light" ( we commit sins, walk away from His path), we are conscious of disrupted fellowship--God is not "angry with us," but we don't bask in His light, His presence, His glory; the way back is simple: Confess your sins, and return to the light. When we do that, God restores us, cleanses us, fills us once again with His presence, and shines His light on our path. We may not know where we go or what will happen to us, but we go with Him and with His grace wherever it is. HIs path is ours, and the light is our guide.

I hope today finds you well, and full of God's blessing.

Unseen, but beloved...

1 Peter 1:8-9:
Whom (Jesus) having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory...
Peter's words remind us of two things:
1. The Unseen is real. When someone who doesn't believe in the Lord laughs at us because we can't "prove" what we know to be true, we know we are misunderstood, and so we often move back to efforts to "prove" that the Bible is true, that God is real, that Jesus Christ did die for our sins. However, the Bible itself gives much more credence to the ministry of the Holy Spirit among those who don't believe than Christians often do: Jesus said, "When [the Holy Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment..." (John 16:8 and context). The word "convict" (or reprove, KJV) is a powerful word, because it says to us, "God's job is to convict, convince..."  the corollary is that it is your job to tell. So often people who get interested in "evidences" make the mistake of thinking that "evidences" (so-called proofs for God's existence, etc.) are going to convince folk to believe. They do not. In every testimony I have read or heard about people who have been "converted through study of evidence" for God's existence, there comes a point when the Spirit actually speaks personally to that individual in some specific way, and it is that particular touch from God that brings them into faith in Jesus Christ. The real key, as I said in my blog post of yesterday, is whether or not you are willing to do God's will. It is THEN that God actually reveals Himself to you. On the other hand, every time you tell someone about Jesus Christ, you can be sure that God is speaking to them, no matter what they say. They may reject. They may become seekers. They may believe. But no matter how they react, Jesus said, "[the Holy Spirit] will convict the world..." therefore, the unseen becomes real, if only for a moment, even to people who strongly deny its existence. Everyone has a choice. They can believe the Liar, Satan, or they can believe God. At the same moment that God is speaking to each of us, Satan also attempts to remove that information in some way (see the parable of the sower, Matthew 13). The issue, as Jesus said, is whether or not we are receptive to the message. So when you minister to people, remember that your words penetrate their hearts, if they are delivered the same way Jesus would have done (and that merits study!), and that the Spirit is with your mouth, helping you to say what needs to be said in that particular moment.
2. Believing and Loving God and His Son bring joy and pleasure to the human heart. I still marvel at people who think they are happy without God. It's like trying to explain watermelon to someone with no sense of taste, or the beauty of the mountains or the sea to someone who is blind. Many folks resist the Lord because they get the idea that God is there to take away from them (an idea, by the way, that many who try to share their faith promote) rather than to give them the best gift that can ever be given or received. God really is there, and He's there to bring you more "life" than you ever had before. He's there to fill your mind with happiness and pleasure. Yes, there are negatives in being Christian, but they are not what you think before you become a believer, and the positives outweigh the negatives by an infinite amount.
Here's how David put it, long ago:
Psalm 16:11: You will show me the path of life: in your presence is fulness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Want to be truly happy? Turn to the Lord.
Want to know what's actually in that unseen world that provokes so much speculation and denial? Become a believer in Jesus Christ, and you WILL know.
Want to live forever? "He who believes in the Son has (eternal) life..."

When the Son of Man (Jesus) comes, will He find faith on the earth?

To the disciples, this was a stunning question. They lived in a society where religion was paramount--the guide for everything, and they perceived Jesus to be the Fulfiller of the ancient prophecies, not the inventor of a new religion.  In other words, they saw Him as the One who continued the faith they had.
Consequently, this question was probably pretty weird to them, but it was prophetic, because faith in Jesus Christ has always been attacked, from the birth of the church onward.
Atheists. Idol-worshippers. Spiritists. Cults. Islam. Every other religion in the world typically takes it on itself to attack Christianity. As if that were not enough, Christianity comes under attack by those who should be its greatest friends: ministers, adherents, professors at Christian universities and seminaries.
Part of the reason for these attacks, of course, is just human nature. Competition. Anger at folks who take a stand for something in which they don't believe, etc.
Part of it is much darker--the "spiritual forces of darkness" that attempt to overwhelm the light of God's truth and fail.
All in all, Jesus' question proves to be right to the point. He was exactly right. Faith in Him is under attack.
However, what all these folks don't understand, whether atheist, Muslim, "scientist," or other detractor, all of us who ARE Christians don't believe because we have some notion that it's the right thing to do; we believe because we must. Because NOT believing in Jesus Christ would be denying reality. We know Him. We love Him.
Just because YOU can't understand us or our faith doesn't mean it's not true. What it means is that if you deny Christ, and reject Him, you are not willing to do the will of God:
John 7:17: "If anyone will DO His will, He will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or whether I speak from my own initiative."
So this is really a challenge. Decide to do His will, and you will know. I've met many people who made that decision, just like that, and to them the Lord Jesus Christ is as real as their own right hand. When people fight your faith, remember.  They don't know the reality you do. They often don't WANT the reality you have, even though you and I may know that it is the best thing in the entire universe.
We know. We are Christians.

Pitfalls of Trusting in your own Righteousness

Thirst: Blessed are Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for t...

Compassion in Troubled Times.

One of the most important matters in the Christian life is compassion.

I’m not talking about the compassion that we all need from God, but about the compassion that we show on His behalf and because we belong to Him. One of the longest of Jesus’ teachings is about this;  it illustrates exactly what I mean, and what we need to do:

Matthew 25:31-46:

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was hungry, and ye gave me food: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came to me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, and fed you? or thirsty, and gave you drink?

38 When did we see you a stranger, and took you in? or naked, and clothed you?

39 Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and came to you?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily [truly] I say to you, Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me.

41 Then shall he say also to them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was  hungry, and ye gave me no food: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

There are a lot of different things in play here; Jesus gives one of His longest messages about compassion in the context of His judgment on the nations; there is no reason to think that this is a mere “story,” or parable, just intended to make a point. He was looking into the future, and asking us to go with Him to that final hour when He judges the nations regarding their treatment of Christians. As it's pretty easy to see from current events, everyone except Christians is treated with compassion and care in certain places. That's so much of a truism just before Jesus returns that it becomes a means of distinguishing "who's who" in God's eyes:

Here are some thoughts:

1. Jesus expects His people to care for each other, and to see them for who they are. Notice how this is all expressed, with the phrase, “When did we see You…” the message contained in this is that we can actually see Jesus in His suffering people. That is, if we train ourselves to look. In some sense, they are transparent, and He shines through.
2. Compassion is felt, but results in action. We can have all the sympathy in the world, but not really be compassionate (sympathy can be one of the cheapest forms of hypocrisy). One of the most interesting phrases in the Bible as it relates to Jesus is, “He was moved with compassion and…” what inevitably follows this phrase is an action. There really is no way around this. If you see with His eyes, you want to exercise compassion, and not only in your mind, but in what you DO. Failing to offer compassion to one of Jesus' followers defines YOU, in a way that you definitely don't want. The result of failed compassion is everlasting judgment and loss.
3. However, it's wise to also consider the following: Compassion requires judgment. It’s obvious from the way Jesus is speaking here that He intends for us to know WHO we are helping. The current idea is that we ought to help all the homeless, or all the poor, or all the suffering, or some such thing. I doubt He intended that, since His own ministry was one of constantly choosing people in order to help them. He picked out the one widow whose son had just died in Luke 9:11; He selected the blind man in John 9, and so forth. It’s true, on occasion He healed everyone brought to Him, but we most often see Him picking just one. Did He do that because He thought these were “more worthy?” No. He did that because He saw who they really were, and what the Father intended for their lives (Hence, it's important for us to know that, too, based on what Jesus says in Matthew 25, above). Consider John 5:1 and following:  “After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue  Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent(disabled) folk, of blind, halt, withered, [waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool, and troubled the water: whoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatever disease he had] (the bracketed paragraph is not included in most modern versions).  A certain man was there, who had an infirmity thirty eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been like that a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be  made whole? The paralyzed man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, Rise, pick up your cot, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, picked up his cot, and walked...”
4. WHY? You may ask. Why did Jesus “pick people?” What about all the rest? Why not heal all of them indiscriminately? Jesus relates this back to the sovereignty of God in Luke 4:25-28--that God gets to choose. For us, the lesson is that each of us has limited time and ability--and we must concentrate ourselves where God directs us, not just jump from thing to thing. Jesus will not condemn us for going where He tells us and doing what He says, and He takes the responsibility for our direction and for selecting our ministries as long as we obey Him.
5. EVEN JESUS followed directions, therefore it is certainly right for you to do so: See John 5:19: Then Jesus answered, and said to them (the Jewish leaders), Verily, verily, I tell you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for whatever things [the Father] does, these also the Son does. In other words, Jesus' ministry was always directed by the Father, and Jesus submitted Himself to His Father's direction. Philippians 2:5-8 gives the rationale for this. We also exercise compassion when we can, but always under His direction.

Read the context in John 5 with some care here, since a MISreading can give you the idea that the Son is less than the Father. The Jews understood Jesus' statements differently than that, as is evidenced by the fact that they tried to kill him for equating Himself with God: (John 5:18): Therefore the Jews sought even more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God...The original expression used here is often used to denote mathematical equality, such as 2+2=4. In other words, the Jews themselves “got it.” Jesus the Messiah is God, manifest in human flesh. That was always His claim, and that was what finally got him convicted of blasphemy and crucified.

Hostility toward Christians, part 2

I've been thinking a while about what causes so many problems in the political system, what causes people to hate Christians, what causes us Christians to become such idiots and do stupid and sinful things, why do people have internal drives that make them do evil themselves or be subject to evil? Of course, as to the last, we can immediately remember that temptation has to do with our own evil hearts and that there would be no temptation if we didn't have that answering desire in our hearts. Like James says, in James 1:14: "But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own desire.".
However, that's not the whole story. Our political problems are caused by spiritual warfare, as are our personal  problems.

I want to discuss this briefly, with the Apostle Paul as our main teacher. He's got good advice for us in Ephesians 6:10 and following:

The Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel...

Of course, you got it right away. The government, the evil that we see, the various evils and sins we get into, the murders, the anger, the greed, immigration, the politics--you name it, it's all part of the same thing:
For our struggle is... against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

The real problems of this world are all connected to the darkness that rules this world. Satan himself said that very thing to Jesus in Luke 4:6 "And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish."
So there you have it. Who rules the world? The REAL ruler? think hard. What's your conclusion? Figure it out yet?
It's not...Putin.
It's not...Trump.
It's not...Trudeau.
Yup. You got it.
Yet the darkness only rules temporarily, and definitely not completely, but there is tremendous power in evil, and its influence covers the world. That evil is centered in "spiritual forces of darkness;" in other words, evil beings.
So when you ask, "Why are things the way they are," your answer is in the passages you've just seen, and in the passages to follow. It's a simple solution. It's the truth.

ON THE OTHER HAND:

Jesus is the Light. The Light of the world. However, the darkness doesn't "get it, nor do those who walk in darkness.
John 1:4: In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (literally, "did not take hold of it;")

Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world; whoever follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life;" so the answer to darkness is light--not "conflict with darkness;" why? because if two dark forces collide, what do you have? Just more darkness.
Peter put it like this (2 Pet. 1:19):
So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts,,,

In other words, it's imperative that we know and understand the principles of Scripture, so that the darkness doesn't deceive and overwhelm us. 

One of the clearest revelations of Scripture is that the solution to the problems of our world is not political, social, financial or whatever, but spiritual--and that solution is embodied in a person, Jesus Christ.

Just as evil is embodied in a person, and in the dark forces that rule over mankind, so good and light and beauty are embodied in a Person, Jesus Christ.

It's possible to be overwhelmed with evil. It's possible to succumb to all the proposed solutions for the problems we face in this world, and actually see at the end that you've failed to solve any real problems.

However, the truth is that you can come to Jesus Christ, worship Him, receive everlasting life, and have THE solution for your own life. He is also the answer to all the evils of the world in which we live.

John said: 1 John 2:8: I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.

The darkness began to pass out of the universe when Jesus Christ entered time and space as a little baby. It has been passing ever since. The war involved in the reclamation of our universe for God will be cataclysmic, but it will be final. 

It's true today, though, "That the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." 

Nor will the darkness overcome you, if you "walk in the light, as He is in the light," and make God and His Son Jesus Christ your guide and Lord. Instead, God will light your path all the way to the glories of His throne and your future heritage in heaven.
Psalm 16:11: You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

Your present may be filled with problems. You may be living your Christian life with difficulty. TAKE HEART! Be of good courage! God will lead you into His eternal home through His grace and glory.

Hard to believe, Part 3:

In the last post, I discussed the issue of how evil affects healing. This should be obvious to anyone who reads the Bible:
When Jesus was here on earth, He healed everyone who came to Him, and several times, when he came into contact with people who'd died, he raised those people from the dead (see John 11); demons cried out, and came out of the people who had suffered their invasions; people who were blind and lame were healed; folks with terrible skin diseases got well immediately; folks whose minds were broken (NOT the same as demonization) were instantly healed; folks with fevers, destructive bacterial or viral infections...it didn't matter. Disease was nearly eradicated from the areas in which Jesus ministered. Why? because HE had power over the powers of evil that rule our earth so effectively. In fact, Jesus confirms this thought in Luke chapter 10 when he says of the disciples' preaching and healing mission, "I beheld Satan fall as lightning from heaven..." (Luke 10:18)...

So what happened? Is the whole idea of Christian healing dead now? Did God somehow die in the centuries after Jesus' resurrection? NO. God does still heal people. However, the ministry of healing in the Western Christian world is exceedingly difficult to develop, due to several things--which I've learned the hard way:
1. It's a free service. The MINUTE you ask for money, or glory, or something for yourself, any "anointing" you may have had disappears immediately.
2. We Christians really don't believe in God in the same way the apostles did. THEY performed miracles of healing quite regularly. Their spiritual powers were not diminished, and they (as they tell us over and over again), were just men. The difference? They were men and women who were completely in tune with the Spirit, and who followed His dictates.
3. Continuing #2, most Christians have a very rationalistic worldview--which means that the world of the supernatural is relegated to the future and does not enter the present, except in times of crisis, if then. We are therefore not emotionally, intellectually and spiritually prepared to involve ourselves with the totality of the world, which includes the spiritual / supernatural world as well as the physical world. This is why Christians often laugh at such things as witchcraft and the like.
4. Jesus counseled us to "believe in God," and all things would be possible--yet even He experienced the restrictions imposed by the will of God, and He tells us so: "The Son can only do what He sees the Father doing..." (John 5:19-20). In other words, and very candidly, many of us can't do anything because we can't see what the Father is doing. It could be that the Son had visions of what the Father was doing, and so knew exactly what to do in each situation.
5. We bought the lie that medicine replaced miracle. It did not. I am definitely not opposed to doctors. I am writing this today because I can see, which is the result of cataract surgeries. I had to have those to see. So medicine could be in your future. However, you are not limited to medical intervention. God is your only limiting factor.
6. Sometimes we are just not willing to accept the will of God regarding our lives. He may desire for you to come home, and whatever you're experiencing could be the result of an unchallengeable decision on His part. However, I believe many people accept what they think is "the inevitable" when they really are not meant to do so.
7. Death is not really a problem for the Christian. Martin Luther said that to the Christian, death is like someone who brings out your horse, saddles it up for you, gets you seated on the saddle, and sends you off for the ride of your life. Much of our difficulty with the end of life is that we don't have a firm grasp on the future that is ours, and the home we have in heaven.

So...Are you sick today? need someone to pray for you?
Here's the counsel of a great New Testament writer:
(James 5:14 and following):
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Closing counsel: If you're going to do this, be sure you ask someone who believes that God acts in the present, and that He's not just a religious construct or anachronism--someone who does believe that He heals, and puts no fetters on His mighty power.

Hard to believe, Part 2...

When God does not answer prayer the way we want, we often get conflicted Frustrated. Angry. Miserable. Unhappy.
Of course, He didn't exactly promise to answer prayer the way we want Him to answer;
John says, "If we make any petition according to His will...He answers..." this can be a bit confusing, since we don't always know His will, and sometimes really don't care. We just want what we want. This is especially true when we pray for healing for someone we love (or ourselves), or for relief from mental or physical pain. It actually hurts, sometimes, when I see someone else going through pain, and I could stop it, if I could just get God's attention.

I have learned, though, that when we think God is not listening, He is. He just has his own will in any given situation--and sometimes, even though God rules the world and has all power, He allows Satan to work. The reason? Part of it is mystery, of course, but much of it is that Satan does have power  to some degree over things on earth. Think of ISIS. Do you think that organization is God's will? NO. However, He will use that evil organization in His own way to alter the course of history and bring about His Kingdom. Think of all the murders and evil done in the name of this or that organization. There you see Satan at work as the Destroyer and the Thief and the Liar. These evils work their way down into common life, and eventually into our lives, so that many of the things that happen to US happen because of evil. An unconquerable illness. A sudden death. A wrong-way driver, who "just happened" to be under the influence of alcohol. A drive by shooting. A Doctor who doesn't care. Are these all God's will? NO. For the people who did the evil, their evil was certainly not God's will, for He commands them NOT to do it.
However, God does incorporate them into His plan, and causes everything to work for good--if you love Him (see Romans 8:28). This is not a cop-out. It's a promise that things will be different. You see, Christians live in the future as well as the present, and God has promised us the future. No conditions, other than your faith in Jesus Christ, and that you follow Him. We all know that the present can become pretty bad--but think of the future, and what God has said to you about that. That will be a future free of evil and all its effects--a new world, in which righteousness dwells. 

Hard to believe...

Matthew 13:57 says, "he [Jesus] could not do many works of power there because of their unbelief. "
My thoughts go back to a contrasting statement, made many were ago, outside of church--
"if she had faith, she  could be healed."

These words were said to me (pastor) by a new attendee, regarding a lovely quadriplegic lady who attended  our church. I've thought about this a great deal  over the past couple of decades. The lady referred to is gone now, with the Lord. She never recovered from her illness. Though we all prayed for her, and fasted and prayed for her multiple times. I DO believe in God's healing and I've seen Him heal people on numerous occasions, but when I think of the verse quoted above, it hurts, because it's clear to me that my prayers (and  those of our congregation) didn't have the effect we all hoped--but most of all, this member of our congregation died in a hospital bed, unhealed.
Why was this? Was it because I was not qualified to pray for her? Was it because none of us had sufficient faith? Was it something unknown? Why?
These are questions virtually every Christian asks at some time in his life. The longer any of us lives, the more likely they'll ask them, because all of us have lots of unanswered prayers. Some of these are the most important prayers we've ever offered to the Lord. It hurts terribly when they go unanswered. I could list my own unanswered prayers, but you all have your own, and they are probably in the forefront of your mind, so I'll refrain.
Why doesn't God answer prayers? Why do things sometimes appear to go just the opposite of the way we pray?
First, let me say that I  can only speak generally. I'm not going to "cop out," either, and say "the age of miracles is over." That's a non-answer, and begs the question, since there is no evidence for that in Scripture. Moreover, I've seen my share of miracles, so....  Let me also say that you're not going to be completely satisfied with the answers I give, because what God does is always a mystery, and His ways are undiscoverable. However, I will be honest about what I know. 

The “Why of Good Friday

"Nevertheless..." A Moment of Meditation on Jesus' choice to die for you.

Many of the contemporary books seem to focus on something at least partly false--that Jesus was killed, murdered by wicked men, that God ordained this, and He had little choice. Much is made of the fact that the Father put in motion the machinery that led to His death. However, that's only partly true: Jesus made quite clear that HE chose the path, that He AND the Father consulted together, and that He was NOT a pawn in the hands of God.

Here are some passages:

John 10:18: No man takes [My life] from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Philippians 2:6-8: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not something to hold on to--His equality with God, But made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 

Yes, it was the Father's will--this is clear from dozens of passages--but it was the Son's choice. Even at the very end, just before His death, Jesus said, "Don't you know that I could call to My Father and He would send more than 12 legions of angels?" One of the old songs says, "He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set Him free--but He died alone for you and me." (it's paraphrased from Matthew 26:53)

He CHOSE to die--because without His death, we could not have His life. 

Blessed are the Gentle Matthew 5 5

Blessed are those who mourn Matthew 5 4

Become Poor in spirit Matthew 5 3

Christians in a "Hostile Environment."

There's a lot of talk today about "Hostile Treatment" of Christians in the US. It is truly different than it used to be for us, so I thought a bit of perspective might be useful (this is a long post).

"Back in the day," as they say, America (meaning the United States) was very much more Christian in orientation. That's true. There were books like the "McGuffie Readers," which contained a huge amount of Christian doctrine, and books like Matthew Henry's Commentary were sold on subscription. Bible salesmen traveled from door to door, and were frequently welcomed, while one of the popular pastimes (besides the circus) was the tent revival. 
Fast forward to today, where the discussions are about gay rights, transgender bathrooms and Sharia Law, and it seems like the world has gone mad. 
It has. However, that doesn't change a fundamental part of the equation in Christianity. Christianity was actually DESIGNED to flourish in a hostile environment. 

Consider the following quote from Tertullian (2nd Century AD). Note the constant mentions of the sufferings of Christians. This was the birthtime of Christianity. It's long, but worth reading. I have additional comments at the end, so keep reading.

INTRODUCTION

Tertullian was born in Carthage (modern Tunis) at about the time of Polycarp’s death and probably trained as a lawyer (Polycarp was  the Apostle John's disciple). He converted from his pagan background and devoted himself to writing impassioned books — more than 30 in total — in defense of the true faith. He attacked the pagan religions of the Roman Empire, and challenged heretical versions of Christianity.

He was one of the generation of “apologists,” second-century theologians who wrote for a hostile readership in an attempt to challenge pagan misunderstanding and prejudice, showing that Christianity was reasonable and respectable, not a shameful secret society.

This text is from his most famous writing, Defense, alternatively translated Apology – but don’t be misled, there isn’t defensive or apologetic sentence in it! Its aim is to argue the case for Christianity, correct people’s misconceptions about it, and undermine their confidence in the superiority of paganism. He also challenges the Roman policy of killing Christians who will not apostatize (renounce their faith). He was the first theologian of the western church, and the first to write in Latin. His writings not only made an impression on the pagan world but helped to boost the church’s self-confidence.

The paragraph numbers in the text refer to sections selected from the original.

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SOURCE MATERIAL

4. Having demonstrated this unjust public hatred against us, I will now make my stand and show our blamelessness. I not only refute the charges that are laid against us, but I turn them back on our accusers, showing that while Christians are free from these crimes, they are widespread among the accusers – as well they know.

7. We are accused as of being monsters of wickedness observing a sacred rite in which we kill a little child and then eat it. Then after the feast, we are supposed to practice incest, the dogs who rule us turning out the lights so that our impious lusts might have the cover of shameless darkness. This is what is constantly laid to our charge, and yet you never try to uncover the truth. Well, if you believe it, bring the matter to the light of day; if you will not look into it, then do not believe it. We insist that there is no reality at all in these accusations that you dare not find out the truth of….

We are assaulted and betrayed every day. Our meetings are often attacked. But who ever heard a child crying out there? Who ever gave evidence to the judge of our gory deeds? Have those who discovered such atrocities concealed them or been bribed? If we are so secretive, how did you find out what we do? Not from our own guilty lips, obviously, so it must be from strangers. But how would they find out? All religious initiations keep the profane away – let alone such ones as you suppose ours are. Every one knows what rumor is like. One of your owns proverbs says “Of all evils, rumor flies the fastest.” Why is rumor such an evil thing? Is it because it is fast? Is it because it carries information? Or is it because it is utterly false? [Tertullian argues that pagan rites themselves are often corrupt and that the Christian scriptures are superior in age and divinity, and he protests Christian loyalty to the Emperor.]

39. Having refuted the charges laid against us, let me now show what we really are. We are a body knit together by one faith, one discipline and one hope. We meet together as a congregation, uniting together to offer prayer to God. We pray for the emperors and all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for peace and for the delay of the final end. We read our holy scriptures to nourish our faith, hope, steadfastness and good habits. We hear exhortations and rebukes. We take such judging very seriously – as befits those who believe they are in the sight of God – especially seriously when anyone sins so grievously we have to cut them off from our prayer, our congregation and all sacred things. Our elders preside over us, obtaining that honor not by money, but by their established character. There is no buying and selling in the things of God. Though we have a fund, but not because people can buy religion. Once a month, anyone who wants to makes a small donation – but only he who is able and willing; there is no compulsion. It is not spent on feasts, but to support and bury poor people, to provide for orphans, the elderly old persons, victims of shipwreck and those in prison for their faith.

44. No one considers how great a loss it is to the Empire, what an injury to the state, when people as virtuous as we are put to death in such numbers, and so many of the truly good suffer the ultimate penalty. Here we call your own acts to witness, you who are daily presiding at the trials of prisoners, and passing sentence upon crimes. In your long lists of those accused of many and various atrocities, has any assassin, any thief, anyone guilty of sacrilege, or seduction, or stealing bathers’ clothes, ever been named as a Christian too? Or when Christians are brought before you purely on the charge of being Christians, do you ever find them to be guilty of such crimes? It is always with your folk [i.e. pagans] that the prison is steaming, the mines are sighing, the wild beasts are fed: it is from you that the organizers of the gladiatorial circus always get their herds of criminals to feed up for the occasion. You will find no Christian there, unless they are there simply because they are Christians.

45. We and we alone are without crime. And there is nothing strange about that, because it is an absolute necessity for us. We have a perfect knowledge of what goodness is, being taught by a perfect Master, God himself. And faithfully we do His will, being commanded by a Judge we dare not despise. Your ideas of virtue, on the other hand, come from mere human opinion, and you are commanded by human authority. This means that your understanding of morality is deficient: it is incomplete and lacks the authority to produce a life of real virtue. Human knowledge of what is good is easily deceived, and human authority is easily despised. So, which is the better rule, to say, “You shall not kill,” or to teach “Do not even be angry?” Which is more perfect, to forbid adultery, or to restrain from even a single lustful look? Which indicates the higher mind, prohibiting evil-doing or evil-speaking? Which is more thorough, not allowing an injury, or not even letting an injury done to you to be repaid? [Matt 5:21-48] No doubt about it, we, who receive our reward under the judgment of an all-seeing God, and who look forward to eternal punishment from Him for sin, we alone make a real effort to lead a blameless life, inspired by our greater knowledge, the impossibility of concealing anything, the severity of the threatened torment (not merely long but everlasting) and our fear of the Judge whom all should fear and by which fear they are judged – I mean not the Proconsul, but God.

49. All you can do to us depends upon our own pleasure. Being a Christian is obviously a matter of my own choice, so you can only condemn me for Christianity if I choose to be condemned. Do whatever you can to me on that score, and you do it at my will, not in your own power. The people’s rejoicing in our persecution is therefore utterly groundless. When they delight in our suffering, they are merely sharing in our joy, because we would far rather be condemned than betray God. Those who hate us should regret rather than rejoice in our condemnation, as we have obtained the very thing we choose.

50. “In that case,” you say, “why do you complain about being persecuted? You should be grateful to us for giving you the sufferings you want.” Well, it is quite true that it is our desire to suffer, but in the same way that a soldier longs for war. Of course, no one suffers willingly, since suffering involves fear and danger. But we are like those who object to the conflict, but fight with all our strength, and when victorious rejoice in the battle, because they reap from it glory and spoil. It is our battle to be summoned to your courts and, in fear of execution, to fight there for the truth. But the battle is won when the goal of the struggle is reached. This victory of ours gives us the glory of pleasing God, and the spoil of eternal life. But, you say, we are vanquished. Yes, when we have obtained our wishes. Therefore we conquer in dying; we seize the victory in the very moment that we are overcome. Bound to a stake, we are burned on a heap of wood. This is the attitude in which we conquer, it is our victory robe, it is our triumphal entry. This attitude does not please those whom we overcome. Because of it, we are counted a desperate, reckless race. But the very desperation and recklessness you object to in us, you exalt among yourselves as a standard of virtue in the cause of glory and of fame. Mucius of his own will left his right hand on the altar. What sublimity of mind! Empedocles gave his whole body at Catana to the fires of Etna. What resolution! The founder of Carthage gave herself away in second marriage to the funeral pile. What a noble witness of her chastity! …

Zeno the Eleatic, when he was asked by Dionysius what the good of philosophy is, answered that it teaches contempt of death and so was handed over to the tyrant’s whip without flinching, and sealed his opinion with his death. We all know how the Spartan lash, applied with the utmost cruelty under the very eyes of encouraging friends, confers honor on the young men who endure it in proportion to the blood which they shed. For such human glory, you count it neither reckless folly, nor desperate obstinacy to despise death and all kinds of savage treatment. You will endure this for your home country, for the Empire, for friendship, but not for God! You cast statues in honor of such people, you put inscriptions upon their images and carve epitaphs on their tombs, so that their names may never perish. So far as you can by your monuments, you grant your sons the resurrection of the dead. But anyone who expects the true resurrection from God and so suffers for God, is insane! Go zealously on, good presidents! You will stand higher with the people if you sacrifice us, kill us, torture us, condemn us and grind us to dust, as they demand. Your injustice is the proof that we are innocent. That is why God allows us to suffer. Did you not just recently condemn a Christian woman to be violated by men rather than thrown to the lions? In doing so, you showed that we consider a taint on our purity something more terrible than any punishment and any death. Your cruelty, however great, is more a temptation to us than a benefit to you. The more we are mown down by you, the more we grow. The blood of Christians is seed. Many of your writers, such as Cicero and Seneca… exhort their readers to bear pain and death bravely, and yet their words do not find so many disciples as Christians do, who teach not by word, but by deed. In fact, the teacher is this very obstinacy that you rail against: all who contemplate it want to find out what is at the bottom of it; all who find out embrace our doctrines; and all who have embraced them, desire to suffer in order to become part of the fullness of God’s grace, and obtain God’s complete forgiveness by giving in exchange for their blood. For that secures the remission of all offenses. And this is why it is that we give you thanks, on the very spot, for your sentences on us. As the divine and human are ever opposed to each other, when we are condemned by you, we are acquitted by the Highest.

There is a lot about the hostility of society toward Christians and Christianity. It's literally never been otherwise, except for a few short years in the United States between the time the first Pilgrims landed and sometime around the end of the '90's. During the time between the sexual revolution (60's) and the '90's, the United States had one of its greatest revivals in history, known as the Jesus Movement. However, that revival didn't penetrate the core of our society the way the revivals of earlier years had. At this same time, we had one of the great evangelists of our time (Billy Graham) ministering throughout the United States. He did a great deal for individuals, but he still did not truly penetrate society as did earlier revivals. 

This accounts in great measure for the problems we have now in our society. Combined with philosophical relativism, the social gospel, and seminaries that teach nothing, Christianity has many problems. To fully understand the forces that got us here, I recommend that everyone read Francis Schaeffer's works, which he wrote in the '70's. They are not hard to read, but they explain what happened in ways that would take me a couple books of my own. 

Here are some of Schaeffer's books. I've focused on the ones that help understanding of the reasons Christianity has fallen on such difficult times. He was European (Swiss) but what he writes applies here, too.

Escape From Reason:  https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Reason-Classics-Francis-Schaeffer/dp/0830834052

How Should We Then Live: https://www.amazon.com/Should-Then-Live-LAbri-Anniversary-ebook/dp/B00IFG0AD8/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

The Church at the End of The 20th Century: https://www.amazon.com/Church-Twentieth-Century-Christian-paperbacks/dp/0340201363

Schaeffer had lots of excellent books, and they are all great.

In addition, every Christian who thinks he has it bad should read Foxe's Book of Christian Martyrs. This book details the persecutions Christians experienced from the beginning of the Christian Church up through the British persecutions. YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK.

In the 20th Century, the following things have happened (and this is by no means all):

Terrible persecutions under the Communists (we can't know exact numbers. These are estimates, som good, some bad):
Soviet Union: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Christians_in_the_Soviet_Union (12-20 MILLION)
Other places: https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/ (these folk actually keep records);
The martyrdom of Christians in the 20 and 21st centuries is terrible. Not only have Christians been targeted for extermination in communist countries, they have also been targeted in various African nations, and in the entire Islamic world, depending on the particular ruling regime. India has been a terrible place in the past for religious persecution,
So when you discuss how awful persecution is in the United States, I take your point, but really??!! The US has been one of the LEAST hostile nations in the world for Christians throughout its existence.
The reason? We have a Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion (which sometimes doesn't work so well, I grant that). One of the wisest moves that the framers of the Constitution made was to place the "freedom of religion clause" in our Constitution. We are one of the few countries that has such a clause.
And now, a word...ISLAM is a "state religion." By its very nature, the union of religion and the state, it always seeks control over the state. This is why every Muslim from the Middle East has a philosophy completely different from ours. They think they are superior because of their religion, and they think that their state religion is the only one that deserves to be represented. If you doubt this, look at Saudi Arabia. When the US invaded Iraq, reports were rife that the Saudis did not want our soldiers to bring the Bible into their lands, because it was a "Muslim country." Consider carefully when you think about making Muslims partners. If they are truly religious men and women, it does not bode well.
In addition, and what I first began to write about, Christianity won't die. It can't die. the Lord has promised that "the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church." Persecutions will not destroy us. Hostility will not make us give up. The message we need to hear is not, "Please! Stop persecuting us!" but "You will NOT make me give up!"
Martin Luther once said, "You cannot kill a Christian. All you can do is put him on his horse and give him a send-off to heaven."
For the Christian, death is only a transition. It's tough, but that's the way it is. Christians are the only people on earth who literally cannot die. See John 11:25...

Matthew 5 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 7

Jesus begins His ministry Matthew 4 12 25

Jesus Temptations and YOU Matthew 4 1 11

The End is just the Beginning Revelation 22

The City of God New Jerusalem Revelation 21

EVERYTHING NEW God's Eternity and you Revelation 21 22 part 1

Revelation 21 22 Intro to God's Forever

1000 years of blessing and judgment courtesy of God Almighty

The END of the AntiChrist Revelation 16-19.

Waiting for the Lord's Return...

Here we have the final verses of Mark 13, Jesus' words about being ready for the time He comes.

28 "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.
29 "Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door.
30 "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
31 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
32 "But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
33 "Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come.
34 "It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert.
35 "Therefore, be on the alert--for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning--
36 in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep.
37 "What I say to you I say to all, 'Be on the alert!'"

Of course, the most important words are the final ones in the chapter: "Be on the alert!" or, as the KJV has it, "Watch!"

I've been doing a video commentary on Revelation, which some of you have watched; I'm now to the end--two more videos to go--and I believe that that final verse of Mark 13 is one of the most important passages in the entire Bible. We MUST be ready. So many things will happen so fast that we have to be very aware of world, national and local conditions. The Lord IS coming back.
So, first off:
Jesus gives three time reference points to help us understand several important factors about the end.

• There will be warning: 28 "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 "Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door. In other words, we will know WHEN (only in outline) by the trends in the world. Just as summer is around the corner once the trees are all in leaf, we know that Jesus' return is also around the corner when we see the beginnings of things He's discussed in the rest of the chapter.
• Once things begin, they will end quickly: 30 "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. "This generation" is the generation watching the "beginning" of the events Jesus describes. The book of Revelation concurs in this; the entire period of the Great Tribulation (from the end of Revelation 11 on) takes just 3-1/2 years. That's 3-1/2 years from the point the Antichrist sits in the Temple, displaying himself as "god," to his being cast into the Lake of Fire. The Antichrist comes to power as a result of the world's upheavals (see Revelation 6-10), which takes about 3-1/2 years, and then takes his full power. So the Antichrist's rise to power is meteoric, and his descent from power is the same--3-1/2 additional years from his murdering the two witnesses in Revelation 11 and his assumption of ultimate power, he is in the Lake of Fire.
• Finally, there is no information about when all this will start. In fact, Jesus indicates that it might be a very long time from the time he gave the sermon: 31 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. This is intended to give us the understanding that the process of His return could begin today, or it could wait for many years. We don't know. Conversely, he tells us that knowing "when"  is "hidden information:" 33 "Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come. God has intentionally hidden this information. He has set this as one of His mysteries, which will remain unknown until the events begin to unfold. This fact is extremely important because every so often, somebody claims to have unraveled the secret, and gives us a "date." The Jehovah's Witnesses did this nearly 100 years ago; Harold Camping did it in 2011, and others have done so as well. In light of this, everyone should read what Jesus said: "NOBODY KNOWS THE DAY or THE HOUR..."  In fact, Mark 13:33 says, "Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come. The word translated "Time" in that verse is a word that usually means "season," such as winter or summer. In other words, He's saying, that with the exception of seeing things actually begin, even trying to know the general time is an exercise in frustration and failure. He has intentionally hidden these things from us so that we will keep watching, rather than saying, "Oh, He's coming in 20 years. That gives me 18 years of partying, and 2 years to clean myself up." That's not the way it is. Start watching NOW.

All this leads to the following conclusion: the single most important thing you can do in your spiritual life is to "watch" or "be on the alert." Jesus put it like this: Luke 12:35 "Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. 36 "Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. 37"Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. 38 "Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 39 "But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 40 "You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. (and you definitely should read the rest of the passage).

LISTEN to what Jesus says. Put aside things that keep you from watching for Him (I'm not talking about ordinary activities--Jesus actually tells us to keep up with those in another passage), focus on His return, and expect Him. These words from Jesus are both commands and warnings.