Hebrews 11: 35 – 38 describes for us the onslaught some of the men and women of God from the Bible went through. In Matthew 5: 11 we read, “Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me.” Insults, persecutions, and false accusations recognized as blessings, because of being a follower of Jesus, as this is how the Prophets of old were treated for being obedient in bringing forth the Word of God.
I was thinking about our modern day Christians and how many are still separating themselves from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, in order to receive God’s Word in these perilous times. Jesus says in John 7: 7, “The world cannot hate you; but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” It is imperative that the Church retains the Standard which (Who) is Jesus, first and foremost as the plumb line of righteousness.
In John 15: 18 – 19 Jesus says, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. But all these things they will do to you for my Name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”
1 John 2: 15-16 says, “Do not love the world, nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
I found myself asking this very honest question several years ago; If I am a child of God (and I am), and you hate me, can you as a Christian (or non-Christian) be a friend of God? In Matthew 10: 22 Jesus says, “And you shall be hated by all on account of My Name, but it is the one who endures to the end who will be saved.”
Dearest Holy Lord Jesus: please forgive us that so many do not have the discernment or knowledge of Your Word, by allowing homogenization with the World and its deceptions. Come by Your Holy Spirit, and raise up your people to be uncompromisingly righteous in this age of unimaginable lowered values and morals. Fill us afresh with a Divine zeal for Thy Kingdom, that Thy Glory may be revealed. Glory to You alone!
