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Monday, June 20, 2005

In the Face of Death Part II

Throughout the History of the bible many Jews and Christians alike faced death or hardship because of their strong faith in God or lack of it. Today true worshippers of God face these same challenges. Many in the past centuries have died for their right to worship God and to be able to read God's word. The Crusades and the Nazi regime with their concentration camps are just a few examples of the persecusion of God fearing people. Still much persecusion is going on today. Jesus Christ warned of a Great tribulation that would affect the whole world but especially true worshippers of God. There would be problems even leading up to this Great tribulation that would advance from bad to worse. (2 Tim 3:12-13) What can we expect to happen in the future? How bad will it really be?

First, lets look at one of the problems that would lead up to this Great tribulation. Christ said that because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number would cool off and also that many would be stumbled and betray one another. (Matt 24:10-13, John 16:1-4) This lawlessness spoken about is not criminal lawlessness but spiritual lawlessness as expressed in Christ disapproval of certain ones saying "lord, lord to him at Mathew chapter 7:21-23. This type of spiritual lawlessness will increase to the point when Christian love is lost and betrayal of their own brothers is carried out. Will all lose their Christian love? No! For it says that the love of the greater number will cool off but not all. So it is very important that we have the love of God in our hearts. We can't hate our brother or sister even if they do betray us. Was not Christ betrayed by his own people! Yet he kept on showing love down to his death.

Many today have already experienced betrayal from their brothers, being cast out of the congregation for speaking the truth or standing up for what is right. Others have experienced atrocities by supposed men of faith which has left them feeling alone and vulnerable. Jehovah and Christ take notice of all these things my friends. I tell you not one of thing goes unnoticed by them but the light will show up all things that have taken place in the dark! These tests of faith that we have right now can prepare us for the more difficult ones ahead when the world is in distress and many pressures could come upon us even instantly.

It is easy sometimes to image that we would be faithful under such hardships or outright persecusion but as they say there is no substitute for experience. If we are experiencing hardship now or have in the past and we got through it by having faith and trusting in God then we have gained much in experience and long suffering. (James 1:2-4, Rom 5:3, 1Peter 1:7) Take for example the apostles on the day of Christ betrayal. ALL of them abandoned Christ at that time as Christ said they would, even after all of them having confidence said they would go with him to death! The more we build up our endurance now and our trust in God and his son the better off we will be when the true test comes our way.

May God and Christ be with all those who put their trust in them. May we practice true Christian love for our brother and neighbor. It is practicing these simply but yet not always easy to perform commandments of God, which is to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. If you do these things you will be happy because your heart will feel good and there is no judgment for the righteous one who has put faith in all the promises of God which will be made a true reality by means of Jesus Christ. (Hebrew 10:35-39)

whether we have to face death or not, we must maintain our faith, love and hope as the apostle Paul say in 1 Cor13:13 13; Now, however, there remain faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. If we have these then God can give us the rest that we need to face whatever comes upon us. If we don't have these God will continue to teach us about faith, hope, and love through his word and through experience.
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