Monday, June 10, 2013

Persecution and Lukewarm Christianity

Every week I get an email from Open Doors and International Christian Concern about prayer needs for the persecuted Christians in the world.  I try to read them and pray for the needs as often as I can, which unfortunately I don't do it every time.  This morning I read a few country profiles and news updates from Syria, Oman, and Eritrea.  

From the emails:

"Oman

There are a few countries on the World Watch List that we can’t share stories from. Even if we were to use different names, the Christian population is so small, that the story could easily be traced back to the individual. For their security, we are providing a different way to pray for the country this week.
Here are the top 10 things to know about what life is like for Christians in Oman:
  • The law prohibits religious discrimination but all religious organizations must register.
  • All public school curriculums (grades K-12) include instruction in Islam.
  • Almost the entire Christian population (around 35,000) is made up of expatriates; indigenous Christians number only a few hundred.
  • Foreign Christians are often tolerated and allowed to worship in private homes or work compounds.
  • The government records religious affiliation on national identity cards for citizens and on residency cards for non-citizens.
  • Muslim Background Believers (MBBs) risk persecution from family and society, but the government may intervene on request from the family. In such cases, these believers are often treated as psychiatric patients.
  • MBBs can lose their family, house, and job and can even be killed.
  • There are some government limitations on proselytizing and printing religious material. Non-Muslim groups are prohibited from publishing religious material, although non-Muslim religious material printed abroad may be imported after government inspection and approval.
  • The Protestant Church in Oman (PCO) is the fruit of the active presence of RCA, a branch of the Reformed Church of America (RCA), which started its work in Oman in 1893.
  • Currently PCO, under the combined leadership of the Reformed Church of America and the Anglican Church, ministers to over 1000 believers from 60 countries.

Syria
In April 2011 a war began in Syria with peaceful protests against the regime. The war has escalated and Christians have found themselves in the center of it all. Two archbishops were captured and another leader in the country has been killed. The overall war is for tolerance and pluralism. If the government wins this war there is no more hope for any type of religious tolerance in Syria. Many Syrians have been displaced, fled to neighboring countries, or have been killed. 
Full story here...http://www.persecution.org/2013/06/01/syrias-future-tied-to-freedom-for-captured-christian-leaders/


Eritrea

Christians in Eritrea, Africa are being heavily persecuted. The Christians are being forced into traumatizing events like being held inside metal shipping containers with no access to ventilation or toilet facilities. Some of the Africans that try to flee are captured and brought to the desert and sold. Those that they capture are also tortured to death. Sometimes their organs are removed so that they can be sold.  The Eritrean government will deny any of these reports. The president says he fears religious freedom for the worry that it might lead to a Christian nation.
Full story here...http://www.persecution.org/2013/06/02/christians-in-eritrea-face-extreme-persecution-thats-getting-worse/  "


When I read the news about Christians in other countries in the world...it makes me question myself and the church who live in parts of the world where persecution is almost non-existent why we are not all the more eagerly using this freedom we have to share the gospel with as many people as possible.  I think sometimes that our lack of persecution is exactly what keeps us in a state of lukewarm Christianity.  This is a scary thought.  I pray for my heart all the time that I will treasure Christ like the man who found the treasure in the field...
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." Matthew 13:44

I want to treasure the Lord in the same way!  I want to eagerly give everything away for him, but I often struggle to even leave my comfort zone to share the gospel or reach out to someone in need.  Because of this I even pray sometimes that God will cause difficulties in my life that I will become stronger in faith... In Luke 14:31-33 Jesus says Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the 
same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples"

The question I ask myself when I read such passages as this is "Will my faith stand through the fire of persecution?"  Am I ready to really pick up my cross and follow Jesus?  My brain screams yes, but my heart feels reluctant sometimes because of the great cost I know it will take.  With this I realize how lukewarm my faith really is sometimes!!!!!

What I understand is that if I am afraid to share the gospel, or to do something for God, it is because I do not count him as worthy of my sacrifice...and I am really ashamed of the gospel.  Paul says in Romans 1:15-16 "That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile."  

Maybe you struggle with the same feelings, or maybe Satan has so weakened your faith that you do not even think about such things.  So I will pray that God will work mightily in my heart and in your heart to give us courage and love for him, that we will give anything in order to glorify him and share the gospel.  Please, I also ask you to pray for the persecuted Christians in the world.  Proverbs 31:8 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute."

May God bless you today!

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

The Kingdom of Heaven

While studying the gospel of Matthew this morning, I read through chapter 13, which predominately talks about the kingdom of heaven through a series of many parables.  One parable is the parable of the good and bad seeds.
"24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.  26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.  27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’  28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’  29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.  30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”  

Jesus explains the parable a little further in the chapter:
"36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”  37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.  38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,  39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels.  40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.  41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,  42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear."

Hell is a very real place, as is heaven a very real place.  I need to remember this often when I'm interacting with non-believers, so that I will seriously consider their destiny, and what it means for them if they do not repent.  Many people, especially in Ukraine and America, falsely believe they will go to heaven.  They assume that because they believe in God, even profess Jesus was the son of God, and are not a "bad person", that this will save them a place in heaven.  They may not even believe in Hell, because the thought of such a place of eternal agony and torment is not something bearable to think about.

Isaiah 66:24 talks about Hell as a place where "their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

When I think about Hell, it is unimaginable exactly how horrible of a place it is.  It seems that there are not words in the English language that could fully describe what an eternal place of torment is like.

In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus tells the story of Lazarus, the poor beggar who was faithful to God, and the rich man, while He thought he knew God, was not saved by his religion and suffered the consequences in eternity. 


19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 
22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out,‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’
 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 
27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 
29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 
30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 
31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

From a Shepherd's Conference preaching by Steve Lawson, we can learn several things from this passage:
1. The Rich man represented the pharisees in this story...rich in Religion but devoid of real faith.  He knew Abraham, and God, for he called Abraham "father."  This is a term that only people who are familiar with the bible and God would have used at that time.
2. The poor beggar was rice in grace and spirit, which is why the angels carried him to heaven (vs. 22)
3. Hell is an immediate place - The rich man was died, buried and immediately was in agony in the fire in Hell.  As in 5 seconds after his death, his soul was already in Hell...no waiting time, no second chance, no purgatory...just Hell, immediately upon death. (vs. 22-23)
4. Hell is a very separated place from heaven - "he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off " (vs.23)
5.  Hell is a place of agony, torment, unquenchable fire, and it is unending (eternal) (vs. 24)
6. Hell is a haunting place - people there are fully aware, more than they were in their life, to every sin, every opportunity they had to repent and believe, every time they heard the gospel, and every mistake they ever made.  They will remember their life forever. "But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish." (vs. 25) 
7. Hell is an inescapable place - "And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ " (vs. 26). Who would want to try to cross from heaven to hell?...surely people who want to save their loved ones.  However the chasm is so great that it is impossible for anyone to leave their eternal residence.
8. Hell is a place of desperation - The rich man desperately wanted to warn his loved ones (vs. 27-30)
9. God's word in the Scripture is shown to have full sufficiency and power to save us.  "31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”"  Many people say they will believe if they see a miracle or a sign from God that He is the true God...but think about all the people who didn't believe Jesus in his day...despite the many miracles and signs he performed and that he fulfilled the prophesies written in the new testament about the savior.

If you have read this far in this post, thank you, and I beg you to consider these things in your heart and repent if you do not have real faith in Jesus Christ, the savior from sins and Hell, and the only mediator between God and mankind.  Today and now is the time to repent, for you could die at any moment, and your eternal destiny will be sealed in heaven with God, or in eternal torment in Hell with all people who have rejected Christ.  It's up to you, but I beg you not to waste your life, and in the end to spend an eternity in Hell.

Here's the link to he Steve Lawson sermon if you'd like to listen to it.

http://www.shepherdsconference.org/media/details/?mediaID=7601