Tag Archives: America

November 13, 2024 · 8:58 AM

Will We Suffer Persecution For Our Faith?

Did the outcome of our recent election protect freedom of speech in America or endanger it? The political party we support will probably determine our answer to that question. What about freedom of religion? Are we holding our ground? losing ground? Not many would say that we are gaining ground on this vital liberty.

Whatever our beliefs about freedom of speech and freedom of religion at this moment in our nation, we should be aware of two things. Followers of Jesus continue to suffer persecution for their faith in other parts of the world. Christians in America may not join in that suffering anytime soon, but we should always be aware of the possibility.

David Lin is an American pastor who was recently released from prison in China. He was incarcerated there for almost twenty years. Hundreds of other American citizens are still imprisoned in China.

The Chinese government is using AI (artificial intelligence) and face recognition software to persecute Christians and other religious groups. The people have no religious freedom, despite the government’s claims. Instead, religious oppression and persecution are commonplace.

Sadly, some voices in the U.S.A. are casting doubts on our traditional beliefs in freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Some even want to scrap our federal constitution and replace it. They obviously want a governing document that does not include freedom of religion.

What should we do? As Christians, we should be exemplary citizens. We should be informed, vote according to our beliefs and values, and serve in government if and when God calls us to do so, representing him to the best of our abilities.

But how should we think about the increasingly negative attitudes about Christianity in our country and the persecution of believers abroad?

We tend to ask the question: Why does God allow his people to suffer oppression and persecution? Sometimes God uses governments to discipline his people. God used Babylon to discipline his chosen people Israel in the Old Testament.

But oppression is not always God’s discipline. God allowed Pharaoh to oppress Israel so he could demonstrate his power and convince Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and the Israelites that he is the one and only true and living God.

What is clear, however, is the fact that God does allow governments to oppress his people. This is the testimony of Scripture from both Old and New Testaments. Why?

Sometimes God allows his people to be tested. Job was a man of extraordinary faith. Satan accused Job, saying that Job only trusted God because God protected him, making his life easy. Remove the protection, Satan challenged, and Job’s faith would collapse. God allowed Satan to test the strength of Job’s faith.

Revelation 13 reveals a time of great persecution against Christians at the end of this age, persecution that will be worldwide. God urges his people to be faithful when facing tribulation for their faith in Jesus despite the cost.

Persecution for faith in Jesus is as old as the church itself. In the early days of the church, Peter was arrested for telling people about Jesus. The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, the same ones who turned Jesus over to be crucified, they threatened Peter and the apostles. And just to get their point across, they flogged them. These beatings were vicious. Sometimes people died.

Surprisingly, Peter and the apostles were rejoicing. Rejoicing! Why? Because they were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus. They weren’t seeking pain or persecution, but if it came to them, they were honored to endure it to demonstrate their faith in Jesus.

Every follower of Jesus does not suffer persecution or oppression, but many believers have suffered for their faith over the past two thousand years and many brothers and sisters in Christ suffer today in certain parts of the world. Whatever our struggles may be, we tend to ask the same questions. When ‘squeezed’ we ask: Is Jesus really Lord? Should I keep my faith in Jesus? The answer from God’s word is emphatically, Yes!

God agreed to allow Satan to test Job’s faith, but he placed limits on Satan’s attacks against Job. Satan was not allowed to take Job’s life. At the end of this age, God will only allow the Antichrist to run amok for forty-two months. God decides the limits.

God is the ultimate power and authority. Satan can only go as far as God permits. We can be certain that God has not lost control, that Satan has not taken charge, that random forces have not become our master. And we can be certain that God still loves us and has a plan for us and wants the best for us. We can still enjoy his blessings now, sure that our struggles will give way to great glory forever.

May God empower us to remain faithful to him despite the cost,

Brother Richard

Pray for the Peace of Israel and the Blessing of America

We celebrated 245 years as an independent nation this July 4.

Sadly, it has become controversial to express gratitude for the blessings of our country. Marxists are using Critical Race Theory to cast the United States as an evil oppressor nation that is racist to its core and undeserving of any honor or success.

Without a doubt, racists should repent. They denigrate people made in God’s image and provide fuel for the fires of destruction now being kindled by the Marxists. On the other hand, those who assert that all white people are racists should also repent. They are falsely accusing millions of people and sowing hateful and dangerous divisions.

Fortunately, many citizens of our nation can still see both the successes and the failures of our nation. We know that our mistakes as a country do not cancel our mission to protect and promote liberty. We are willing to acknowledge our nation’s sometimes tragic errors, but we also insist that our successes be celebrated.

We still believe in the high ideals that define our greatest aspirations, ideals that should guide us in the future: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, a reasonable expectation of privacy, fair treatment from our legal system.

We believe that all people are created equal, not the same, that we are created by God, that our fundamental rights are God-given and not government-given. Our government is not the source of our rights, but it should be the protector of our rights.

We also carry a sense of loyalty toward other freedom-loving nations in our world, like Israel. We believe that the State of Israel has a right to exist and a right to defend herself from the violent attacks and hostile plots of her surrounding neighbor states.

Followers of Jesus have an even deeper connection with Israel. God chose Abraham to be the ancestor not only of the Jews, but of Jesus Christ our Savior. The Bible tells us that God promised to make Abraham’s descendants into a great nation and to give them the land of Israel.

After rebelling against the Roman Empire in the first century, Jews were expelled from the Promised Land and scattered to the four corners of the civilized world. This did not take God by surprise. The promises in his written word were unequivocal. He would gather his chosen people from the nations and return them to their homeland.

Decades passed and Jews remained scattered to the nations. Centuries came and went, and Jews lived only in Gentile lands. Almost two millennia passed and still God’s promise to return Abraham’s descendants to the land of Israel was yet to be fulfilled.

Many students of Scripture concluded that God’s promise to gather the people of Israel and reestablish them in the Promised Land could not be taken literally. They interpreted God’s promise as merely a figurative expression. After all, a literal fulfillment would be impossible. It would take a miracle.

Then, in the early decades of the twentieth century, Jews began returning to the Beautiful Land. They went by the tens of thousands, leaving behind their homes and businesses and all that they had built in Gentile nations for countless generations. They went not to visit the land of Israel but to make their lives and their futures there.

In 1948, world leaders officially recognized the State of Israel, the homeland for God’s chosen people, the fulfillment of God’s ancient promise, a miracle!

Five nations surrounding the fledgling State of Israel, all much larger and more powerful, immediately joined together and attacked in an all-out effort to destroy Israel. In a stunning turn of events, Israel prevailed.

Ugly hatred against the Jewish state burned relentlessly. In 1967, the enemies of Israel made ready to attack again. In a war that lasted only six days, God gave Israel victory. Moreover, the modern state more than doubled in size! A third time, the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the enemies of God’s people tried to push Israel into the sea. A third time God gave Israel the victory.

As it is, many people today hate Israel. Like all nations, the people of Israel have made mistakes. But we can see through the failures of people and recognize the hand of God at work. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Closer to home, many now hate America. But we can recognize the failures of our nation without forgetting the blessings of God on the U.S.A. We pray for the favor of Almighty God on our nation!

May God bless the United States of America,

If My People

Why did God visit Abraham on his way to Sodom and Gomorrah? He said that he would go down and see if things were as wicked as it seemed in Sodom. But the God of heaven and earth has no need to “go down and see” in order to know the state of Sodom or any city.

On his way to Sodom, God stopped by the home of Abraham. Abraham looked up and three men stood near his tent in the heat of the day. According to the customs of his day, Abraham was quick to offer gracious hospitality for the men. They accepted his offer of a restful meal.

During the after-dinner talk, Abraham realized that he was not entertaining normal visitors. In some mysterious way, God’s very presence had come to call. And God decided to share his mission with Abraham. He was apparently on a fact-finding trip that would determine the fate of a city and its citizens.

Abraham could have kept quiet and let the Lord go on. After all, what business was it of his? So long as God did not bother Abraham and his household, what good would it do to get involved anyway? God knows what he is doing. Let him go to it.

Or Abraham could have offered his opinion. After all, he lived just a few miles away from the city. He could have told God that what he heard about Sodom was right. It definitely was a desperately wicked city. Abraham could have told God that he would not blame him for sweeping the place away in judgment.

But what Abraham did was simply astounding. He appealed to God for mercy. He asked that God spare the wicked citizens of Sodom. God agreed with Abraham that if just ten righteous people could be found in the city then he would spare everyone. Abraham interceded with God for a corrupt, violent, and immoral people.

True, Abraham’s nephew, Lot, lived in the city. His intercession could have been for selfish reasons. But he did not ask God to save only his kinfolk. He pleaded for God to show mercy on the entire population of Sodom. Abraham appealed to God for undeserved favor.

Abraham’s example of intercession with God is timely for us. By almost every measure imaginable the cities around us are declining rapidly. The most important measure, of course, is spiritual. And the spiritual condition of America is deplorable. We are driving hard and fast toward a truly desperate situation.

We could easily feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem and choose to simply protect our own. We could rightly be angry about the horrible circumstances and just agree that God should wipe out the wicked. But Abraham, the man of faith, offers us a better response: we should intercede with God for America, appealing for his great grace.

America needs godly people to cry out to the Lord for mercy. God our Savior is gracious. He told Abraham that for just ten righteous people he would spare the desperately sinful city of Sodom. Unfortunately for Sodom, not even ten righteous people were left in the place.

We must cry out to God for his grace and mercy before the righteous dwindle away to nothing and it is too late for our communities and neighborhoods. The Lord has promised that when his people, those called by his name, humble themselves and pray, that he will hear and forgive and heal the land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

May we be found faithful,

Brother Richard

Tag Archives: America

Will We Suffer Persecution For Our Faith?

Pray for the Peace of Israel and the Blessing of America

If My People

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