Real Christianity

There remains a great deal of conjecture about what God would allow His children to go through. Some believe the Lord will rapture His saints before the tribulation based on one simple thing, they frankly don't believe that God will allow Christians to go through any kind of persecution. (I'm not taking issue with those who believe that the rapture will come before the tribulation, in fact I will be perfectly happy if that is the way it happens.) What I am getting at is this, Christians are going through persecution today, not far off in history. Just because we aren't going through persecution here in America, doesn't mean that there are not Christians being persecuted in other parts of the world.

Some where along the way, we have to take this new crop of Christians from pizza boxes and friendship rings into real world Christianity. Take a look at the New Testament: John the Baptist, the Apostles, the deacons and everyday common Christians all face persecution. Beheaded, crucified, stoned and only John died of old age; after having been boiled in oil. Paul, who the Holy Spirit used to pen most of the New Testament spent a great deal of his time in jail. John who was used to pen five books of the New Testament, gave us the book of Revelation, and he wrote it when he was in exile on Patmos. Peter, I and II Peter and largely responsible for the book of Mark, jail time followed by crucifixion. Do you see a trend? Check out what the book of Romans has to say about it. So what in the world did we sign up for? Look at what Paul says in II Corinthians 4: 6-12. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts; think about that for a minute. Paul said we pour our lives out so that you may come to know that light, the treasure that we have in earthen vessels. What works for death in us, works for life in you. That's why we do it, someone poured their life out so that light could shine in my heart, so we pour our lives out that the very same light can shine in the hearts of others. God bless you all.