A Matthew 10 world
No one said this stuff would ever be easy.
Being a Christian in America is different than almost any other place on Earth, and that’s a good thing.
At this moment, there are Christians around the world who live in fear that their faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior will be found out, and the next (and perhaps last) thing they’ll know is that they’ll be at the business end of a rifle pointed their way. Whether it’s the government or the religious police representing some other prophet, that entity will be the bearer of the sword of what they consider judgment.
Generally, the persecution Christians have faced in America is that of being mocked and ostracized for their beliefs. I’m somewhat ashamed to say that, in my youth, I was one of those who mocked those who are religious for being too uptight: I was too easily led by the power of conformity and the mainstream media that portrayed devout Christians in a negative light since I really didn’t know a whole lot of them as a member of a non-churchgoing family. Fortunately I came to my senses as I matured and so here I am, just a humble servant trying to prepare the soil for the seed of the missionary.
There’s a part of me that believed this election would dictate the future direction of this nation and whether it’s salvageable or not in its intended form. Over the last several years we have seen a national moral falling away from the precepts of traditional Judeo-Christian values to a point where we take the 1970s mantra, “if it feels good, do it” to an extreme. And nowhere is that more apparent than the dealings with what my cohorts at The Patriot Post call the “Rainbow Mafia,” whose members have tried to force, via the power of Caesar, good Christian people who love the sinner but hate the sin into condoning their wicked ways through art and media. (Examples are the ongoing cases involving the Masterpiece Cakeshop, 303 Creative, and other past cases in Washington and Oregon.) However, pro-abortion zealots outraged by the proper decision in the Dobbs case are in second place and rapidly gaining.
So far we have been saved to an extent by a legal system that still respects the Constitutional freedom to practice their religion. But the other part of me strives to remember that God is in control when these things occur, as all of these issues have essentially blossomed during my time in the world. I suppose I may be let into the master plan once I’m gone, but God’s Word doesn’t tell us that we’ll ever know everything. In the meantime we have to live in the here and now, and quite frankly things are getting more dangerous for believers here based on the ruckus over the issue of abortion. Yet we were told to expect this, and I’ve written a rather long introduction to the verses I want to discuss.
16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Christians may again be getting to the point where are hated for His name’s sake. For the first 200 years of this republic we lived under Judeo-Christian values and those who were religious were respected in most quarters. Aside from a few exceptions - those who fell away thanks to the temptations of the world, with Kanye West being an example that springs to mind for some reason - Christians are still like that. But the wolves are more plenty, and more ravenous.
Yet we should not be ashamed of our testimony, if for nothing else than to determine who might be on our side in this battle.