Hardships

Readings:
I Chronicles 27
Acts 14:21-28

Focus:
Acts 14:22b: "They warned them that to enter the kingdom of God we must undergo many hardships."

Telling about undergoing hardships is not exactly good advertisng for Christianity! Yet it's true that many people do suffer for their faith. It hasn't happened much in the United States, but around the world there are many people who are persecuted, sometimes to death, because they are Christians.

In Egypt, Coptic Christians are being attacked, their daughters kidnapped and forcibly married and converted to another religion, and their churches burned.

In India, especially in Orissa state, Catholics and other Christians have been attacked, injured and murdered, and many Christians are still living in refugee camps, afraid to return to their home villages.

In Nigeria, Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, have been attacked in worship, killed and injured, and their churches burned.

In Indonesia, Christians have been beheaded, and seminaries have been attacked. Christians walking between villages have been waylaid and murdered.

These are just some of the things that have happened. Yet the Christians living in these places have not chosen to give up their faith. They would rather remain Christians and suffer these things, than give up their saving relationship with God and live in safety in this world.

My prayer is that if this type of persecution ever comes to me, that I would be as strong and steadfast as the brave people of these other lands.