Preach

 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
Acts 8:4 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/act.8.4.ESV

It's not just about practicing what we preach; it's about preaching in the first place! God's people were scattered by persecution, but they bravely preached the gospel anyway, wherever they went. There's no place for cowardice in God's Kingdom.

We often might think of the early Church as a golden age for God's people. Yet it actually took persecution to prompt them to obey the great commission to make Christ known far and wide. Persecution took the church from being a Jewish sect to being the global phenomenon that it is now.

We naturally think of persecution as a bad thing, yet Jesus insists that we're blessed if we're persecuted, because great is our reward in heaven. Furthermore, as an old quote goes, 'the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church'. Persecution has a habit of weeding out nominal Christians and sorting out the wheat from the chaff.

It shouldn't take persecution to prompt us to preach the good news. Preaching might not be trendy for ordinary people like us to do. Yet it is the humble means by which God grows His church.

'Dear Lord, please help us to be faithful to You even in the midst of persecution. May we be faithful to proclaim Your truth and love to the world, for the glory of Your name, amen'

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mercy

  For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them. Deuteronomy 4:31 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/deu.4.31.ESV Jesus Christ is Lord. That's why they crucified Him, for claiming to be God and King: blasphemy to the Jews and treason to the Romans. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. So the same Jesus of yesterday is the Jesus of today. He was merciful yesterday, and He'll be merciful today and forever. He doesn't just turn around and decide to destroy people He's lavished His mercy upon. If we've received God's mercy, or if we receive it now, or before Christ returns, nothing can separate us from the love of God. If we want God's presence in our lives, and we cry out to Him for it, He's not going to abandon us in the wilderness of our sin. If we claim God's Bible promises for ourselves in faith, we are safe in Him. God promises never t
Read more

Power

 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.Exodus 9:16 ESVhttps://bible.com/bible/59/exo.9.16.ESV  Secular historians point to the lack of extra-biblical evidence of Hebrew slavery in Egypt and ensuing exodus. But here in this verse, God describes how this anonymous Pharoah has been immortalised in the annals of the Hebrews, so that God is proclaimed in all the earth. The mighty men of the world might think they can stand against God and win, but resistance is futile!  The more stubborn Pharoah was, the more the Lord was able to display His power. The more insistent Pharoah was of keeping his slaves, the more unreasonable he appeared. It was a battle of wills, and the will of Yahweh prevailed.  In the end, Pharoah will have been broken by the plagues. In the final plague, his own firstborn son was killed, the next in line to the throne of the world superpower. He might have tried to put a brave face on it, but he
Read more

Rejoice!

  yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:18 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/hab.3.18.ESV It's one thing to rejoice in God on a full stomach. It's yet another thing to rejoice in God in the midst of famine. Habakkuk's faith wasn't circumstantial. He trusted in the Sovereign Lord even when everything seemed bleak. His country was plagued by injustice. An even more unjust country was going to ravage them. Now, it seems that famine had descended. When the world offers nothing to rejoice in, God does, because He is literally out of this world. He promises those who trust in Him that we can transcend this 'vale of tears' and make it to a glorious new creation. There, He will wipe away every tear. How do we get to the heavenly city? Through faith in God. Why can we trust in God? Because He is the God of salvation, as gloriously revealed in Christ's death and resurrection on our behalf. 'Sovereign Lord, we tr
Read more