The Threat of Persecution
- Annika Bilitz
- Jul 22, 2019
- 3 min read
Happy Sun-- Monday everyone!!
Today we are thankful for:
1) The rain! The summer weather in Wisconsin has been crazy hot recently! Thankfully God sent some rain and helped it cool down a bit.
2) Henry James!! I take having a pet for granted by easily getting annoyed when he wants attention and I’m not in the mood to play with him. But there is NOTHING like waking up in the morning and walking out of my room to him wagging his tail because he’s excited to see me.
3) Having the freedom of religion!!!!!! This is a BIG one guys & if I take having a pet for granted, I take this for granted 100,000x more.
Persecution is a very real thing. It happens every single day whether it be about race, religion, sexual orientation, or anything else… it happens too often.
What if going to church was life threatening? We as Christians in the United States are so incredibly blessed to be able to drive to church, sit, worship, & sing, and then get back in our cars and drive home without anyone making a stink about it.
Not every country is as blessed as we are. A website called Open Doors USA gives a list called persecution by numbers. The numbers come from the top 50 countries of the world.
Persecution is scary but it’s going to happen. Jesus actually tells us that we are blessed if we are persecuted! Being persecuted means that the light of your faith is shining bright.
Matthew 5:10-12
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven .Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
He tells us to expect persecution because he went through it all before we did!
John 15:18
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
The good news is we don’t have to deal with persecution by ourselves!
I talked about my puppy earlier. Henry is 10 pounds of pure fluff and he thinks he is the TOUGHEST pup in the world! He’ll hear any little noise outside and start barking away being our “guard dog”.
He’s tiny!!! What good is a 10 pound puppy going to do against anything?!?! That is exactly how it would be if we dealt with persecution by ourselves.
Alone, our faith is tiny!! But with God, with Jesus, and with the Word nothing can touch us! Going back to the passage I referred to last week… Jesus will never leave us!! He will never forsake us!
We can rest assured that even when hard times come, Jesus has already won!! The victory is ours.
John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Things to work on this week:
1) Remembering my sermon notebook! I absolutely adore bringing a notebook with me to write down all of my thoughts during the sermon but I’ve been forgetting recently.
2) Finishing my book! I’m currently reading If There’s No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout. The book teaches a good lesson! I’m excited to see how it ends.
3) Cleaning!! My room has been messy for aawwwhhiiilllleee so that needs to be done!
Sorry I’m a day late to post!! I wasn’t feeling well yesterday and went to sleep early.
Sharing my love for Jesus and his love for you!
Annika Bilitz
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