“Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.” (Galatians 6:7 NLT)
… and if you have been planting seeds of “Only look out for #1, leave the poor to the government,” what do you think that harvest will be? To borrow a phrase, those fields are “white unto harvest.”
Today on Multiply Justice:
Mission Network News reports: Attacks against Christians in Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egypt are unprecedented. “They’re very brazen. We’re talking women being raped in broad daylight, men being attacked, or the homes of Christians being ransacked. And really, they have no recourse,” says Brittany Tedesco, Africa director for Christian Aid Mission.
Despite that, one ministry leader and his co-workers are determined to not flee the community because many Egyptians are open to the message of Jesus: “The nominal Muslims are even frightened by what they’re seeing from this government because it is so radical. This is not what they were wanting for their nation. To see these events unfold has been frightening for them as well.”
Read the full story by clicking here.
Video: Police watch violent attack on Christian funeral
Make a difference for persecuted Christians through International Christian Concern or Christian Solidarity International.
If your joy depends on your circumstances, it will be as fleeting as any other emotion and you will be double-minded, always stepping away from the Lord when events don’t please your selfish nature.
If your joy, however, wells up from deep gratitude for what God has done for you in Christ, it will endure through even the greatest trial and you will live a life of worship, always glorifying God with word and deed, regardless of — or because of — the trials that come your way.
“Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.” (Hebrews 12:28 NLT)
Turns out, I’m a “judgmental and horrible human being.” Good to know before I get too far into my Monday.
I got a Facebook message the other day warning me that another of my Facebook “friends” is “a bully, rude and condescending,” a liar and imposter. Unlike the messager, I won’t divulge names, but the accuser appears to formerly have been connected to the Toronto School of Theology. He does appear to be correct that the accused claims to have a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary; the PTS website does not list the ThM among its current degree plans.
When I asked the accuser why he would bother others with a personal quarrel, he replied, “You are a judgmental and horrible human being” and told me he had defriended me. It appears the accuser also went on to either delete his Facebook page or block me from finding him.
All I can say to that is, “Thank you.” I get valuable insight into a man’s heart when he responds to a question with a curse.
Friends, if you have a quarrel with someone, a gossip campaign on Facebook is hardly a WWJD strategy.
When Anthony Colon’s brother, Wilfredo, was murdered, young Anthony’s life was filled with hate. “I hated everybody. I hated everything. It made me to be a person, like a monster,” Colon told CNN’s Rose Arce. Over time, however, the anger began to fade. Colon married and had two children. He “welcomed religion into his life” and began to feel a deep desire to be reconciled with his brother’s killer.
Then one day, Arce reports, Colon was visiting a friend at the Eastern Correctional Facility in Ulster County, New York. He looked across the room and saw Michael Rowe, one of the men who had murdered his brother. Colon walked straight up to Rowe and said: “Brother, I’ve been praying for you. I forgave you. I’ve been praying I would see you again.”
In prison, Rowe was befriended by Julio Medina of Exodus Transitional Community, which helps inmates prepare to re-enter the free world, Arce reports. Rowe began pursuing an education behind bars, and Colon began visiting him regularly. The day Rowe graduated, Colon came to the ceremony. He also spoke on Rowe’s behalf at his parole hearing. When Rowe was paroled in mid-April after 20 years in prison, he started working side by side with Colon at Exodus.
The CNN Belief Blog article isn’t particularly well written, but the video is a very moving testimony to the power of Christ to lift us above our brokenness and use us to create justice in the most unlikely places.
Learn more about Exodus Transitional Community by clicking here.
Reblogged from Multiply Justice.
Hypocritical religion ignores the Sin problem in a man’s heart and instead focuses on behavior modification: “Because I am tempted to lust, I will train my eyes to not watch that TV show, not look at that website, not stare at that woman” … when what I need to do is allow God to change my heart and free me from my Sin problem.
What then do we make of religion that doesn’t even attempt behavior modification? Teachers tell the men to “solve” the lust problem by requiring the women to cover themselves from head to toe. Not only does the degenerate man not deal with his sin nature before God, he isn’t even challenged to modify his behavior. Does such religion even rise to the level of hypocrisy? And when those teachers then tell the men that even their best efforts at behavior modification still might be rejected by the Deity, what does that do but fill them with despair … and set some of them on a mission to impress the Deity with an outrageous act of self-sacrifice.
The Almighty is a holy God of love, redemption, forgiveness, and healing. We may pursue religion, but he pursues relationship.
Jesus set you free so you could live free!
Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? (Galatians 4:8, 9 NLT)
You are in a hard place. You are tempted to give up. But give up following Jesus? What’s the alternative? He has the words of life! Keep pushing. The one who endures to the end will be saved.
