Everything is not rosy....
It wasn’t a time of “feel good”, or “how to”, or “10 simple steps to—-“....it was a more serious retreat...not in a bad way, there was laughter, introspection, more awareness of the “outside” world...
I don’t know about you, but I tend to get comfortable...I like my little house, I like my flushing toilet, running water, air conditioning, electricity...my “safeness”..
But, there are times when those “safe” places in my heart and life need a little rattling, when truth needs to penetrate through the comforts, when my ignorance needs a a push or shove into the realties of the world outside...my comfort zone...
The speakers at this retreat were representing the Voice of the Martyrs...short film clips from countries all over the world showing us another reality than our comfortable lives...where people are tortured, killed, shunned, persecuted for believing in God...those “first century” Christians in today’s world...those places where Jesus carries them through the darkness or holds their hands through the floods of hatred, evil...
After visiting two holocaust museums this year, one in Israel and another in Washington DC, this was another reminder that times are not always rosy...the displays of shoes disposed of as people met their death in gas chambers...to a young girl walking in her own blood as her ankles were chained and she was made to walk continuously, tortured for her faith for years...her remembrance that Jesus gave his blood so that she might live...
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39
10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.
Revelation 2:10
We don’t talk about it much in everyday life, those whose lives on the line for their belief in Christ...but, it is real...we may not see it everyday, but those who live in constant fear of retaliation of their beliefs anywhere in the world, it is real...
Thank YOU for awakening us to your Word spoken in the lives of believers who don’t have the freedom to worship You...whose lives are daily in jeopardy...help us to pray, give as we can to encourage our brothers and sisters around the world...
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