It Is Time to Stand

"But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God" 1 Peter 2:20b.

I believe Christ-followers are all going to be feeling this verse in the next few years, that is, if we have that long left. Some of us may already be seeing friends or family turn on us because of our beliefs. There might even be a thought in your head, "Not me. I will just keep quiet." God has a way of engaging us. I found that out a week ago when I thought I was keeping out of the hoopla on social media because it did not concern me. Lo, and behold, I was required to send an email towards inappropriate material in my business life. It was challenging for me, and believe me when I say it was not received well at all. In fact, the company defended the behavior as not intentional. Which I find worse because, to me, that means these behaviors are engrained because perversion is not an accident.
I don't know why we think we get to sit on the sidelines and spectate. Maybe for some silly reason, we believe that because someone has made a spectacle out of an issue, we can discount the topic's validity. For me, I hate drama, and I don't invite it into my life. Maybe though, that is one of Satan's tools. To cause so much chaos around critical topics that ordinary people start walking the other way. It is time for God's children to stop diverting our eyes. Evil is bold and proud. When are followers of Christ going to stop being ashamed of God?
At no point am I asking anyone to engage or fight online. God's word commands us to continue to do what is right and behave ourselves. You can participate in prayer zoom meetings right from your home. Many groups are fasting and praying for our nation. Remember, only God can change the heart of man.
When God's word warned us that during the end, right would be wrong and wrong would be right, I never thought of the insanity of it all. I don't think anyone can put words to the sorry and despair that some communities are experiencing. My sister shared with me, her dear friend is getting abuse from younger co-workers for doing her job. It makes them mad that she is doing her work assigned to her. Let that sink in. Let me finish with encouragement or a call to action. I often highlight the active verbs in whatever chapter I am reading. Here are the active words in 1 Peter 5. We are called to be partaker, exercise oversight, be the example, be humble, casting our cares, be sober, be alert, resist Satan, and stand firm in your faith. If you did not know what God is asking from you, now you know. God said we might suffer for doing what is right, but that is okay because our endurance will find favor with God.

Comments

There is Life and Death in the Tongue

There is life and death in the tongue. In the beginning, God created man to be in authority. Since the fall of man, many now see any so-called authority in our words, as crazy superstition or demonic. By perverting the concept, Satan has us speaking negative words in doubt and unbelief. We are literally cursing our own destinies because we do not understand that from the beginning, words were used to create. Now, evil uses words to destroy with constant negative, complaining, and destructive talk. It is everywhere, and the church is participating. Jesus has taken all authority from Satan and returned it to His children. Being ignorant concerning precisely what the blood of Christ at the cross has restored to us, we are still declaring ourselves destined for illness and great sorry on this earth. Many have confused trials and tribulations as one’s lot in life, so we then do not speak in authority against it because we believe Sovereign God wants us sick and hur...

Fast Part Two

I have been mulling over the part fasting should be playing in the age of grace. For two weeks, I have questioned my friends about why they fast. Most of my friends said the same thing: to get close to God or hear God. My friends are kind and allow me to challenge their thought processes or debate them concerning their answers. Yesterday at church, God finally brought a complete response to me about fasting. Imagine yourself on a date or having an intimate dinner with someone, and they took out their phone and started scrolling. What if you were talking to a friend and they walked away from you to do something else? How would you feel if someone you loved screened their calls and refused to pick up the phone to talk with you? All three of those scenarios are how we treat God. God looks at the relationship with His people as a marriage. There is not one marriage that can survive without intimacy or that special closeness withheld for only one. When we read ve...

The Silent Majority Must Find Their Voice

One thing I have learned in the almost eleven years of mission ministry is if someone believes a lie, there is nothing you can do or say that will convince them otherwise. Only God can reveal the truth and open the heart to receive it. Lies based on fear, I believe, take root at the core to shore up an eroding foundation. As Christ-followers, we tell our children the danger of building your house upon the sand. Ironically, Satan entered the Church and convinced God’s people that God does not heal anymore; therefore, the foundation of healing became sand for many. So for the last two years, fear has struck the hearts of God’s people with one medical fear after another. The results became leaders of the Church proclaiming secular practices and bragging they had done their part and the trust in God eroded a little more and more. Those that can see the truth that has watched secular spiritualism invade our church family are at a loss as to what to do. Maybe becaus...

L. Kathleen Cline

Search This Blog