God's Children Are Hated

Jesus prophesied that the world will hate his people.

John 15:18-20   “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.  19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.  20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’

John 16:1-3  "I have told you these things so that you won't abandon your faith.  2  For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God.  3  This is because they have never known the Father or Me.

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Jesus has been preparing his disciples for his death by teaching them one more time, he has taught them to serve and love each other, he has assured them that he is in control of the events that are about to take place and he has attempted to strengthen their faith for the difficulties ahead. Now he talks to them about the hatred that they will soon experience.

Hate is a strong word, there probably are not very many people that I know that would say that they hate Jesus, they would point to his good deeds and morality and say nice things about him. If you asked the same group of people if they follow the devil they would probably say that they would never do that.

These people really are not followers of Jesus but they don't have any idea that they are actually following the devil. There are only two possible states that you can be in, Jesus doesn't give you the option to be neutral, he says that if you are not for him then you are against him and you either love the light or you love the dark. (Matthew 12:30 / John 3:19-21 / 1 Thessalonians 5:5)

Looking back at the history of the world it doesn't take long to realize that Jesus prophecy about the persecution of his followers would be proven to be true. The same persecution that killed Jesus begins in Acts 3 to come against Peter when he begins to preach the gospel and the persecution is not going to stop until he returns.

Why does the world hate us so much?

✔  Because we are not part of their system

"I chose you to come out of the world"

We do not blend in with the rest of society, we act different, we talk different and we refuse to be a part of things that don't please God. The ways of the world and the things that they accept are not acceptable to us.

In the Old Testament God had a people, their diet, clothes and religion were all different from the rest of the culture. In the church age God still has a people, they don't have to maintain the differences of his Old Testament people, but they are still different.

The world cannot stand it! You don't love what they love, you don't live for pleasures, achievements and possessions and you have been moved to a new kingdom. (Colossians 1:13-14 / 1 John 2:15-16)

✔  Because they hated our leader

"They will do all this to you because of Me"

Jesus made it clear that the world is going to treat us like they treated him, from the time he was born and the king set out to get him by killing every baby, to the day he was tortured to death. Christians are the most loved of all people by God and they are the most hated of all people by Satan.

His followers in the early church made huge sacrifices because of their faith. In the United States we have been blessed with the best treatment that a followers of Jesus has ever enjoyed. While Christian brothers and sisters around the world are persecuted we live with comfort and pleasures that are unthinkable to them.

It is very tempting to stay away from persecution by telling people the stuff about our faith that doesn't offend, prayer and faith are okay but if you cross the line and talk about the reality of death, and judgment, and hell then the ability to be friends with the world starts to fade.

✔  Because they don't know God

"they have rejected the one who sent me" 

Think about the audience that Jesus was speaking to when he said that they do not know God. The religious leaders were paid professionals that should have known God better than anyone.

They should have known God, they had the Torah, the teachings of the Rabbis and the prophets but with all of that evidence God still wasn't well known. (John 7:28-29, 8:19, 54-55, 16:3, 17:25 / 1 John 2:3-4)

Overcome The Hate
John 15:26-27  “But I will send you the Advocate, the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.

All of this bad news was difficult to handle, the disciples had abandoned all for Jesus, he didn't want to leave them without hope. If they decided to give up and walk away from everything that Jesus had taught them then the Christian faith wouldn't get beyond Ancient Palestine.

He tells them that he will not leave them as orphans but instead he would send them help that would be through his power living inside of each of them so that they could endure the hate that they would face.

How to treat your enemy

(Exodus 23:4-5 / 2 Kings 6:22 / Proverbs 25:21-22 / Luke 6:27-28, 6:34-35, 23:34 / Acts 7:60 / 1 Corinthians 4:12-13, 13:4-8 / 1 Peter 2:23, 3:9)

Romans 12:17-21  Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.  18  Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.  19  Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back," says the LORD.  20  Instead, "If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads."  21  Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

The Bible has a lot to say about treating our enemies much better than they deserve. We were all enemies of the King but God so loved the world that he came to love us anyway. The extravagant love of Jesus demands that I treat people the same way and the Holy Spirit is my help so that I can do it.

The Holy Spirit will always be with us helping us through this evil world, the promise that we have is that we will never be alone, the Holy Spirit will be with us even when our faith and obedience takes us to places that are not safe to love people that are not very lovable by the world's standards.

I need to be ready to follow Jesus anywhere he ask me to go, beyond where it is safe and easy, I need to be ready to forgive, pray for and do good to anyone that wants to treat me wrongly because of my faith.

Dear Jesus, I pray for believers around the world that are taking a stand for you, I pray that they will stand strong, I pray that you will change the hearts of those that are persecuting them and I pray that the gospel will continue to spread.

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church - November 6, 2016

Getting Enough Spiritual Oxygen

A healthy Christian needs prayer just as much as he needs air.

Ephesians 6:18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere

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What is true about Bible study is also true about prayer, we know we should do it, we know that it is good for us but we still avoid doing it. We can feel drawn to do it yet we can find so many reasons to avoid doing it.

We may decide that we don't know how to pray or we may question our motives for praying. The new Christian starts out using everyday words and their prayers sound like they are talking to a good friend. They don't change the tone of their voice or use any "theology" words to talk to God. It's a shame that somewhere along the way we lose that innocence. Isn't innocence exactly what God wants to hear in our conversations that we have with him?

Like any spiritual discipline we will grow through doing it. There is no magical right way to start, it is okay to begin with prayers that focus on ourselves but as we grow in the discipline of prayer, we will notice a shift in the direction of your prayer. Our prayer life will move from being centered on ourselves to being centered on God and others.

Some basics that we need to remember about prayer:

We are commanded to pray Prayer brings glory to God. Prayer blesses us. Asking in Jesus name. Asking in faith. Asking in God's will. Praying is powerful. Praying is for your safety.

1 Thessalonians 5:17. John 14:13 James 5:16 John 14:13 Matthew 21:22 1 John 5:14 James 5:16 Matthew 26:40-41

In Ephesians 6:13-18, Paul tells us about all of the equipment that we are supposed to put on, the "Armor of God." After we are dressed up in all of this protective gear we are still not ready for battle, the belt of truth, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit are not going to benefit a dead man, there is an essential thing that is left to do in order to sustain life. Breathe!

Prayer should be seen as basic and essential in the life of a Christ follower as breathing is to those of us that need oxygen. Without sufficient oxygen you may suffer mild symptoms such as memory loss, diminished attention span, poor judgment, rapid heartbeat and decreased coordination. Severe lack of oxygen may cause seizures, coma, and brain death.

Imagine being in battle with all of the Armor of God on and not being able to think clearly, making bad decisions, having poor coordination or passing out in the battle. You would be dead in no time! Our praying should be as natural as breathing because it is just as necessary in the life of God's children.

I need to have a constant awareness of God every minute of the day and talk to him about every situation. If I am "praying without ceasing" then I will be able to make better decisions and stand strong in the battle.

Related articles

• Praying Often And Praying Well (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)
• Ten Simple Strategies for Prayer (thomrainer.com)
• Spiritual Prayers (wisdomhunters.com)

The Believer's Survival Guide

How to live in this world while you are looking forward to eternity.

1 Peter 2:12  Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when He judges the world.

1 Peter 3:13-18 Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good?

14 But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats.

15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. 16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.

17 Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!

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It is important for God's children to behave differently than the rest of the world, Peter tells us to live "properly" in front of our unbelieving neighbors, they are watching you and you need to be concerned about what they see.

Peter has been telling the recipients of his letter that they will suffer, as an alien in an ungodly culture, there will be attacks. The ungodly will harass and persecute believers and so we need to be ready for it and know how to defend ourselves and we need to know how to cope with not fitting in.

Be Careful How You Live

Survival Guide Tip #1

There is a pretty good chance that if you do the right thing then very few people will try and harm you or give you a difficult time. Being passionate about living with the fruit of the spirit will silence most of your critics.

This isn't always true, your passion for goodness will be more than some people can take, sometimes a righteous person will suffer at the hand of godless men because your virtuous life will irritate them.

Worship God Constantly

Survival Guide Tip #2

Instead of worrying about it we should be worshiping and honoring God. Our concern should be with God and his desire for my life but instead we take our eyes off of him and worry about what man can do and what they may think about us.

Jesus is Lord and we need to remember that is sovereign and he is in control. It takes a total surrender to God to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord in the midst of your pain and suffering. If God's plan and purpose is to work through you in your suffering then you should rejoice that he is working his plan out through you.

Be Ready To Explain

Survival Guide Tip #3

Your godly living will make a stir and people will probably have some questions for you. After you have their attention you should be ready to tell them why you are so strange. We should be able to give a polite, biblical answer to explain the motivation for our lifestyle and the reason that we are a Christian.

You may think, "How will that help me?" The fact is if you don't fully understand what you believe and why then there is the possibility that you will doubt what you believe when the pressure is on.

A Pure Conscience

Survival Guide Tip #4

You have to rely on your conscience when the accusations and insults are flying at you, your conscience is a device that God gave you to keep you out of trouble, it is a source of conviction or affirmation.

If the conscience knows that we are in sin, it will nag at us. If the conscience knows that we are living in obedience, it will affirm us and help us realize that our accusers are wrong.

It is up to us to decide why we are suffering. Are you suffering for doing good? Are you suffering because God is trying to correct you?

Thank you Lord for giving me hope and encouraging me with the wisdom found in your word.

Related articles

• Pleasing God Even In Suffering (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)
• Playing Well With Others (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)
• Living The Good Life (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)

Who Are You Trying To Please

We make some people smile when we come and we make some people smile when we leave.

1 Thessalonians 2:1-4  You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure.  2  You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there.
Yet our God gave us the courage to declare His Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition.  3  So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.  4  For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.

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Paul and his friends had just been run out of town at Philippi (Acts 16), leaving town was the only way to make them people smile, but down the road we see that the church at Thessalonica smiled to see them coming and welcomed them with great enthusiasm (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

What happened? Did the missionary team get together and decide that the message needed to be changed so they could be liked? No, Paul said that they preached the Good News with strength and courage from God

Paul said that they were the real deal, they didn't change the message because it made people unhappy in the last town we were in, they didn't sway from the truth of the gospel so that they could get more friends on Facebook. (Would it be Facescroll back then?)

Spiritual warfare didn't stop the spread of the good news of Jesus. As messengers approved by God, he is the one we are trying to please so there is no way that we should waiver from the truth, after all he is the one that examines our hearts and knows our true motivation for everything we do.

Everything that I do is for God's glory and if I never come out of the shadows and get any praise then that is just fine. My purpose is to please God, the message of the gospel or the technique that is used may offend some but I must continue to be obedient to him.

Help me to stay in your word everyday Lord so that I will be true to what you want me to do despite any opposition.

Satan’s Panic Attack

Be careful, the battle is still going

Mark 1:23-28 Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit began shouting, 24 "Why are You interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are--the Holy One sent from God!"

25 Jesus cut him short. "Be quiet! Come out of the man," He ordered. 26 At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him. 27 Amazement gripped the audience, and they began to discuss what had happened. "What sort of new teaching is this?" they asked excitedly. "It has such authority! Even evil spirits obey His orders!" 28 The news about Jesus spread quickly throughout the entire region of Galilee.

Mark 1:32-39 That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. 33 The whole town gathered at the door to watch. 34 So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and He cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who He was, He did not allow them to speak. 35 Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. 36 Later Simon and the others went out to find Him. 37 When they found Him, they said, "Everyone is looking for You." 38 But Jesus replied, "We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came." 39 So He traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.

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It looks to me like Satan is running scared. There were so many demon-possessed people around, even in the synagogue, it looks like Satan is desperate and he is prepared for a show down. Satan's purpose was to distract, he wanted to distract those that needed to know the Messiah and keep them from hearing the gospel message and he wanted to distract Jesus from his mission.

Jesus didn't allow the distraction to work, Satan's plan was about to backfire and Jesus would use the opportunity to prove his power over Satan and the entire demonic army, Satan was desperate to thwart God's plan. There is spiritual warfare going on all around us, the devil will use people in our church to distract the preacher and distract the listener as well.

What better proof could you possibly get than the testimony of Satan's army, they knew without a doubt that Jesus is the Promised Messiah and on many occasions they let it be known.

I need to keep in mind that Satan has lost the war but he doesn't know that he lost already. He is trying to distract the church from being effective as possible, we need to remember that we are fighting in spiritual combat.

Help us Lord to persevere and keep on telling the good news despite the distractions that Satan throws in our way. Help the church to realize that we are fighting a spiritual battle that isn't about the physical fighting that we can see.

Protection That Cannot Fail

scripture

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Ephesians 6:10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. 15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. 16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. 17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

observation

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This is no ordinary battle

Do you realize how serious this battle is? The scout has returned with this information about our enemy.

The devil has a bunch of strategies that we have to be ready for and he has an army of players in this battle that are not human. That information should be enough to make us more serious about this war and it should keep us from wanting to go it alone.

This is no ordinary battle gear

But wait a minute, even though we have a fierce enemy Paul tells us that if we put on our gear then we cannot lose, “after the battle you will still be standing”, that is some awesome battle gear! The enemy is a very alarming one but we have the best protection that cannot lose the war.

This is no ordinary ally

Not only do we have unbeatable battle gear but we also have an awesome ally in this war.

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

application

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We have to be vigilant against our enemy that wants to destroy us and make us ineffective, we must be ready at all times because we can only be guaranteed a win if we have our battle gear on.

prayer

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I thank you Lord that you are awesome and that you have provided for us so that we are not alone in this battle. I want to always be found with my battle gear on so that I can persevere to the end.