I receive information as regards the persecuted church,people being murdered ,one minister wrote the following\, 'In our country death has become a daily meal'.What sorrow fills those words,but it reminds us what our lovely Saviour said,'If the world hates you,keep in mind that it hated me first......I have chosen you out of the world, That is why the world hates you........ if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. John 15 v 18 - 19. Bruce Milne writes of the Christians in the early church suffering in the most appalling ways , slaughtered by the thousand,at times with a refinement of cruelty which numbs the mind. He also writes of one church leader who said,' So much popular Western evangelical religiosity is so shallow and selfish. It promises so much and demands so little. It offers success, personal happiness,peace of mind, material prosperity; but it hardly speaks of repentance, sacrifice, self denial, holy lifestyle, and willingness to die for Christ'. BM writes ,' Following Jesus is not a game.' I will leave you with words from a poem by Amy Carmichael.
'Hast thou no scars? No hidden scar on foot , or side or hand?
Hast thou no wounds? Yet I was wounded by the archers , spent,
Leaned me against a tree to die; and rent by ravening beasts that
compassed Me, I swooned.hast thou no wounds?
No wound? no scar? Yet as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole; can he have followed far,
Who has not wound nor scar'
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