Are we ready to bleed?

 

Much is spoke of, and indeed seen, of persecution in the world today, in particular persecution of those with faith.  I often hear prayers these days along the lines of thanking God that we live in a country where we are not so persecuted and indeed thanks that we have the freedom to worship God.  But is that true?

We maybe have promoted the wonderful testimonies of people we have read about who have stood up for their Christian faith under difficult circumstances.  Or maybe we have triumphantly crowed about how God built his church up despite man’s best efforts to suppress it – such as in China, North Korea, parts of India, large swathes of Africa… it just goes on.

But I want to intensify those thoughts and say God ONLY works through persecution.  What do I mean by that?  Living the Christian life in the world and declaring the gospel, as well as standing up for the social and moral standards of God can NEVER agree with the hearts of those who live in the world.  Persecution is an inevitable (“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”2 Timothy 3:12). 

The reason we are not so persecuted in this country as in others is not because we live in some privileged land.  Rather, it is because (and I am generalising here and speaking of the national state of Christendom in the country) we bend and buckle at the first signs of discomfort and pressure. Or we keep silent believing that it is someone else’s job to speak up for the standards of God in this country.  Good godly organisations have been set up in the UK to plead and cajole the reluctant to write a letter to their MP; to occasionally pray for a difficult situation in the UK.    But by and large the church gives money to these bodies to do its work for them, turns over, pulls up the duvet and goes  back to sleep.

The church in this country has flung open the gates to the hoards of hell and even at times laid down the welcome mat – abortion, unable to satiate the blood lust of demons, now moves on to euthanasia and even pressures to the make assisted dying legal – Molech (Leviticus 18:31, 20:23) still rules and the church largely stays silent or (worse) gives in and agrees with the world.  The same can be said of sex before marriage, same-sex marriages, serial marriages, the promotion of sex in schools, the legalising of drug use and much more. 

Just this week Cardinal Francis George of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has warned that “in recent years the state has taken the position of an “official religion”, and is now telling its citizens “what ‘values’ they must personalize in order to deserve to be part of the country”.

Cardinal Francis George goes on to say, “society has brought social and legislative approval to all types of sexual relationships that used to be considered ‘sinful’”. [Christian Institute: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/state-is-fake-church-imposing-its-own-form-of-morality-on-all/]

Those comments are directed at America, but the same is true here in the UK.  All this is only possible because when challenged the church of this nation constantly rolls over and lets the world have its way without hardly a comment.

Needing to make a choice between standing up for the things of Christ and being persecuted, or going to rot.  The church has largely chosen to rot!

All this sounds harsh and rather stark but frankly I see no great change for this nation or indeed any great future for the church in this country until the church of God stands up for the ways of Christ and bleeds on masse.