Are we running out of Church in the US?
Tertullian wrote, in the second century, that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." If this is so, what are we to make of the Church in the United States, that suffers no martyrs?
posted by Steve Heyduck at 1:06 PM
2 Comments:
I woke up this morning with this prayer on my lips, "Father we pray for courage to stand in the face of opposition, knowing that we do not stand alone..."
I figured the reason was two-fold. First, I have been in prayer for the Judicial Council that has been meeing this past week, with a verdict expected tomorrow.
And second, our (International Lesson Series) SS lesson this week was on Herod's execution of James and imprisonment of Peter.
Our particular writer delves into martyrs around the world saying that more Christians died for their faith during the last century than the previous nineteen centuries combined. He also shares this quote by Tertullian.
I think there are still martyrs today. However in this country, it is not lives that being lost, but livelihoods.
Betty
Preaching today on the necessity of following Jesus (Heb. 12:1-3), I noted that we need to make sure our picture of this Jesus we're following (and emulating) is such that the powers-that-be thought it necessary to crucify him. If he was only a nice or enigmatic fellow, they wouldn't have bothered. In the same way, if we're only nice (or enigmatic), no one will bother to persecute us. They may seek to profit from us, or take our land so they can increase their tax haul, but they won't persecute us.
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