Thought of the Day !!

If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.  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.

                                                John 15:18-19 (NLT)

I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith. 

                                                John 16:1 (NLT)

The one who is the prince of this world, who continues to do his magic and perpetrate lies is the devil. This is why so many of the teachings of our culture, and world in general, is contradictory to what Jesus taught. Since the devil is ultimately pulling the strings in this world, just as Jesus said, the world will hate us because people have fallen for his lies.

When talking about the world Jesus was not talking about every single person in it hating us for being Christians. He means those who have bought into the world's ideas that are contradictory to his ways. These are the ones who will hate us. And these are the ones who will persecute and even kill us. In some parts of the world people are jailed or killed simply for professing the Christian faith.

Here in America we might be persecuted from time to time but in no way like the disciples or even those inside China or Korea today. We might feel like our hardships due to persecutions are bad. Actually we are quite lucky. We do still have rights and freedoms.  But persecution can be found here as well.

The problem is that so many of us Christians don't look any different from the world. So the world does not hate us. In some ways that is actually a shame.

May our love and selflessness and humility, our words and actions, our ways that are like Christ be so bright that they shine in this dark world. Let us grow to be more like Christ instead of more like the world.  Even if this means persecution.

In the love of Christ,

greg