Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Matthew 10:22.
There is no necessity for thinking that we cannot endure persecution; we shall have to go through terrible times.
The persecutions of Protestants by Romanism, by which the religion of Jesus Christ was almost annihilated, will be more than rivaled when Protestantism and popery are combined.
The commandment-keeping people of God erelong will be placed in a most trying position; but all those who have walked in the light, and diffused the light, will realize that God interposes in their behalf. When everything looks most forbidding, then the Lord will reveal His power to His faithful ones. When the nation for which God has worked in such a marvelous manner, and over which He has spread the shield of Omnipotence, abandons Protestant principles, and through its legislature gives countenance and support to Romanism in limiting religious liberty, then God will work in His own power for His people that are true. The tyranny of Rome will be exercised, but Christ is our refuge.
When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result.
The Scriptures teach that popery is to regain its lost supremacy, and that the fires of persecution will be rekindled through the time-serving concessions of the so-called Protestant world. In this time of peril we can stand only as we have the truth and the power of God…. The prospect of being brought into personal danger and distress, need not cause despondency, but should quicken the vigor and hopes of God’s people; for the time of their peril is the season for God to grant them clearer manifestations of his power.
Maranatha p. 194
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Prayer Requests
—–I have several prayer requests. My dear friend Greg just got word that his only sibling committed suicide. Please keep all the family in prayer and that may lean on God thru this tragedy.—Please pray for Mr. L says he wants to take a decision with his girlfriend, tho he says he not sure it is God’s will. They want to do wedding in the summer but many of us concerned this is not God’s will—Please pray for my dear friend Ruben, he is like a grandson to me….. needs prayer to surrender his Life & plans to Our Father in Heaven. —Please pray for the revivals in our youth groups around the world. The mtgs planned by the Impact team and Amicus youth—Pray for Dr. Cristina and Manu as they open their New Start project in Iasi,
Romania—Pray for Daniel as he has to cancel many apps to come for treatment here in USA at Eden Valley, CO.—Pray that God will use these many treatments and life changes to heal him. Carol
—-Please pray for Alice’s health and now she has lost a loved one. Rose
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Dear Friends,
Someone recently wrote me a very profound statement. “Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus.” How true that is. When my mother was a teenager, she began to make some very poor choices. The following such choice was relatively minor but it paved the way for more serious choices later on. She wanted to be like some of the wilder girls in her school. She wanted to wear short skirts and makeup and many other things that did not meet my grandmother’s approval. It hurt and perplexed my grandmother, that she would rebel like this, but she never thought of explaining to her daughters the reason why they should not do these things. Oh, if she had only explained the “whys” and “wherefores!” How different the life of both girls would have been!
One day my mother thought of a plan to keep peace and still have her own way. Very carefully she hid a tube of bright red lipstick in her schoolbooks. Off to school she went and as soon as she got several blocks away, she entered a telephone booth and put on the lipstick using the shiny metal of the telephone as a mirror. Then she rolled her skirt up as high as she dared. How funny she must have looked with her skirt all bunched up around her waist. She didn’t stop to think about that. She was satisfied that she now looked like her friends.
How often we are like my mother. We want to be like someone we admire. It might be a friend or just an acquaintance, but we think that if we could be just like them, we would be happier or better liked. Often we choose a role model from the many characters in the movies or on TV. What a lot of sadness that can bring into our life! We think that we can hide these desires from all around, but they soon become apparent. We look as ridiculous as my mother must have looked with her bright red lipstick and rolled-up skirt. Before long, others notice the change in us. Often they are amused at our folly.
How often we rebel against our Heavenly Father in much the same way. He has reasons for any prohibitions, yet we often misunderstand and think that He is keeping something desirable from us much like Eve did so long ago. He Who made us knows what is best for us, yet we often fight against any restriction He has for our good. We think that He does not notice these thoughts, words, and actions, but there is no hiding from Him. The psalmist declares, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.” Ps 90:8 Our Heavenly Father sees our rebellion in the telephone booth of this world and it breaks His Great Heart of Love. With tears in His voice, He pleads, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” Eze 33:11
The One Who loves us more than His Own Life knows us better than we know ourselves. Indeed, He was shaping us in our mother’s womb. ” My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret… Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” Ps 139:15,16 He assures us that “even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Luke 12:7 “Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD.” Jer 23:23,24
What comfort His nearness should give us! Not only does He see what we do, think, and feel, but He is always watching over us, guiding us, caring for us more tenderly than a mother cares for her precious babe. He is interested in what is happening in our lives. He sees when we stray and He sets about circumstances to bring us back to Him. He knows our problems, our trials, our tears and knows what to do to help us. He can untangle the tangled-up messes we get ourselves into. He will comfort our sorrows if we will let Him. He, alone, can wipe away our tears and give us hope and strength. Solomon gives us good advice, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecc 12:13,14
May we serve God out of a heart of love for Him. May we daily order our lives according to His will. May we so live, that someday soon, we will look up and say, “Lo this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Isa 25:9
Rose