“Yes, and all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”

— 2 Timothy 3:12

Humanly speaking, persecution against Christianity began with Jesus Himself being spitefully treated and then crucified. It continued with the persecution, torture, and murder of the disciples, and then of many other followers of Christ. It went on in greater ways in the entire Roman Empire during ten huge waves of persecution. For almost 300 years, persecution swept across that kingdom, and millions of Christians died. Then the Edict of Toleration was issued and the persecution ceased—at least for a while. Then it broke out again and again and again and again.

Still today, persecution continues. In the 20th century, more Christians were persecuted and killed for their faith than in any other century. Stalin killed ten million or more. Hitler killed six million Jews; also six million other people, most of whom were Christians. The Korean Communists came into churches, sprayed gasoline on the congregations, and turned flamethrowers on them. In recent years, mostly in Muslim countries, but also some in the remnant communist countries, Christians are being imprisoned, they are being beaten, they are being tortured, they are being crucified by the hundreds, they are being skinned alive, they are having their eyeballs plucked out, and they are beheaded. This is happening in our world in our times.

Pray for the persecuted church. Pray that they will be faithful through it all. Ask that God would take the persecutors and redeem them or remove them.

Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are sovereign and though You allow persecution, one day You will avenge Your enemies. Hasten that day, Lord…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE KNOW THAT
CHRIST WILL EVER GET THE VICTORY.

“…you also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house as a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

— 1 Peter 2:5

One day two men were sitting together on an airplane. One was a businessman. The second man was a representative of a worldwide organization. “You must work for Coca Cola,” said the first. “No,” replied the second, “We have far more field representatives, more employees and more customers, if you can call them that.”

Now, the first man was definitely intrigued. “Microsoft?” “Bigger.” “The U.N.?” “Again, much bigger.” “Tell me.” I am a minister in the Church of Jesus Christ.

Think about it. The kingdom that contains more citizens than any country on earth, the association that has the most members is the Church of Jesus Christ. Not any one denomination, but the collective body that professes to believe in the Son of God comprises the largest group of people on the globe. The members of Christ’s Church are in every country and of every race around the globe. There’s simply no other group, institution, or fellowship even remotely similar.

If you are in Christ, you are part of the largest family in the whole world. Despite all the setbacks, the Body of Christ is the most successful “organization” ever.

Lord Jesus, Head of the church, we ask You to give us strength today so that we can live our lives worthy of the family name, Christian. Thank You for this worldwide enterprise. We are grateful for any job you give us within Your kingdom. Help us to serve You well…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN
REJOICE AT BEING IN HIS FAMILY.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith…not of works…For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…”

— Ephesians 2:8-10

Suppose that you lived in the country 100 years ago, when horses and buggies were common. One day you came into the city and discovered that most people were putting the buggy in front of the horse and saying, “Giddy-ap, horse. Push, push,” and somehow they couldn’t get the horse to push the buggy at all.

You would think to yourself, “How incredibly stupid can these city folk be?” And you would be right. Yet the vast majority of people in America today have the Gospel just that backwards.

The Bible contains two basic elements, like a horse and buggy. It contains the law and the Gospel, and unless we get these in the proper relationship it never will work.

The proper relationship between the two—as taught by the early church and by Augustine—is the great rediscovery that Martin Luther made and proclaimed to the world on October 31, 1517. It has dramatically changed the world. D.T. Niles said that in all other religions, good works are “in order to,” whereas, in Christianity, good works are, “therefore.” We’re not saved by good works. But when we’re truly saved, good works will naturally follow.

Even in the Ten Commandments, God said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Therefore, He decrees, “…you shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2 3). Having first been brought up and brought into God, therefore, we do good works.

Lord, You are our righteousness. Thank You for raising up people throughout the centuries who shine the light on the true Gospel for all to see. Thank You for the clarity of salvation by faith, with works of gratitude to follow…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, HE SAVES US.
IN HIS STRENGTH WE DO GOOD WORKS.

“…as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

— Psalm 103:12

We need to avoid a trap of Satan—to so dwell on our failures that we can’t move forward. Our sins can disable us because every time we sin Satan has the same message for us, “Ah hah! Now you’ve done it. You’ve blown the whole thing. Certainly Christ has no more need and use for you!”

We need to forget those failures. We need to forget those sins, which are buried in the depths of the sea never to be remembered against us anymore. We need to forget the hurts of the past. In the Christian life—and especially I can also say in the Christian ministry—though it is filled with many blessings, it is also filled with many hurts. I think sometimes people must suppose that ministers have the hide of an elephant, and nothing that they can do or say to them is going to hurt them. That is not true. I feel sometimes as if I have a thousand cuts where my brethren have cut me, from which I am bleeding.

If I were to believe some of the messages, then I would certainly conclude I have never done anything worth any value at all in the ministry and I ought to give it up. Well, those things can hurt and those things can cut and those things can distract us, but Paul says those are the kinds of things that we are to forget. Let’s move forward, forgetting what lies behind and pressing on, in Christ.

Jesus Christ, I come to You with my hurts today. Let me lay them at the foot of the cross…

BY HIS STRENGTH, WE CAN
RELEASE OUR HURTS TO JESUS.

“These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth.”

— Daniel 7:17

Daniel had a vision of four beasts which succeeded each other. They represented four worldly kingdoms—each one being brutal in its own way. They are not lifting up their eyes to God, but they are looking downward as the beast does. This is always true of godless politics. It always acts in a beastlike manner and, therefore, it is destructive of human life. It tramps and stomps on people; it devours much flesh; it kills millions of human beings.

We think of the Persian Empire (the second kingdom prophetically described by Daniel), which later sent an army of two million men to attack Greece. History shows us that some of the battles of antiquity that these nations engaged in were enormous battles with armies that included two, three, and four million soldiers, and the number of the people that were killed was absolutely astronomical.

These beast-like kingdoms are all different from each other, whereas the kingdom of Christ, which arises in the days of the last of them (the Roman Empire), is the same, and it continues on from generation to generation and still remains the same.

The truth is much simpler than error; goodness is simpler than evil. If you want to see something that is extraordinarily complex, try to follow the plot line of a soap opera. Evil is quite contorted and convoluted and extremely complex, but God offers something that is so much simpler: Good triumphs over evil.

Lord, give me strength to live in the simplicity of the Gospel, to crave Your simple truths, and to live by them. You know, Jesus, that simple is not the same as easy, but Your grace is all sufficient…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN RECOGNIZE
THAT HE RULES THE NATIONS.

“I saw in the night visions, and there was one like a Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him…His dominion is an everlasting dominion…”

— Daniel 7:13-14

Daniel had a dream in which he saw the rise of four nations, symbolized by four beasts, which came up from the Great Sea, which had been stirred up in great tumult by the four winds of heaven.

So we see that first of all, looking at the origin of four kingdoms (the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman) that they are earthly in nature. They rise up from the sea and are contrasted with the kingdom of Christ, which is a kingdom that comes down from above. Christ’s kingdom is given by God the Father.

Secondly, we see here that these kingdoms are tumultuous in their nature. They are usually brought about by force, by revolution, by war, by usurpation of one sort or another, or by conquest. By contrast, the kingdom of the Son of Man is given to Him.

These earthly kingdoms rise and fall. But when Christ’s kingdom is established, it is an everlasting kingdom, which extends from generation to generation on into the endless ages of eternity and it has no ending whatsoever. As Christians, we can be grateful to be a part of the kingdom that will never fail.

Sovereign Lord, we praise You that the nations are like dust on a scale before You. We praise You, Jesus, for Your eternal kingdom, which began in such a small way but is a mountain that will one day fill the whole earth…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN JOIN
CHRIST’S EVERLASTING KINGDOM.

“Daniel spoke and said: I saw in my vision by night…Four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse from one another.”

— Daniel 7:2-3

In the book of Daniel, two dreams are described. The first is Nebuchadnezzar’s and the second is Daniel’s. In these two dreams the same four earthly kingdoms are described.

In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a great image whose head was of gold and whose shoulders and chest were of silver, loins of brass and its feet and legs of iron mixed with clay with ten toes. Scholars believe this was a vision of the four great world kingdoms that were to ensue. Babylon being the first, the head of gold, to be followed by the shoulders, the Medo-Persian empire, and then the Grecian empire, or Macedonian, if you will, of Alexander the Great, followed by the Roman Empire and its ten rulers.

In Daniel 7, we find a similar picture of the same forthcoming world empires. In each case these were to be succeeded by the kingdom of Jesus Christ, which would have no end.

Nebuchadnezzar saw these kingdoms in terms of their outward glory. Daniel, with spiritual eyes, saw the same kingdoms as beastly.

We are in the world, but not of the world. Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. God is sovereign over the nations, and one day Jesus will inherit the nations. The God we worship is not only the great Creator, but He rules over the world.

Jesus, Ruler of the Nations, we praise You that You are sovereign over all of history. You raise up and You tear down whom You will, but all for the greater good of the advance of Your kingdom. Help us not to fear men, but only to fear and reverence You…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN BE
ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY.

“Do not be frightened by your adversaries. This is a sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and this from God.”

— Philippians 1:28

When Paul wrote the Philippian Christians in the first century, Christianity was illegal for the most part. In fact, during the Roman Empire, there were ten waves of serious persecution against the believers. Sometimes hot, sometimes cold—but always there.

One of the incredible things about the Christians, which the Romans noted, is that they weren’t afraid. I remember reading a dialogue between a Christian who was chained to an iron bed, which was being heated red hot and he was being killed. They were still threatening him and calling upon him to recant, and he was laughing at them and saying in effect: Do your worst. You can do nothing but send me into the presence of Christ the sooner. You can do nothing but transfer me into paradise. I am not afraid of you.

This was terrifying to them. It was a token to them of their own perdition. They realized that this was the true God that these people worshiped. Are you terrified by the adversaries? Some Christians never even see an adversary because they do not speak boldly for Christ, they don’t really encounter them. Oh they may see the adversaries of Christ, but the adversaries of Christ never see them. They are focusing on those Christians who are active, those Christians that are involved in the struggle. May God give us grace to boldly and lovingly speak His truth in our own day, as anti-Christian bias is continuing to heat up.

Dear Lord, we are reminded of the hymn which says, “The body they may kill. God’s truth abideth still.” Forgive us for any fear when facing death at the hands of persecutors. Thank You that Your kingdom advances, even sometimes through martyrdom…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN
FACE THE OPPOSITION OF MEN.

“…be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

— Ephesians 4:3

In Philippians, Paul tells us that we are to stand fast in one mind and one spirit, striving together for the faith of the Gospel. The word striving together in Greek is the word from which we get athletics, and in fact it would be a team sport, probably team wrestling. The Greeks had a form of wrestling where one team of 5 or 6 people would line up here, and the other team would line up there, and at a signal they would all leap at each other and there would then be a mass of individuals wrestling.

Well, we are to strive to wrestle together for the faith of the Gospel, for the propagation of the Gospel of Christ. You know there is nothing that will solve church problems more than an outward look at the enemies that are all around us.

The early church had to deal with the Roman pagans who thought Christians were atheists because they didn’t have idols. They had the Greek sophists there around them. They had the Jews who were persecuting them. They had all sorts of problems out there, so generally they wouldn’t be fighting among each other.

The problems of the peace time army are notorious, and that’s what happens. The church is involved in a warfare. I assure you one thing, if you had 5 or 6 men on a wrestling team wrestling with others, they no doubt had some differences among them, but I assure you they would learn to work together—or they would quickly lose.

Dear Lord, forgive us that Your church on earth is fraught with factionalism. Forgive us for any way in which we contribute to this disunity. Give me strength for today to be a positive force for unity in Your body…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN STRIVE TO BE
A UNIFYING FACTOR IN THE BODY OF CHRIST.

“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant…”

— Matthew 25:21, kjv

We only have one life. We have to make it count. But count for what? What is the purpose of life?

We are deluged with positive thinking types of messages these days. Some of them are outwardly Christian. However, if you dig a little deeper, often you find essentially a humanistic message with a Christian veneer.

The key question is this: In whom is our trust? Ourselves or God? Positive thinking beats negative thinking. But best of all, is sanctified positive thinking.

Americans are consumed with success. However, what is the ultimate success? Is it not making it to heaven? To be successful in this world only and then be cast into eternal hell is ultimate failure. True success means not only going to heaven, but helping others to get there also by spreading the Gospel.

The world tells us repeatedly to trust in ourselves, to have self-confidence. Our goal instead should be to have Christ-confidence. Are we putting all our emphasis on this life only or the next? It’s an important question.

On the one hand, some worldly success can actually be counter to God’s purposes. On the other hand, it is a sin to bury our talents. God has given them to us that we may glorify Him in all we do.

To achieve real success in life, we should strive to serve the Lord so diligently that one day He will look us in the face and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Lord Jesus, please help me to do the right things for You as a thank You for the salvation You have earned by Your blood. If there is anything in my life that would keep You from saying “Well done” at the end of my life, please prune it away…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN SO LIVE
AS TO BE COMMENDED BY CHRIST.