http://www.dcclothesline.com/2015/07...-entire-world/
This article contains a condensation of news to highlight persecution of Christians in many regions. Well done, Dave Hodges. I've come to appreciate Dave's work more as time passes.
He is right. On one level we should not be surprised by this. But it is still alarming. What sane soul would not be concerned?
On another level it occurs to me that the world doesn't know what it's attacking. It sees what it thinks is the religion of Christ in the form of buildings, images, and confrontational activism. Outward appearances. This is what the world understands.
Some devout practitioners of occult and highly demonized individuals have said and/or demonstrated they can sense the Holy Spirit in others. I believe it. I'd venture their demons sense Him and communicate it to their host. But by and large I think the masses are ignorant; they attack by sight which is effective only up to a point.
When they break down the churches and altars and crosses, bust up assemblies, and pass laws to prevent the "spread of Christianity" I am reminded that God did not come to redeem buildings, altars, props, or assemblies. He came for His people, to build a temple and fashion a body not build with human hands--and therefore unassailable by human hands, even the gates of hell. His people are those in captivity and those in the wilderness, who would be delivered by Him, and follow Him, and call him God and Father in adoration and in truth and in spirit. God's people are being scattered. He will gather again.
While His people are scattered or in captivity, they are not lost. He has said he will never leave nor forsake us, even unto the end of the age. Giving thanks in all things, rejoicing in the Lord, and worshiping Him in secret continually, wherever we are, are foundational. We have examples of men living this way in the old testament, when Jesus Christ had not yet come. How much more blessed are we now that He has come?
What about assembly? There are already laws in some areas of the US that limit the size of home churches. This is a sign, the fist of antichrist is tightening. If a church of 15 cannot assemble, so what. We will lament, certainly and understandably. But where two or more are gathered, there are three: the two and Jesus Christ. There is assembly. I've been given two words that stick with me: Trust Jesus. And call upon His name, ever and always.
Your comments appreciated, brethren.
This article contains a condensation of news to highlight persecution of Christians in many regions. Well done, Dave Hodges. I've come to appreciate Dave's work more as time passes.
He is right. On one level we should not be surprised by this. But it is still alarming. What sane soul would not be concerned?
On another level it occurs to me that the world doesn't know what it's attacking. It sees what it thinks is the religion of Christ in the form of buildings, images, and confrontational activism. Outward appearances. This is what the world understands.
Some devout practitioners of occult and highly demonized individuals have said and/or demonstrated they can sense the Holy Spirit in others. I believe it. I'd venture their demons sense Him and communicate it to their host. But by and large I think the masses are ignorant; they attack by sight which is effective only up to a point.
When they break down the churches and altars and crosses, bust up assemblies, and pass laws to prevent the "spread of Christianity" I am reminded that God did not come to redeem buildings, altars, props, or assemblies. He came for His people, to build a temple and fashion a body not build with human hands--and therefore unassailable by human hands, even the gates of hell. His people are those in captivity and those in the wilderness, who would be delivered by Him, and follow Him, and call him God and Father in adoration and in truth and in spirit. God's people are being scattered. He will gather again.
While His people are scattered or in captivity, they are not lost. He has said he will never leave nor forsake us, even unto the end of the age. Giving thanks in all things, rejoicing in the Lord, and worshiping Him in secret continually, wherever we are, are foundational. We have examples of men living this way in the old testament, when Jesus Christ had not yet come. How much more blessed are we now that He has come?
What about assembly? There are already laws in some areas of the US that limit the size of home churches. This is a sign, the fist of antichrist is tightening. If a church of 15 cannot assemble, so what. We will lament, certainly and understandably. But where two or more are gathered, there are three: the two and Jesus Christ. There is assembly. I've been given two words that stick with me: Trust Jesus. And call upon His name, ever and always.
Your comments appreciated, brethren.
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