This was written by Marco Rubio, the presidential candidate and Russell Moore. It is only a small part of the article. As Americans, it can be hard for us to “grasp” the reality that we are in a real war and whether or not we realize it, this war as at our doorstep, even in America. Our enemy wants to destroy all Christians and Jews off the face of this planet and usher in New World Order. Many say, “nothing is happening”. Really??? Nothing? Christians are saying everything will be fine and the economy is not collapsing and oh, God is going to take care of us and nothing bad will happen to His children. Really? I am called a dooms day person because I am trying to preach truth to us. Nothing could be further from the truth.
All we have to do is to open our eyes and look around and read our bibles. Facts are facts. Truth is truth. Christians are being martyred at a record pace, never before seen on this planet. Economies around the world are collapsing and just exactly as the bible says, deep darkness is covering the earth. Perilous times are upon us and unless we wake up and practice 2nd Chronicles 7:14 and put our priorities in order, that God becomes first place in our lives, we simply will either overcome, or be overcome. The choice is ours today.
No, I am not a dooms day thinker. This will be the churches finest hour, but many Christians just do not realize that we are going through the purging, refining fire and that it is very painful. There are those out there prophesying the severity of the Lord and judgment, and it is being rejected by most mainstream Christians. There are those prophesying prosperity and kindness to America and many are misunderstanding those words, believing it is all just automatic. Both are prophesying God’s heart and character. Who is right? They both are right. They both show different characteristics of God’s nature. Both the kindness and the severity of the Lord. To be sure we are in a time and season of grace but it will not last forever. God is giving us, (Christians) time to repent and lay down our lives and to make Him our number one priority. This is not a game. Billions of souls and lives are at stake.
God is offering His grace but also demanding that His church grow up now. Judgment is here, but 1st to the church. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, in us first. His judgment is His mercy. We are in the purging fire for a reason. To be purified and refined for God’s end-time purpose. Do we really think we will escape what we sow? Do we really think God will be mocked? To be sure revival is coming to His church, but not only in the way most people think. It comes to scorch and refine us first, so we can be pliable and surrendered to God, for His purpose and for the sake of His Kingdom, not for the sake of ourselves. God is looking for those now who will lay it all down for Him, simply because they love Him.
God will raise up His Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against her but this is not a blanket promise to all Christians. Great authority is indeed being poured out but only for those who will allow God to take them through the refining fire of death to all self. Great authority requires great surrender. It is not automatic. Christians are suffering and will continue to suffer around the globe but we can and will overcome, but ONLY if we will fully and wholly surrender to God and allow Him to do His work of grace in us. We must be led by His Spirit. The reign of Saul is coming to and end in the church. The reign of carnal, fleshly Christians is over.
Our hearts are for the children of God. As spiritual parents we don’t want our children to suffer and to be overcome by the enemy. So we preach and teach hard things, not easy to grasp and receive because it rubs the flesh the wrong way. We only want to see the church be the Church. We want to raise up strong children that know how to fight and overcome evil with God’s good. We desire to be a part of raising up the end time army of God, world changers and history makers, David’s mighty warriors! We will not be trained nor ready for what lies ahead of we stay in apathy or live a carnal Christian life who’s focus is all about self and making ME happy and making ME a living. I am sorry, that is the truth. Our priority must be about what makes God happy and doing His will and His will alone. That is laying down our lives and picking up our crosses daily. Its not about us, its all about Him in us. Jesus said, why do you worry about what you are going eat and what you are going to wear? The heathens seek after these things. Seek 1st the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. What do we spend most of our time doing?
Is it wrong to want to teach the Body of Christ to actually do what the bible says and to live the way Jesus demands that we live? Is it wrong to encourage people to make God their priority and to surrender their lives for Him? Is it wrong to promote holiness, death to all self life and beg the Body to develop a real intimate relationship with God, before its too late? I think not. Yes, I am serious about this because we live in serious times and people are dying and going to hell every day and Christians are being slaughtered, if not by extremists, then by cancers and disease or apathy or compromise, and that my friends is not ok with me. So I would rather offend people and be called names than to keep silent in this hour. So what if my theology is not correct or if my understanding is not all that. Regardless of what you believe, we truly love you and only want His best for you. Love Mark and Catherine
As American families put up our Christmas trees and start playing carols, it’s perhaps easy to forget that the first Christmas wasn’t all that silent of a night.
The birth of Jesus happened, after all, in something of a war zone. A tyrant sought to maintain his power and used violence against innocent bystanders — in this case, the children of Bethlehem — who stood in his way. This year, perhaps more than most, Americans should go into the Advent season with a sense of weight, knowing the bloodshed currently erupting in the land of Jesus’s birth.
Both of us are of the Christian faith, and are reminded of the fact that tens of millions of our fellow Christians face violence, oppression or harassment in more than 100 nations around the world, making Christianity the most persecuted religion on Earth, according to the Pew Research Center.
Pope Francis said last year there there are more Christians are martyred in recent years than in the early centuries of the faith. This is especially true in the Middle East, where due to the scourge of radical Islam, some churches that have existed since the Book of Acts are on the brink of ruin.
[Muslims protect Christians from extremists in Kenya bus attack]
We’ve all watched the news with horror in recent years as the Islamic State and other jihadist groups have led a ruthless religious cleansing campaign. Their tactics are to bomb churches or convert them to mosques, to violently drive Christians and other minorities from their homes, force conversions to Islam, or require compliance with Islamic apostasy and blasphemy codes. Such violent persecutions come not only from non-state terrorist organizations, but also from repressive governments the world over.
Despite all of this, we find far too little attention paid to the plight of these Christian communities in peril. Reports suggest that the State Department is ready to designate the Islamic State’s terror against the Yazidis as genocide, which it clearly is, but they might not to do so for equally embattled Christian communities. This is only one part of a refusal to come to grips with the full weight of these facts.
We, of course, care deeply about defending our fellow Christians, but one does not have to share our religious conviction to see the moral obligation that belongs to us as Americans. With our many blessings comes a duty to stand on the side of the oppressed, which is why a pillar of American foreign policy has always been moral clarity. Sadly, today that pillar is crumbling
