Blessed Are The Persecuted

Scripture

 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:11-12, NIV

Quote

No one has ever been persecuted more than Jesus Himself.

~D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The above verse from Jesus sermon on the mount are hard for me to swallow. I don’t like to be insulted or persecuted. When people are ugly to me, I am very tempted to retaliate with some form of unkindness. It is only when I stop and think that I respond in a favorable way. The world wants very much to conform us to their way of thinking and they get very upset when we do not cooperate. Jesus was so uniquely different and so good that they literally hated him. The sea gull is one of the most jealous creatures God created. They say you can capture a sea gull, tie a red ribbon around its leg and let him go and with in minutes the other sea gull will kill the gull with the red ribbon. The world demand conformity. A true believers resist conformity and sets his/her focus on being transformed by Christ. Education informs, prison reforms, actors perform, sin deforms, the media misinforms, but only Christ can transform.

Back to the subject at hand: I don’t consider myself to be persecuted. At one time I did; I really thought I was being persecuted for righteousness sake but now I have my doubts. I do agree with Martyn Lloyd Jones, the better a person becomes, the more they will be persecuted. Jesus never did anything but good and look at how the world treated Him. What really bothers me is my knee jerk reaction to insults and unkindness.

I know I have told this story many times but years ago I was praying on the sidewalk by the abortion clinic while the women did the counseling. There was only one Baptist among them and the rest were Catholics. A man pulled up to the ladies, rolled his window down and begin using vulgar language as he rebuked them for what they were doing. I was several feet away and so I made a dash to his car but I went to the drivers side, he saw me coming in his mirror and he laid a streak of rubber but the red light caught him nor more than fifty yards down the street. I was young then and ran all the time, I chased him for the get go hoping the light would catch him. I don’t remember if he ran the light or it changed but I didn’t catch him. Where I came from, a real man doesn’t use that kind of language in the presence of a lady so in my mind, I was defending their honor and thought I should have been hailed as a hero. That is not what happened, those Catholic quoted the scripture above, word for word and added… “You just cost us a reward and you missed one too.” Blessed are the persecuted.

Extra

I think it is supposed to warm up; I certainly hope so. Josie had a soccer game at West Limestone last night and the wind was brutal. It was actually 46* but it felt like 26*. Looking forward to the 49er meeting Friday.

I hope you have a great Wednesday. We are in 2 Thessalonians 3 tonight at the point. We are probably going to focus on Paul’s plea for prayer.