Are you right side up?
The apostle Peter writing to believers in Christ Jesus said,
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Dear friends,
I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” 1 Peter 2:9-12.
In my previous blog post I noted the apostle Paul saying that if the Holy Spirit is truly working in a Christians life you will see its fruits. Those fruits being, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
I also noted that Pliny the Younger Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia minor was as I understand it was asked by the emperor Trajan to find something wrong about Christians. He could not.
The believers he investigated apparently were doing no wrong. They were living a peaceful loving life. They were not threat to the emperor or the Rome in general. Still there were consequences for being a Christian under the emperor Trajan
According to the surviving records there is no mention by either Trajan or Pliny of the crimes Christians committed. Their only crime was being Christian.
Which goes to show sometimes no matter what you believe or how you act you just can’t win.
The key thing to remember here is, that the believers in Christ Jesus that Pliny and Trajan persecuted were living peaceful nonthreatening lives.
Which is the same kind of lives we should be living today.
If we as believers in Christ Jesus are to be persecuted in any way. Let it never be because we were doing something wrong.
The late American Evangelist Billy Graham said of the men who followed Christ,
“The men who followed Him, were unique in their generation. They turned the world upside down because their hearts had been turned right side up. The world has never been the same.” Billy Graham.
Think about it. The men who followed Jesus never voted in an election, never protested against the government or other people. They lived in harmony with those around them.
They knew that they had the most important message ever given to mankind the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they presented that message to all who would listen to them.
Is this what you are doing?
Please think about it.
The apostle Peter writing to believers in Christ Jesus said,
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Dear friends,
I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” 1 Peter 2:9-12.
In my previous blog post I noted the apostle Paul saying that if the Holy Spirit is truly working in a Christians life you will see its fruits. Those fruits being, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
I also noted that Pliny the Younger Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia minor was as I understand it was asked by the emperor Trajan to find something wrong about Christians. He could not.
The believers he investigated apparently were doing no wrong. They were living a peaceful loving life. They were not threat to the emperor or the Rome in general. Still there were consequences for being a Christian under the emperor Trajan
According to the surviving records there is no mention by either Trajan or Pliny of the crimes Christians committed. Their only crime was being Christian.
Which goes to show sometimes no matter what you believe or how you act you just can’t win.
The key thing to remember here is, that the believers in Christ Jesus that Pliny and Trajan persecuted were living peaceful nonthreatening lives.
Which is the same kind of lives we should be living today.
If we as believers in Christ Jesus are to be persecuted in any way. Let it never be because we were doing something wrong.
The late American Evangelist Billy Graham said of the men who followed Christ,
“The men who followed Him, were unique in their generation. They turned the world upside down because their hearts had been turned right side up. The world has never been the same.” Billy Graham.
Think about it. The men who followed Jesus never voted in an election, never protested against the government or other people. They lived in harmony with those around them.
They knew that they had the most important message ever given to mankind the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they presented that message to all who would listen to them.
Is this what you are doing?
Please think about it.
