Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Lets Start Boasting!

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
[2] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[3] We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. [4] Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

I think we need to start boasting. We shouldn’t boast about ourselves, but others. We don’t do this we talk about the persecutions that the Sudanese Christians are faced with, the persecutions that other Christians are faced with and we are horrified. We mourn. I think we need to start boasting. The Sudanese Christians show great strength that is admirable when they face these persecutions. It is a testimony to the faith if there ever was one. The Swedish Mission province that is everywhere maligned in the press and threatened with imprisonment for saying things like homosexual activity is a sin, show remarkable courage in confessing the faith. Lets take a cue from Paul and start rejoicing in the confessions of faith these people are able to make before the world. Lets start boasting about them in the churches of God. What a wonderful blessing we have in these people who stand tall for the faith!

4 comments:

Nancy said...

When we lived in Germany, we met a Sudanese Christian couple and an Egyptian Christian family who had converted from Islam...Both families were refugees, granted immigrant status...The stories they had to tell were fraught with dangers AND deliverance...Not only can we boast of their faith...but the deliverance worked by our Great God! Will all such families be delivered in this way...No they will not! That does not mean they deserve less boasting or that God has failed them...They will be on a long listing of martyrs for their faith...a faith that cannot fail!

Bror Erickson said...

It might be argued that God has delivered the others in a much more permanent way. We who remain, remain amidst affliction and temptation.

Nancy said...

I have often thought the same. Not that I'm volunteering for martyrdom...but I do pray that my faith always holds true and if it were to be required of me...by God's grace I would stand and be counted in that number!

Rudi said...

Nancy
You have been listening in on my prayers