Inheritance: Encouragement in the Face of Persecution

God's Warth is Coming... Are You Ready?

You had better listen to the words of Jesus, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, shall enter, but he that does the will of my father in heaven.” If ye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live. If you live after the flesh, you’ll die! The cross does not give us a minor shift or two with regard to a few of our ethical and religious values. The cross radically disrupts the very center and citadel of your life from self to Christ. And if the cross has not done that, YOU’RE NOT A CHRISTIAN! My Friend face it, young rogue, you’re not a Christian until the cross has radically disrupted the very center and citadel of your life! And brought you from a life of commitment to serve self…What are the focal points of the reign of your self? If you’ve gone to the cross in union with Christ, it’s been shattered!"
- Al Martin

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Encouragement in the Face of Persecution

Tyndale wrote the following encouragement to his best friend John Frith in a letter just before Frith was burned at the stake.

"Your cause is Christ's gospel, a light that must be fed with the blood of faith....If when we be buffeted for well-doing, we suffer patiently and endure, that is acceptable to God; for to that end we are called. For Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should fallow his steps, who did no sin.

"Hereby have we perceived love, that he had lain down his life for us; therefore we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren....Let not your body faint....If the pain be above your strength, remember, Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will give it you. And Pray to our Father in that name, and he will ease your pain, or shorten it....Amen."

- From Foxe's Book of Martyrs.