1 Peter 4:12-16 — Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.” 
No original thoughts, today. Just something that was reinforced for me today as we thought about the pressure the young church of Ephesus faced, and the persecution of Christians by some of the Roman Emperors.

We are starting to see signs of American Christians coming under pressure. Bakers forced out of business, clerks of court losing their jobs … all because their Christian faith would not allow them to support same sex “marriage”. Prayers and Bibles driven out of schools, Christian monuments banned from official buildings, threats to churches charitable status … the list of pressure points is growing daily. So how should Christians in America react?

Let’s start with a little context.

In the Middle East ISIS is beheading Christians — and their fellow Islamic militants are massacring Christians in Kenya and Nigeria and Pakistan.

In India, Hindus are murdering Christians.

In China, the government is destroying churches and tearing down crosses.

When set against the global context, American (and European) pressure on Christians doesn’t seem so terrible does it? But make no mistake … it’s going to get worse.

So how should we feel?

It might seem odd of me, but I can’t help thinking that persecution is a good sign for Western Christians. I have two reasons for my cheerfulness.

The first reason that I am encouraged is my belief that the persecution is a sign that the devil is getting desperate. We don’t know the calendar for the end but I think satan might. For more than one hundred years Western Christianity was not persecuted. And the plan of neglect worked wonderfully well — Christianity was steadily declining. So why change a plan that was working so well? The plan was working well … but too slowly. There isn’t enough time for a natural death!

The second reason that I am encouraged by the rising tide of persecution is that I don’t think there’s a reaction without an actio … The enemy is pushing back because the activities of Christians are moving the kingdom forward! For a long time Christianity was an ineffective inactive religion. But in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s a revival, “The Jesus movement”, began on the West Coast of America and spread through the rest of North America and into Europe. Although that was forty years ago the reverberations continue, and hell is pushing back.

So, if you are distressed at the persecution rising, don’t be. If any of you suffers as a Christian, don’t be ashamed; but glorify God on this behalf!

Ezekiel 47:8-9 — Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed.  And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.
From time to time, Myra will ask me, “Do you know how much I love you?” The answer, of course, is that I can only imagine. I know it is a huge wonderful flood of love; it is greater than anyone but we and God can guess at. My love for her is the same – sometimes I cannot keep it in. 

Our love is very great … and yet it is two drops in the mightiest ocean that there has ever been. This is so hard to understand, but it is true. The infinite ocean of the love of God imagines everything, creates everything, supports and sustains everything. Julian of Norwich comes close to capturing this infinite truth:

And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, ‘What may this be?’ And it was answered generally thus, ‘It is all that is made.’ I marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God. (The Revelation of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich) 

God’s love is one of those attributes of God that cannot be separated from all the others – it is His sovereign choice, it is infinite in time and scope, it is unchangeable and uninfluenced by anything I can do, it is the gift of grace, it is righteous. 

When I contemplate God’s love I am humbled by the knowledge that my little love, my drop in that mighty ocean, possesses all those same attributes. Don’t ask me how. Especially don’t ask me how my love can have an infinite scope. Yet it must. It is part of God’s love. 

Jeremiah 1:5 — Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

There are some things I simply don’t want to write about. Abortion is close to the top of the list. My position is not likely to sit well with people I know and love — in either camp. There is, I fear, something for everyone to disagree with!

But, like many, I have been appalled by the recent revelations related to “Planned Parenthood” and I will get no peace until I say something.

First, let me be clear. Despite a lot of what has been said, I believe there are very few pure “convenience” abortions. Many women are forced into abortion by weight of circumstance, family pressures, and sheer necessity. To deal with them with anything other than the deepest love and care would be cruelly to worsen pain and suffering. Condemnation cannot be a Christian response.

Second, however, the specious argument that “the Bible doesn’t ban abortions” cannot stand. It is true that there is no explicit statement — but Exodus 21:22-23 makes it clear that a baby in the womb is a child, and to kill that child carries a death penalty:
If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, (Exodus 21:22-23 KJV)
I understand, and sympathize with the “hard cases”. A woman pregnant as a result of rape or incest deserves all our sympathy — but it is hard to see that the child deserves a death penalty. The other case is far harder for me — when the health of the mother is at risk the trade off must be nearly unbearable. 

To be clear — the Bible does not directly address the issue, but the early church certainly did. In its little discipleship manual, the Didache (“The Teaching of the Lord Given to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles”) it is written, “You shall not kill a child in the womb nor expose infants“. There is no ambiguity.

So much for the issue of abortion itself. But what of the issue that has brought me to the point where I have to speak? What of the activities of the awfully misnamed “Planned Parenthood” Federation of America? There can be no excuse for selling off, as spare parts for research, the tissue of aborted babies. It comes, of course, from a worldview that does not see each child as a miracle made in God’s image. The ancient Israelites knew better!
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalms 139:13-16 KJV)
I am praying that Planned Parenthood will be destroyed by the revealed evidence of their horrifying practices. I have heard the claims that abortion is only one of their services and that they do much of value for women. I am convinced that there must be a better way to provide those services. I am praying for that better way to be found. Will you please join me?

John 17:14-17 — I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
In our Sunday School class today an old friend — the topic of “in the world, not of the world” popped up again. It’s an old question — what should the relationship be between the Christian and the world? Jesus made it clear — “in the world, but not of the world” … but what does that mean? Jesus prayed to His Father (and ours, of course) not only that we be in the world but not of the world, but that we be “sanctified”. We are to be set apart. 

I was fortunate today to have someone point me in the direction of H. Richard Niebuhr (brother of Reinhold) who analyzed the question in 1951 in his masterpiece “Christ and Culture”. Jesus is the God-Man. His position relative to the culture is our position in the culture. He makes it clear when He says “they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”.

Niebuhr outlines five possible positions (O.K., so I haven’t read the book, and this is shameless superficial plagiarism, but the ideas helped me and I wanted to share). What follows are just my thoughts about his categories — maybe when I’ve tracked down a copy of the book I’ll come back to this!

One position is that, somehow Christ is against the culture. I’m not sure that position makes sense to me. If the culture is entirely the creation of satan, perhaps it would make sense. If the culture is a creation of man though, surely Christ would feel compassion at the very least. Christ against culture would be God-Man against man.

Another position is that Christ is “of” the culture. That would seem to imply that somehow the culture encapsulates the God-Man. How can culture shape God. It seems to take that God out of the God-Man.

Yet another position is that Christ is “above the culture”. That must surely be true. God is above us, for sure. And yet this is the Christ who laid aside His godhead to be with us. 

The fourth position that there is a paradoxical, interacting, relationship between Christ and Culture. In this view Christians in the culture owe loyalty to Christ but are trying to take responsibility for the culture. But the culture is sinful. Sin and grace exist side by side. This feels closer to truth …

Niebuhr’s last position is the Christ of transformation. This feels closest to truth. The culture is man’s creation. Man is God’s creation. We work on redeeming and improving the culture by keeping our eyes on Jesus. We are in the world, but we are not of the world … but of Jesus.

Psalm 100:1-5  — Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Psalm 107:1-2 — O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
Shall I go on? I could. The Bible is full of verses of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not just a critical part of prayer, it’s a critical part of life. For now, though, let’s focus on thanksgiving as the third of my necessary elements of organized prayer.
Why is thanksgiving so important beyond common gratitude? Well no, wait — even common gratitude should be enough … “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:11). God is so generous. The old children’s hymn had it right:
Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your blessings, see what God hath done;

Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
The most important way, of course, that God has blessed me is that He has provided me with the means and occasion of salvation — “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.”
There are many more reasons, though, for us to offer thanksgiving. One place to start is God’s character: “For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.” This brings thanksgiving very close to adoration.
As well as who God is, I thank Him for the things He has done:
To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever: The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever: The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalms 136:4-9
Thanksgiving recognizes who God is, what He has done, and what He has done for us. It’s an essential part of the conversation. It gives glory to God. But it helps focus our attention. Most importantly, for me, remembering God’s nature helps me to approach Him with confidence with my needs as they arise.

Thanksgiving is the fuel of faith … In everything give thanks!