prayer for the persecuted church

+ Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost +
November 14, 2010
This will be your opportunity to bear witness – Luke 21:13
The three-fold jihad/struggle/strife: Money Blood Immigration
70:1-2 Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O LORD, make haste to help me!
Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life!
Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt!
1. Bear witness by our use of resources
a. Generous giving = good works that move people to glorify our Father in heaven
b. Allows us to speak the truth in love with boldness. Resist the spirit of passivity!
“After the sharp point of terror has been made dull, the cause of the struggle remains, a struggle which is stirred up terribly by the crafty enemy in the fury of persecution, but brought in all the more harmfully by the appearance of peace. When the battles are out in the open, the crowns are also evident. This, too, nourishes and inflames the strength of patience, that, when disaster is nearest, the promise is also at hand. After the public attacks of the wicked ones cease and the devil restrains himself from the slaughter and torture of the faithful, lest by the intensity of his cruelties there be a manifold increase of our triumphs, the raging adversary turns his bloodthirsty hatred to quiet treachery, and those he could not overcome with hunger and cold, with sword and fire, he will wear out with an easy life; he will snare with willfulness, inflame with ambition, and corrupt with luxury. + Leo the Great, 461.
2. Bear witness by the blood of Christ
a. And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.
b. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin (Hebrews 12:4).
3. Bear witness by loving the children God has given us
a. Children are an inheritance from the LORD. They are a reward from him. The
children born to a man when he is young are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them. He will not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the city gate.
b. Big brother- big sister, foster care, adoption, reading/mentoring in the schools, VBS to the community, etc.