Yesterday someone sent me graphic photos of the massacre of Christians in Syria and Iraq. Hundreds of people had been or were being beheaded and their heads were placed on fences and wooden stakes. Smiling men were holding the heads of martyred Christians like they were prized trophies. Several people had been crucified including a young boy. Photos of those who had been whipped and beaten into bloody messes were included and other photos showed men being shot in the back of the head and dumped into mass graves.
So where is the outrage for these Christians? It hardly gets a mention and yet two journalists get their heads cut off and the entire world is up in arms. It just goes to show the blatant disregard for Christians by President Obama and his administration and for that matter most of the world.
The body of Christ needs to take notice, because persecution is increasing as never before. Think it can’t happen here? So did the Jews right before being rounded up and being sent to the gas chambers.
Believers are being persecuted all over the world and that includes right here in the United States with the crackdown on our religious beliefs. In a recent article by Michael Carl in WND Faith he listed the following incidents:
- A federal judge threatened “incarceration” to a high school valedictorian unless she removed references to Jesus from her graduation speech.
- City officials prohibited senior citizens from praying over their meals, listening to religious messages or singing gospel songs at a senior activities center.
- A public school official physically lifted an elementary school student from his seat and reprimanded him in front of his classmates for praying over his lunch.
- Following U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ policies, a federal government official sought to censor a pastor’s prayer, eliminating references to Jesus, during a Memorial Day ceremony honoring veterans at a national cemetery.
- Public school officials prohibited students from handing out gifts because they contained religious messages.
- A public school official prevented a student from handing out flyers inviting her classmates to an event at her church.
- A public university’s law school banned a Christian organization because it required its officers to adhere to a statement of faith that the university disagreed with.
- The U.S. Department of Justice argued before the Supreme Court that the federal government can tell churches and synagogues which pastors and rabbis it can hire and fire.
- The State of Texas sought to approve and regulate what religious seminaries can teach.
- Through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, the federal government is forcing religious organizations to provide insurance for birth control and abortion-inducing drugs in direct violation of their religious beliefs.
- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs banned the mention of God from veterans’ funerals, overriding the wishes of the deceased’s families.
- A federal judge held that prayers before a state House of Representatives could be to Allah but not to Jesus.
“It is dramatic,” says Liberty Institute Founder Kelly Shackleford, of the recent hike in reported incidents of persecution. “I have been doing these types of cases for almost 25 years now. I have never seen the levels of attacks like these and how quickly they are now proliferating.”
Shackleford says government, from schools to social programs, is the ringleader. “There are children being prohibited from writing Merry Christmas to the soldiers, senior citizens being banned from praying over their meals in the Senior Center, the VA banning the mention of God in military funerals, numerous attempts to have veterans memorials torn down if they have any religious symbols such as a cross, and I could go on and on,” Shackleford said.
Jesus spoke of “perilous days” and we are living in them. We must unite together as Israel has done. There is strength in numbers. If you have not signed up for The Jesus Alliance then do so today www.TheJesusAlliance.org. Stand up for Jesus Christ; pray for this nation; and doggone it get out and vote for decent God fearing leaders!
It breaks my heart to see my Christian brothers and sisters being slaughtered. I wish every person in the United States could be forced to see the photos that I viewed. The United States military ordered Germans living nearby the concentration camps where millions of Jewish people had been slaughtered to go through them after the war. They came out of those camps horrified.
There is evil in this world and there is good. Nero set fire to Rome and then fiddled as it burned to the ground. He blamed it on Christians and they were martyred similarly to what is happening today. They used Christians for human torches, crucified them, fed them to lions, raped the wives and daughters and made slaves of them. It is the same old satan repeating history.
We find our comfort in our Lord, (the good in this world). Maybe you have fallen away from your love of Him; it is time to come back to Him and get on our knees and pray that God will accept our prayers of repentance before His fierce wrath suddenly descends upon us at a time we least expect like a thief in the night.
Jesus said that perilous times will come. Well they have arrived and we are living in them. We find our comfort in knowing that while the evil spirit of darkness may be let loose for a time, Satan will not deceive the nations and the churches forever, and no longer, than God will permit.
Have a great weekend and go to Honey Lake Church this weekend! We have a special surprise on Sunday. Sunday school begins at 9:30 and services begin at 11.
2 Tim. 3:1
You should know this, Timothy that in the last days there will be very difficult times.
Romans 13:11
This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
October 3, 2014 – Click here to listen