Persecution.

                            

"Jesus said, 'Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age - houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions - and in the age to come eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.'"  Mark 10:26-31 (NRSV)

It may surprise many that Jesus predicted the Good News would be persecuted.

But the powers of this world will not give up their supremacy easily.

The Good News - the Kingdom of God - is a challenge to their power and authority.

And their response is to demonize and persecute those who announce it.

So when persecutions come we should not be surprised.

And we should not be deterred.


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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