To BE Attitudes: Blessed ARE the Persecuted...

Matthew 5:10-12. This is Jesus' assurance that "God's blessings" are not related to the "health, wealth and safe" gospel preached by the "money lovers". In fact, if you keep offering people what they want the most (money, health, safety, etc.), they will never hate, persecute and say all kinds of evil falsely against you, absolutely, they will "worship" you. Do you want to make friends? Give 'em money. They will be your friends (not real ones of course), at least until you run out of money. If you don't believe, read the parable of the prodigal son, when the money was gone, so were his "friends"! Even the pigs became unfriendly. Before, i had a hard time believing that it is possible to rejoice and be exceedingly glad when you are being persecuted or mistreated, but more and more i see that it's not just possible, it pleases God, when facing persecution we endure and rejoice. I'm not saying that God wants us to suffer, i'm saying that when the troubles come and we are found faithful, God is pleased with us. Job is the best example of endurance and faithfulness. Another example is the early church, they suffered and yet rejoiced in suffering. Acts 5:41. How many Christians right now are being persecuted and suffering for Jesus' sake? A time is coming, as it is described in the book of Revelation, when the anti-Christ will persecute and kill many Christians, of course if you are a pre-trib believer you are safe (or not!). From Abel to John, the righteous people in the Bible were persecuted and suffered for righteousness' sake, they didn't love their own lives, still they were not recognized by they righteous acts. I heard in the radio other day, about a pastor from Africa that had his wife and two children killed and he was left for dead. In China there are many cases of believers being killed for Jesus' sake. To me, the "great tribulation" is called "great" because will happened in the whole world simultaneously, but for that African pastor, that was a "great tribulation". We have a distorted vision about blessing, we think that we are blessed when everything is going well, we have plenty and we are loved by everybody. Pay attention to the words of Jesus Christ: John 7:7; John 15:20. We must answer theses questions: Whom are we serving? Are we testifying about the evil works of this world?