Day 300
Jeremiah 51:1-53; Titus 2:1-15; Psalm 99:1-9; Proverbs 26:17
Christians Under Attack
The Spectator, a British publication, noted that “According to the International Society for Human Rights, a secular observatory based in Frankfurt, Germany, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed at Christians. Statistically speaking, that makes Christians by far the most persecuted religious body on the planet.”1 A few years ago at a conference on discipleship, the speaker challenged the audience with this question: “If you were to live in a country where Christians were persecuted for their faith would your life betray you as follower of Christ?” The question was not about whether or not we were seen attending church, or whether or not we wore a cross, but whether or not our very lives bore witness to our faith in Christ.
This is the point that Paul is making here in his letter to Titus: “Make sure you present yourself as a pattern of good works. Your teaching must be consistent and serious, in healthy speech that is beyond reproach. That way, our opponents will be ashamed, since they won’t have anything bad to say about us.” Do our relationships within our families bear a resemblance to the sacrificial love that Christ demonstrated on the cross?
Heavenly Father, help us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for Himself a people of His own who are zealous for good deeds. Amen.
The Rev’d Sarah Bronos