Encouragement in Christ Jesus our Lord
"If
ye were of the world, the world would love his own but because ye are
not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you."
-JOHN
15:19 [KJV]
If
you walk in the fear of God, and follow in the footsteps of a
persecuted and despised Jesus, the world will hate and despise you as
it hated and despised Him,
as He
Himself
declares, "If
the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me
before it hated you."
God Himself
has put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the
serpent [GENESIS
3:15];
and nothing will secure you from the manifestation of this enmity if
you are on Christ's side. Neither rank, nor property, nor learning,
nor education, nor amiability, nor the profusest deeds of liberality,
nor the greatest uprightness of conduct, will stave off the scorn of
men, if you are a sincere follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
carry out in practice what you hold in principle.
If
you are not conformed to Jesus here in His suffering image, you will
most certainly not be conformed to Jesus hereafter in His glorified
likeness. But if by living for and unto Jesus and His cross, your
name be cast out as evil, wear it as your distinguishing badge, as
adorning the breast of a Christian warrior. If men misrepresent your
motives or actions, and seek to hunt you down with every calumny that
the basest malignity can invent, do not heed it as long as you are
innocent. They cannot find you a better or more honourable crown, if
indeed your godly life provoke the cruel lie. It is a crown that your
Master bore before you when they crowned His head with thorns. If you
feel as I have felt, you will at times count yourself even unworthy
to suffer persecution for His name's sake.
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
April
8th, EARS FROM HARVESTED SHEAVES
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