Recently I attended a clergy focus group lead by a new leader within our community. The person was a competent, qualified, engaging, and lovely person. There was no downside to them. She did an excellent job of hostingthe meeting. She had asked for clergy to meet with her and give her feedback as she starts in her new position. There were ten of us – two Catholics, two Mormons and six Christians. Most everyone participated readily with a few more than others. And all were professional, respectful and a pleasure to be with. The agenda was excellent as far as it went. It would be more accurate to say that it was engagingly safe in most regards until . . .
Within twelve minutes of concluding the 90-minute session, I could see we were not going to have time to discuss the more important issues facing our community, especially the public schools. Those issues weren’t even on the agenda but they’ve sure been on the front pages of our local newspapers the last few weeks. And I am not talking about recent national news. I’m talking about the local School Board meetings. They’ve been quite “dicey,” to say the least. Conservative members of the School Board have been verbally attacked for their Judeo-Christian positions on several fronts.
Because several among us, a pastor, a Mormon elder and a Catholic deacon had already made some interesting observations I felt it “safe” to put forward three questions.
One of my questions had to do with what I will call, social engineering. It was this one . . . one of the three that seemed to me to bring some very straight forward comments from five of the group. Several of these colleagues weighed in to voice their concerns with the verbal bullying of Christian students bytheir teachers, not all teachers but a significant number of them. They also mentioned the singling out of students of faith as being out of touch with the world, the absence of ethics and morals in school curriculum, the presence of “pornographic” materials, marijuana, and so on. You could feel the dynamic tension.
My take away is simple. Whether you are a student, professor or stay at home mom; a scientist, business owner or janitor; a pastor, politician or fireman . . . if you choose to be a be-like-Jesus Christian in our present society, you will be persecuted! By the way, the meeting ended without any anyone being out of sorts. All in attendance, as said above, were respectful and a pleasure to be with. No persecution occurred, not even close, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t and won’t be happening.
If you wish to AVOID real persecution, not pseudo persecution but honest-to-goodness persecution, here are three things you can do. First, do not let anyone know that you are a Christian. Second, refuse to live a God-honoring life by compromising your Christian lifestyle and values. In other words, live like the world. And third, don’t care about our society and culture and the many non-believers who are without the life of Jesus. Do nothing that will lead them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
I am convinced that these are the easiest ways to eliminate persecution. But then again . . .
Here’s a verse that has me pondering its meaning . . . it grabs me. What does it do to you?
. . . all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. (1)
None of us should desire persecution or willfully sign up for it but on the other hand we should not let it be the decision maker (lord) of our lives.
A village elder in Zimbabwe said this to a friend of mine. You American Christians cannot deal with persecution and hardships. We who cannot live in America have no choice but to deal with it. “You pray for God to remove persecution. We pray for God to strengthen us in it.”
Hmmmmm!
Like the Apostle Paul said, We are hard pressed . . . yet not crushed . . . persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed . . . (2) Let’s pray for God’s strength to navigate the days in which we live.
I’m praying to be a courageous Christian and overcome persecution! If you’re in the Thousand Oaks vicinity and not part of another church, join me this Sunday at Crosstown Church at 10:00 a.m.. I will be talking about how to be blessed and overcome persecution.
Learning to live godly in Christ Jesus!
–John Tolle
(1) 2 Timothy 3:12
(2) 2 Corinthians 2:7-10