Are we really ready?
Listen
to this amazing announcement from Australia !!
****
On 18 September 2012 Scarborough Baptist Church
received notification from the City of Stirling requiring the Church to cease
all activities (including feeding the needy and running craft and pre-school
dance classes) not defined by the City as “religious activities”. The penalty
for not complying is an immediate fine of $1,000,000 plus $125,000 per day that
the Church fails to comply.
Many of these activities are central to the
Church’s pastoral role within the community, and have been operating in the
church for years; the craft group, for example, has been holding weekly craft
meetings for 35 years, and the evening service and community meal has now been
running for nearly a decade.
According to the City’s correspondence, religious
activities exclude, among others: funerals, weddings, Easter services, youth groups, quiz nights to
raise funds for local schools, fêtes and fairs to raise funds for world aid,
and the provision of meals and
services to the community.
****
I
have highlighted some extraordinary bits from it. Have you ever read anything
so “mad”.
Are we really ready for
such persecution?
In America, during the last months, people have been prosecuted and even jailed
for holding a Bible-study at their own home. Christian charities have been
threatened with large fines for feeding the poor and homeless. This is America –
not an atheist, Muslim or Hindu country where Christians are regularly
slaughtered, burned out, or thrown in prison.
Are we really ready for
being outcasts?
Throughout the Western world, laws are being passed that implicitly exclude
Christians, Christian beliefs and values from almost any public office or place.
Are we really ready to be
martyrs?
In many African and Asian churches, Christians are burned out, maimed, or
killed on a continuing basis. In North Korea thousands of Christians have
simply disappeared – either into slave camps or to their deaths. In many states
around the world, Christians are increasingly regarded as lower than slaves and
of less value than dogs.
Are you really ready for
this? Can
you say, hand on heart, “Whatever happens I will trust You Lord. Your will be
done not mine.” Could you stand firm in your faith and watch your persecutors
kill your children, your parents, your spouse? Could you, with Paul, welcome
death?
This
is the great tribulation. It will come. It is on its way and will arrive in the
not very distant future. As for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord. How
about you?
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