I fear most the rich when they bring gifts. I loathe the world most when it fawns and flatters. When I heard of a lady who had put on Christ by baptism, that the cold shoulder was given her in all the circles in which she moved; did I, think you, feel more disposed to condole or to congratulate? It was said that now she had but few invitations to such places and such society as she had previously frequented; and I rejoiced, and thanked God for it. I was glad of it, for I felt she was farther removed from temptation. When I heard of a young man that, after he joined the church, those in his workshop met him at once with loud laughter and reproached him with bitter scorn. I was thankful, because now he could not take up the same position with themselves. He was a marked man: they who knew him discovered that there was such a thing as Christianity, and such a one as an earnest defender of it. It is no evil to the church, depend upon it, to have a great gulf fixed between her and the world.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “Prosperity Under Persecution.” thedailyspurgeon.com

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I doubt many of us look at things in this way when we feel we are suffering any kind of persecution for our Christian beliefs, whether it be large or small.

God looks at things vastly different from us most of the time. From His point of view He is purging and refining us to make us into a person He can use in a great way to further His Kingdom work. He wants to get all the distractions and “junk” out of the way so that we can be a clean vessel.

He does not want anyone or anything to keep us from His Best for our lives – whether that might be friends or circumstances of any kind. We seem to want to hang on to what we know even if we are sure it will not work in any way to make things better. It is very hard for most of us to get out of our “comfort zone” and be open to new things, but unless we open our mind and heart God won’t be able to work in us like He chooses.

I am certainly not saying that this process will be easy, but make the choice to go with God and see where He leads. I know you will see Him in a way that you never have before. It is in the hard times that you start to see His Character in the most awesome way. That makes an impression that can change you forever!

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Recently, the CoMission ministry, which Campus Crusade for Christ sponsored, sent a team to Stavropol. The city’s history was not known at that time. But when our team was having difficulties getting Bibles shipped from Moscow, someone mentioned the existence of a warehouse outside of town where these confiscated Bibles had been stored ever since Stalin’s day.

After much prayer by the team, one member finally got up the courage to go to the warehouse and ask the officials if the Bibles were still there. Sure enough, they were. Then the CoMission asked if the Bibles could be removed and distributed again to the people of Stavropol. The answer was ‘yes’!

The next day the CoMission team returned with a truck and several Russian people to help load the Bibles. One helper was a young man, who was a skeptical, hostile, and agnostic collegian who had come only for the day’s wages.

As they were loading the Bibles, one team member noticed that the young man had disappeared. Eventually, then found him in a corner of the warehouse weeping.

He had slipped away hoping to quietly take a Bible. What he found shook him to the core. The inside page of the Bible he picked up had the handwritten signature of his own grandmother! It had been her Bible! Out of the many thousands of Bibles still left in that warehouse, he stole the one belonging to his grandmother — a woman persecuted for her faith all her life.

No wonder he was weeping — God had just dramatically revealed Himself to this young man. His grandmother had no doubt prayed for him and for her city. Her prayers had followed him, and now this young man’s life has been transformed by the very Bible that his grandmother found so dear.

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

Related posts:

1. The Story of my Cousin’s Death and what God showed me about Change!
2. Are you a double-minded person?
3. One Important Aspect of a Successful Person