Share the Message

Today's Verses -- Acts 8:1b-4
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. 4Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. (NIV)

Have you ever thought about what it must be like to be a Christian in a country where Jesus was illegal? I believe God doesn't give us more than we can handle, and that's probably why I live in a country that just makes fun of Christians, doesn't persecute them.

These people packed up what little they could carry with them and left jobs, extended family, and the communities they had grown up in to start a new life somewhere else to avoid persecution. They had seen Stephen stoned to death and many of their friends put in jail just because they knew the truth about Jesus.

Yet, despite that fear of persecution, they were still so convinced that Jesus was the Savior and that he was the only way to salvation that they continued to tell everyone they saw the Good News! No amount of persecution has EVER wiped Christians off the face of the Earth for more than 2000 years!

Many people today face humiliation, being thrown out of their families or societies, imprisonment or death, yet they still tell the Good News. And I hesitate to tell others because I'm concerned about what they may think or that I might get the message wrong.

Shame on me.