Know what I think?

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

(Matthew 5:10 nasb)

click -->HERE<--

I think the Canadian government should start a massive campaign aginst Christianity under the guise of the Bible being hate literature and the obvious hypocritical nature of we who profess to be self-sacrificing lovers of God Himself. Any elementary study of Church history seems to suggest this simple equation: Christians + persecution = extreme growth and fruit. This is unarguable; it's a simple and unfortunate fact.

Here in Canada, the govt could start with a simple thing like banning the Bible. The persecuted Church in the Soviet Union under Stalin and the churches in places today like China (and N Korea, no doubt) seem to have survived and even thrived in situations where they didn't have their "favorite" translation always in hand,and about a dozen or so alternate versions at home for purposes of study. The early Church didn't read the New Testament in the hopes that it would produce a holy life, their holy life produced the writings of the New Testament we enjoy and take for granted today. St Francis (my favorite figure in Church history) said to one of his young Brothers when the young one pressed him for permission to own a book: "The heroes Charlemagne and Roland and Oliver fought for the faith, and so gained renown. Now people try to gain it by reading of great deeds, and bring themselves almost to believe that they have done these by reading about them. So also with the lives of saints; men read them more than they imitate them." Not much has changed in the 800 yrs since then.

It's a sad fact that most of the world calls the Western Church the "sleeping church'. They recognize the vital part we have yet to play in the fulfillment of worldwide evangelization. WHEN we wake up, the cause of Christ will as well. We are a vital part in the fulfillment of scripture, but here we sleep, slugging it up while many, many, many of our brothers around the world count the cost of following their Savior, something of which we have absolutely NO idea. The fruit of their lives versus ours tells the story far better than I ever could.

Does it have to come to a national persecution campaign to wake us up? I really hope that it wouldn't. But when I look around and see the plushy chairs, and the watered-down Gospel, and the complacency, and the disunity, and the squandering of funds, and the topic of conversations, and the genuineness of "believers", and the on and on and on, I can't help but think that the best thing for us all would be if we were to be driven underground; a church that was banned from public meetings of any kind, etc. Check out ->this article<- Cuthill sent me.

While we sit in our comfy lives far from the threat of inconvenience; two-thirds of the world's population wait (in a little area known as the 10/40 Window) for a consistent witness of an unconditionally loving Savior. The affluence we enjoy here in the 1st World which we may have falsely attributed to come from God has babied us into an attitude of indifference and selfishness.

Maybe............the materialism we hoard IS our persecution, and we have failed to persevere through it. Maybe it has killed us and rendered us oblique? We shall find out one day, likely, much to our regret.

( I in no way exclude myself from the above post, in fact, I base it on my own inadequacy and frustrations to overcome our selfish lifestyle while millions are dying.)