1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian 9b - Blessed are those who are persecuted _2_ | Page 8

church today because we have failed to epitomise this particular aspect of
Christian living? The passage above is just one of the passages that Jesus
speaks into this particular subject. He portrays the church as being like a
kingdom. Every kingdom has a king who rules and no matter how good the
ruler may be, if the kingdom is divided against itself it will never stand the
test of time. I really believe that for a church to be effective in the fulfilment of
God’s call, it may need to bite the bullet on issues of personal preference and
yet still hold dear to the issues of corporate principles.
As one of the pastors of this church I implore you to hold dear to the ideal of unity
which does not for one moment mean that we will not disagree or differ on some
things, but in the nature of our disagreement it is critical that we honour one
another in love and with a spirit of unity that will bless the heart of God and
strengthen the unity of the body of Christ.

Prayer Thought: I am sure you are all aware that the church has an enemy whose
Thought
greatest tool is to bring division to the body. Satan loves it when he sees Christians
behaving badly, bad-mouthing one another and we very often do his work for him.
Won’t you pray against this spirit of dissension and division and then personally
commit yourself to a lifestyle of building up the kingdom instead of breaking it
down.

Friday
Reading: James 1
Today our focus will be on the Christian’s response to being persecuted. As I read
the Scripture I am aware that there are three positive responses to the aspect of
responses
persecution.
#1: Loyalty.
#1: Loyalty As we have said before the church has been built upon the blood and the
sacrifice of the martyrs; men, women and children who stood unflinchingly in the
face of extreme persecution, were willing to lay down their lives for the cause of
Christ. They epitomise the need for loyalty to Christ. Once again I refer to the
heroes of the first century church who, against great odds and under extreme
conditions, rejected the call to loyalty to Caesar in favour of loyalty to Christ. They
paid dearly for that loyalty. I read recently of one particular incident dating back to
that time where a man had been threatened with the loss of his job because of his
faith. He came to the church leader, Tertullian, and explained his dilemma. He said
“I will need to deny Christ in order to keep my job”. Tertullian replied to him, “Why