Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Practicum numero 3
This week I spent 3.25 hours at church. Worship practice (.5), church (1.5), sunday school (1), and Posts/Response (15 min) Just as a forward, we're still talking about persecution... Last sunday, we went through Hebrews, chapter 11 and 12, and found the common theme to be - endure hardship as discipline. We discussed how people in the Old Testament chose to be persecuted because they felt the call to be faithful to God. Their challenge (as well as a challenge to us) was to be faithful and stand up for the will of God, and to do what is right in faith. So, the question seems to be reoccurring - what do we do? One thing would be to be in a relationship with God where we would be willing to be in situations of persecution. Even though we may think none of this applies to us, because of where we live, it does. Nathan asked if we should put ourselves in the way of persecution to follow God. Steven and Tony responded with saying that we don’t necessarily have to intentionally put ourselves in a position to be persecuted, but if we do, it should be something that God has called us to do. On top of that, my thoughts are still that if we are called to suffer, we should praise God in and through it because it should be our joy to suffer for the Lord. At the end of class, the common thought was we should incorporate every part of our lives in our faith, including being willing to suffer for Christ. The way I look at it is, if we are fully surrendered to God, and not just "comfortable" with our faith, God will use us, even if that means we are persecuted for it. How do you think persecution has changed to effect us today? Or maybe a better question...Do you think we should be placing ourselves in the way of persecution to serve Christ?
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This is a response to Kara's second question.
ReplyDeleteI think that we should definately put ourselves in the way of persecution to serve Christ. If we are not, I would argue that we are being too comfortable with our faith and not truly spreading the gospel like we are called to do. Like we saw in 1 Thessalonians during class,the church of Thessalonica endured persecution and by doing so for the name of Christ, they were able to spread the gospel to others in Asia Minor. They became an example of Christ that the world was curious about and eager to follow. Therefore, my answer to your question is that we need to put ourselves in the way of persecution. This is not to say we need to put ourselves in danger physically, but it means we need to go out into the world, spread the gospel, and accept the consequences the world gives us for spreading our faith.
-Zach Vincent