What Is Worth Dying For Is Also Worth Living For

Reflections for this date are based on the following scripture passages:
Acts 22	Acts 23	Acts 24	Genesis 35	Genesis 36	Psalms 15

Chapters 22-24 give account of the Apostle Paul's arrest in Jerusalem and the beginning of his journey toward Rome where the Lord had told him he would testify about Jesus. Following his arrest in Jerusalem the Lord said to him, "Have courage! For as you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome." Opposition to the gospel has never been a deterrent to it but rather more of a propellant to the spread of the gospel. Much like throwing water on an oil fire. Rather than dousing the fire, it is spread. In fact, it becomes explosive.

One of the first examples of this in scripture came following the stoning of Stephen, found in chapter 7 of Acts. After this, persecution broke out on the church in Jerusalem and many of its members relocated throughout Rome and Asia. But as these believers moved from Jerusalem, they took the gospel with them. In the years following, Philip the evangelist and Paul both encountered believers in various areas to which they went to evangelize. This pattern has been true thoughout history. The Communist movement of the last century has been an enormous propellant to Christianity. This is not the way we have viewed it, though, with it policies of persecuting Christians in an effort to shut them down. But through small, underground groups of Christians, Christianity in most every country that has fallen under Communism has spread like wildfire.

James Draper, former president of Lifeway Christian Resources once asked a Christian leader in China how American Christians could pray for house churches in China. His response? "Stop praying for persecution in China to end, for it is through persecution that the church has grown." Furthermore, this Chinese leader told Draper that the Chinese house church movement was praying that American Christians "might experience the kind of persecution they have seen in China so that it would ignite a similar revival in America."

What is it about persecution that is so revolutionary to Christianity? One important key is the credibility given to Christianity through persecution. If it is worth dying for it must also be worth living for.