{"id":19351,"date":"2014-04-29T00:20:16","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T04:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=19351"},"modified":"2014-04-29T00:13:42","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T04:13:42","slug":"rejection-persecution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/04\/29\/rejection-persecution\/","title":{"rendered":"Rejection and Persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13840\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg\" alt=\"SeekingHimLogo\" width=\"560\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg 560w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>Blessed are the\u00a0<span style=\"color: #5ea1a1;\">poor in spirit<\/span><\/em><\/strong>, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. \u00a0<em><strong>Blessed are\u00a0<span style=\"color: #5ea1a1;\">those who mourn<\/span><\/strong><\/em>, for they shall be comforted. \u00a0<em><strong>Blessed are\u00a0<span style=\"color: #5ea1a1;\">the meek<\/span>,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0for they shall inherit the earth. \u00a0<em><strong>Blessed are\u00a0<span style=\"color: #37989e;\">those who hunger and thirst for righteousness<\/span><\/strong><\/em>, for they shall be satisfied. \u00a0<em><strong>Blessed are\u00a0<span style=\"color: #37989e;\">the mercifu<\/span><\/strong><\/em><span style=\"color: #37989e;\">l<\/span>, for they shall receive mercy. \u00a0<em><strong>Blessed are the<span style=\"color: #37989e;\">\u00a0pure in heart<\/span><\/strong><\/em><span style=\"color: #37989e;\">,<\/span>\u00a0for they shall see God. \u00a0<em><strong>Blessed are\u00a0<span style=\"color: #37989e;\">the peacemakers<\/span><\/strong><\/em><span style=\"color: #37989e;\">,<\/span>\u00a0for they shall be called sons of God.\u00a0<strong><em>Blessed are\u00a0<span style=\"color: #37989e;\">those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness<\/span><\/em><\/strong>, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #37989e;\">* \u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0*<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">You\u2019re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution.<br \/>\nThe persecution drives you even deeper into God\u2019s kingdom.<br \/>\nMatthew 5:10<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stephen was stoned to death (Acts 7:54-60)<\/li>\n<li>The Apostles were put in jail for teaching in Jesus&#8217; name (Acts 5:17-33)<\/li>\n<li>John the Baptist was beheaded (Matthew 14:1-12)<\/li>\n<li>Jesus was crucified<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As Americans we are blessed and privileged to have the luxury of not being likely to suffer extreme persecution. \u00a0Our modern-day persecution largely consists of Christians being labeled as intolerant.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.<br \/>\n2 Timothy 3:12<\/p>\n<p>Christian&#8217;s are destined for persecution. \u00a0Our Lord&#8217;s teachings go against everything the systems of this world idolizes. \u00a0God&#8217;s children were not made to be accepted by the world. \u00a0No! \u00a0We were called to be salt and light to the world (Matthew 5:13-16). \u00a0Different. \u00a0Godly.<\/p>\n<p>I think one of the toughest tests of faith is persecution, right alongside hardship and loss. \u00a0Even Peter failed to stand for Jesus and he walked to Him on water! Standing up and openly claiming Jesus as your Lord can be scary. \u00a0Nowadays, the worst that we face is denial from people (people we were never suppose to be accepted by), thank God for America.<\/p>\n<p>Rejection isn&#8217;t an easy thing to face. \u00a0Jesus himself was rejected, though, but of course that doesn&#8217;t make it any easier. \u00a0Here&#8217;s how I&#8217;ve decided to look at rejection. \u00a0When faced with the choice to stand for Christ or not\u2014to face possible rejection or not\u2014if we choose to deny Christ to be accepted by people, we are rejecting Christ. \u00a0Is rejecting Christ worth not being rejected ourselves?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I tell you the truth, everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth,<br \/>\nthe Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God\u2019s angels.<br \/>\nBut anyone who denies me here on earth will be denied before God\u2019s angels.<br \/>\nLuke 12:8-9<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>Will you stand for Christ in front of man?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #37989e;\">* \u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0*<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lord, I&#8217;m thankful that I don&#8217;t have to worry about being beheaded! \u00a0Give me the strength to stand for You, regardless of whether it&#8217;s easy or not. \u00a0Right is right and Your truth is truth. \u00a0One easy, but wrong, choice can set us on a road we never intended to take. \u00a0Help us to make the right tough choices now so we won&#8217;t have to pay the consequences later. \u00a0I pray that I do not shy away from proclaiming Your name to the world! \u00a0Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blessed are the\u00a0poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0the meek,\u00a0for they shall inherit the earth. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. \u00a0Blessed are the\u00a0pure in heart,\u00a0for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[6187,6199,6197,3146,127,3367,1287,425,5784,6198,1892,6200,6184,6190,6201,3174],"class_list":["post-19351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-2-timothy-312","tag-acts-517-33","tag-acts-754-60","tag-ahmee-bronaugh","tag-beatitudes","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-jesus-speaking","tag-matthew-141-12","tag-matthew-510","tag-matthew-513-16","tag-persecuted","tag-persecution","tag-rejection-and-persecution","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-527","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19351"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19354,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19351\/revisions\/19354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}