Hello Friends,

 

Yesterday was Christmas, the day we celebrate Christ’s birth.  We sing songs like “Good Christian Men, Rejoice” and “Go Tell It On The Mountain”.  I hope that we all sang with the liveliness and the great joy that our Savior deserves!  I know at times we get into a routine. Work Monday thru Friday, chores and shopping Saturday, church and nap (or sports) on Sunday, and repeat.  How often do we allow Church to become part of our routine and take for granted the freedom we as Americans have to go and worship Jesus?

 

How would you respond if we were suddenly told that if we worshipped Jesus we would be arrested or killed? Would we still Praise the One and Only King Jesus?   I would like to hope I would, but I can’t say for sure.  Peter also said he would not deny Jesus but he did (three times before the rooster crowed).  I can only pray that if I’m ever faced with that threat that I would stand firm in the armor of God.

 

So, while we still can and even if someday we are told we can’t, I encourage you to Praise the Lord as He deserves.  The Bible says “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” ‭‭(Psalms‬ ‭150‬:‭6‬ ‭NKJV‬)

 

Read these words from the book of Joshua, in these verses Joshua had just finished telling the Israelites what the Lord had spoken to him, which was a very brief reminder of the history of God’s relationship with his people starting with father of Abraham all the way to the very people Joshua was talking to.  Joshua then said:

 

““Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.””

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭24‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

 

I encourage you to choose to serve the Lord!

 

In Deuteronomy we read:

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭30‬:‭15‬-‭19‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

 

I encourage you to choose life, and live!

 

Friends, don’t take our freedom to praise God for granted.  Pray with sincerity and fervor, sing with liveliness and joy, read scripture like it’s the greatest story ever told, because it is.

 

While I can’t speak to everything on this site, I do know it’s a good resource to gain a better understanding of Christian persecution around the world, feel free to check it out below, but if you do, and even if you don’t, remember John 16:33 (“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John‬ ‭16‬:‭33‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

 

Open Doors:

https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/

 

 

 

I am a follower of Christ, I am not perfect, but I love Jesus.

Until Next Time,

 

Liz Allen