Happy Thanksgiving! Amen!

The Apostle Paul lived in times when at least two governments were persecuting and even executing people who professed to be Christians. Rome and Jewish authorities particularly in Jerusalem persecuted and executed Christians. In both cases the law demanded Christians renounce Jesus or be persecuted or executed.

Of course Paul himself was rigorously persecuted wherever he went until he was eventually executed in Rome. Compared with those losses of freedom, Christians in America have it easy. We have been abundantly blessed, well beyond anything we could have ever imagined.

Paul wrote 13 of the 27 letters in the New Testament, in which he taught believers about the nature and being of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He also instructed believers how to live by faith, following the Spirit, as well as how to deal with everyday living and relationships.

Paul’s readers were subject to the same threats of persecution and execution as he was, so he encouraged them to live in ways that would honor and glorify Jesus Christ as Lord. Needless to say, the threats themselves tended to strengthen believers’ faith to the extent that the more the church was persecuted the more it grew numerically.

America has seen declining church membership for the past few decades particularly among younger generations. On the other hand the number of Christians has been growing where persecutions and executions of Christians are common. Why? The cause of the decline of the number of Christians in America and the rise of the number of

Christians in heavily persecuted areas are one and the same.

Christians who live in heavily persecuted areas know they need God every moment of every day. Christians who live in America don’t face the same kinds of threats and don’t feel the pressure of having to trust God every moment of every day.

Is the God of the Bible real? Is Jesus the Creator of all of creation as the Bible teaches? For millennia billions of believers have said yes, and many have suffered severe persecution and tortuous executions for maintaining their professions.

The world appears to be moving through crisis after crisis. With instantaneous communication, we easily see crises all over the world. This was not the case as few as 100 years ago when both communication and transportation were limited and antiquated. No one knew what was going on in all nations around the world. Today we can know, and we can see how events in one nation affect many if not all nations.

According to the Bible, God has stepped into human history throughout millennia. God never sleeps nor has He ever stopped caring for His world. Nevertheless, at times God has made biblical pronouncements and events. From creation to the flood, to the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of His Son Jesus Christ, God has revealed Himself.

In light of these revelations, we might rightly expect God to step into history again, probably sooner than we think. This Thanksgiving let’s remember Paul’s words to believers in the church at Philippi: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Happy Thanksgiving! Amen!