no shame

But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name! 1 Peter 4:16 NLT

We don't enjoy being singled out and ridiculed by the media or any type of bully. It is embarrassing. If it is ungrounded then we know we can stand and lift our head high. If there is a seed of truth in their criticisms then we can learn from them and change our ways.

The biggest criticism comes about money and power and of course sexual behaviour. We are expected not to love money or power and definitely not to abuse through sexual misconduct. Anything other than these do not hold too much power and are not weighted as the others are. 

The attacks against the church we are seeing in China are persecution, the removal of crosses, the pulling down of churches, even the jailing of believers.

There is a huge difference between persecution and criticism even though they come from the same place, the pit. We have an enemy who hates all we represent. We can survive criticism, it finely tunes us. Persecution marks us as God's saints, as we endure we topple the powers that come against us. Amen!

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