Sound Doctrine Church

If we do not want to come under the curse, whose terrible consequences will be revealed in eternity, we have to renounce all softness, all laziness in our lives; we have to declare war on it. Jesus’ cutting words, “Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14: 33) also applies to our work for Jesus. If we cannot give up our demands for comfort, for much free time and rest, for better pay, they will make it impossible for us to use our time and energy for Jesus. If a soldier were laden with many items for his personal comfort, he could never go to war. Nor can we ever become soldiers for Jesus Christ, or true disciples, if we do this. And quite aside from this, softness and laziness open the door to many other sins which really make us unfit for service.

This battle of faith against softness is more important than ever before, because we are now approaching “hard times”, times when we will be persecuted for His name’s sake. Now we must conquer all softness and laziness in the power of Jesus’ redemption, so that they will not be our downfall in the hour of temptation. It was not by chance that Peter changed from disciple to betrayer while he was warming himself by the fire.

–Basilia Schlink

A recent raid by Muslims on a Christian worship service near the capital city of Kampala, Uganda – where several members were injured and their building was damaged – is prompting concern among missions agencies that a new and more violent form of Islam is taking root in the region. The attack, carried out by a 40-member mob wielding machetes and clubs, surprised many in a nation where conflicts between Christians and Muslims have not reached the level of other nations. Most of Uganda’s Muslims are in the northern part of the country in the Bunyoro province. It’s in those regions where most of the persecution takes place. “When Muslims become a majority even in one part of a country where Christians are the majority, they become very vocal, extremist and radicalized,” said Jonathan Racho of International Christian Concern.

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If we have received Christ himself in our inmost hearts, our new life will manifest its intimate acquaintance with him by a walk of faith in him. Walking implies action. Our religion is not to be confined to our closet; we must carry out into practical effect that which we believe. If a man walks in Christ, then he so acts as Christ would act; for Christ being in him, his hope, his love, his joy, his life, he is the reflex of the image of Jesus; and men say of that man, “He is like his Master; he lives like Jesus Christ.”

Walking signifies progress. “So walk ye in him;” proceed from grace to grace, run forward until you reach the uttermost degree of knowledge that a man can attain concerning our Beloved. Walking implies continuance. There must be a perpetual abiding in Christ. How many Christians think that in the morning and evening they ought to come into the company of Jesus, and may then give their hearts to the world all the day: but this is poor living; we should always be with him, treading in his steps and doing his will.

Walking also implies habit. When we speak of a man’s walk and conversation, we mean his habits, the constant tenor of his life. Now, if we sometimes enjoy Christ, and then forget him; sometimes call him ours, and anon lose our hold, that is not a habit; we do not walk in him. We must keep to him, cling to him, never let him go, but live and have our being in him. “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him;” persevere in the same way in which ye have begun, and, as at the first Christ Jesus was the trust of your faith, the source of your life, the principle of your action, and the joy of your spirit, so let him be the same till life’s end; the same when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and enter into the joy and the rest which remain for the people of God. O Holy Spirit, enable us to obey this heavenly precept.

–Charles H. Spurgeon

On August 9 two Christian women appeared before an Iranian judge who asked them to deny their faith and return to Islam. Maryam Rostampour, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, 30, have been held in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran since March 5. When both women refused to recant their faith, the judge sent them back to their prison cells “to think about it”. “When they said, ‘Think about it,’ it means you are going back to jail,” said the source, according to Compass. “This is something we say in Iran. It means: ‘Since you’re not sorry, you’ll stay in jail for a long time, and maybe you’ll change your mind.” They share a cell with over 20 other women and both have deteriorating health. Marzieh suffers from spinal pain, an infected tooth and intense headaches and is especially in need of medical attention, which has not been provided.

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If God’s purpose with the perfection of the individual believer, with the appointment of His Church as the body of Christ to carry on His work of winning back a rebellious world to His allegiance and love is to be carried out, working for God must have much greater prominence given to it as the true glory of our Christian calling. Every believer must be taught that, as work is the only perfect manifestation, and therefore the perfection of life in God and throughout the world, so our work is to be our highest glory. Shall it be so in our lives?

If this is to come, we must remember two things. The one is that it can only come by beginning to work. Those who have not had their attention specially directed to it cannot realise how great the temptation is to make work a matter of thought and prayer and purpose, without its really being done. It is easier to bear than to think, easier to think than to speak, easier to speak than to act. We may listen and accept and admire God’s will, and in our prayer profess our willingness to do,—and yet not actually do. Let us, with such measure of grace as we have, and much prayer for more, take up our calling as God’s working men, and do good hard work for Him. Doing is the best teacher. If you want to know how to do a thing, begin and do it.

Then you will feel the need of the second thing I wish to mention, and be made capable of understanding it,—that there is sufficient grace in Christ for all the work you have to do. You will see with ever-increasing gladness how He the Head works all in you the member, and how work for God may become your closest and fullest fellowship with Christ, your highest participation in the power of His risen and glorified life.

–Andrew Murray

Egyptian State Security arrested a Christian in the village of Deir Samalout, Samalout, Minia province, for praying “without a license.” He was held in prison for two days before being released on “compassionate grounds.” Maurice Salama Sharkawy, 37 years old, had invited Pastor Elia Shafik, to pray for his sick father, who had suffered a stroke. State Security broke into his house while the prayers were ongoing, handcuffed Maurice, put him into a police car and took him to a police station for interrogation. Youssef Sidhom, editor-in-chief of the Coptic Watani newspaper said. “They terrorize worshippers who dare conduct services outside a licensed church, treating them as law violators, despite the fact that the root problem lies in the authorities’ reluctance to permit the erection of new churches or restore existing ones.”

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Brother Lawrence saw death draw near without perturbation, his patience had been great indeed through all his life, but it waxed stronger ever as he approached the end. He was never in the least fretful, when he was most wracked with pain; joy was manifest not only on his countenance, but still more in his speech, so much so in fact that those who visited him were constrained to ask whether he was not suffering. “Forgive me,” he replied. “Yes, I do suffer, the pains in by side sore trouble me, but my spirit is happy and well content.”

They added, “Suppose God will that you suffer for ten years, what then?”

“I would suffer.” he answered, “not for ten years only, but till the day of judgment, if it be God’s will; and I would hope that he would continue to aid me with His grace to bear it joyfully.”

His one desire was that he might suffer something for the love of God, for all his sins, and finding in his last illness a favorable occasion for suffering in this life, he embraced it heartily. Purposely he bade the brethren to turn him on to his right side; he knew that this position gave him great pain, and therefore wished to remain therein to satisfy his burning desire to suffer. A brother, who was watching at his bed, wished to relieve him in some measure; but twice he answered, “I thank you, my dear brother, but I beg of you to let me bear just a little for the love of God.” Often the hour of pain he would cry out with fervor, “My God I worship Thee in my infirmities. Now, now, I shall have something to bear for Thee–good, be it so, may I suffer and die with Thee.” Then he would repeat those verses of the fifty-first Psalm, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Cast me not away from Thy Presence. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.”

–Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

Pastor Paasu Ninama a 35-year-old resident of Pipal Kutta village said he was on his way back from his regular Sunday service in Malphalia at 4 p.m. when six men sitting outside a house invited him in for a glass of water. When he saw a picture of Jesus Christ in the house, he knew they had set a trap for him. “I immediately turned to escape when they all jumped on me and started to beat me, accusing me of luring people to convert,” he said. They beat him unconscious and chewed off part of his ear, after fainting from the pain the attackers started pelting the unconscious pastor with stones until villagers intervened. No stranger to persecution Paasu has been attacked and threatened many times for his work as a pastor. Pastor Ninama said he works as a day laborer in farm fields to sustain his wife and six children, and that he would continue to do the work of the Lord.

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