025206 Finding God in the Mystery of every day.
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1 Peter 4:3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, [having pursued a course of indecent behavior, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and wanton idolatries. 4 In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excesses of [debauchery, and they slander you; 5 but they will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
Going the way of Jesus is almost always costly. Simply turning toward Him and beginning to walk that way you become a target. The ones closest to you will often be your first enemy. In the love of Jesus we are challenged to love them even in the hottest moments of their hatred. Eventually the whole spectrum of the culture in which we live will declare you an outcast, and become your enemies. Vilified, mocked, scorned in every way James tells us to “consider it pure joy when [we] face trials of every kind” (James 1:2)
Consider if you will the fate of two early martyrs of the faith, Perpetua, and Felicity. They were arrested, imprisoned, beaten and eventually condemned to be torn apart by wild animals in the arena under the ruling of Septimius Severus a third century emperor of Rome. The women were among several others who while accepting Christ had not yet been baptized. They were considered tp be “catechumens” meaning ones being instructed in the faith. Their martyrdom was a “birthday gift” to the emperor.
…more to come
Larry M Lawrence- Mysteries 