The crowds poured into and out of church yesterday morning. People were dressed in their finest, kids all looked great in new outfits and bright colors. The weather was absolutely beautiful and even the gnats were not too bad.
The message was good, the music uplifting. It was a good Sunday to worship the Risen Christ and the life that He gives to those who believe.
The contrast was striking with the news out of Kenya of the massacre of the 147 college age Christians by Islamic militants in the north of that country.
I tried to imagine what the parents of the killed and the other students who knew them at that university were dealing with on this same Sunday.
We get in the habit of thinking that all Christians, no matter their home country or area, are all in the same boat, and in some ways we are because of what we believe. But in so many places around our world, Christians are being singled out and persecuted for their faith.
Persecution in those places is not just a degrading remark or a hard look, but physical harm and death.
How would the American church fare in these kinds of attacks? How many of those people who only come on Easter and maybe Christmas would show up for services if a threat of death hovered over just getting out of the car to go inside? How about even those of us who show up every week?
Jesus told his followers that as the world had persecuted Him, so they would be also.
God, give us the strength that we read about in those lands overseas. May we be steadfast and true when and if it comes to us.
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