Renewed

   When anyone comes to faith in Christ that person is often accused of becoming "religious" and sometimes `fanatic`! Many of that person's family and long~time friends don't understand what has happened and they respond from
fear and anger. For them, their friend has been pulled into some cult or
scam~religion that cares about nothing except their money! While this does
happen on far too many occasions, it isn't the norm for those who have experienced a `true` conversion.

   From this point I would like to make my thoughts clear and plain. Christianity
is not a religion, in the strictest sense of the word! No, it is more a relationship
with the historical and proclaimed `man~God`, Jesus Christ!  In a singular
definition the word "Christian" means, "Christ~follower" or "little Christ's". It
identifies a convert with his redeemer, Jesus THE Christ!

   At the beginning of my own testimony of becoming a Christian, I can
remember taunts of being `religious` coming against me and some of my
friends accused me of turning my back on them and suddenly adopting
a "goody too shoes" (not sure of the spelling there) attitude.  They were angry
and hurt by my change and, really, I could understand their feelings. When
you grow up with someone, you think you know all about them and all of a
sudden, without warning, they change! It's a difficult situation for some to
accept.

   Today, Christianity is the most persecuted of all religions! That's a fact in
the majority of the world!  While other religions suffer little or no persecution,
Christianity is condemned throughout the middle~east, Asia and Europe with
very harsh attacks even against women and children! Most of these cruel
attacks come from the hands of the terrorist group, Isis or Isil. Their visious
onslaught to wipe out all Christians and Jews is at an all time high today!

   We should not be surprised by this persecution. however, because Jesus himself warned us about it during his ministry here on the earth. If you are a believer in the "good book", the bible, you can clearly see that God has
forewarned us of what was to come in the `last days`. Among many strange and unusual events there will be a great increase in religious~persecution! It's
happening right in front of us and there are no signs of it slowing down or
subsiding any time soon. We must be prepared and watchful!

   While this news may not be encouraging, we can hold our heads high and
have the attitude of joy and gratitude, however. The way we do it is by sharing our faith and treating others with the respect, love and compassion that Jesus did to each and every person in his short life! The persecutors may be able to
take our life but they can never take our joy! That fact will go much farther
than taking up arms against our enemies, though that is sometimes needed!

   So today, we can walk through life with the "joy that passes all understanding"
and remember what it means to be called a Christian. The one we serve is
the best example anywhere of a true hero and a true man! They may hate him
but he loves them and wants them in his family. It's up to us to be the `little
Christ's` that we are called to be and give them the `good news` that they
don't even know about yet. It's all about Jesus!

   Today could be our last chance to tell them.


Jeff Pendleton

7/14/16