Some of you may have heard of the recent "Equality" Act passed by Congress last week. You can look it up for yourself here and read the text, but I'll summarize it briefly for you below.
This is the stated purpose of the Act
To prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes.
Basically, this is what the Act will do
Schools and churches will become public accommodations and be forced to accept government mandates on sexual orientation, which means someone could be fined, imprisoned, or lose their job for using the wrong pronoun, not hiring an LGBTQ person because of their sexual orientation, or speaking the truth from the Bible. Christian ministries will be forced to hire LGBTQ people.
Boys will be allowed in girls’ sports AND locker rooms, men in women’s shelters, and men in women’s prisons. Schools will be encouraged or mandated to instruct first, second, and third graders that they can choose to be a boy or a girl, or neither, or both.
Doctors and nurses will be forced to preform Transition operations and therapies regardless of their personal beliefs.
The Government could deny accreditation to Christian schools and universities
MaryLu here: Eventually, this will make the Bible and all Christian books outlawed. Already Amazon is pulling books that go against Transgenders. As an author, I see the writing on the wall that someday in the near future, many Christian books will be taken off of Amazon and other websites.
This "Equality" Act needs to pass the Senate now before it becomes law and it quite possibly will fail there (Please pray!) But I foresee that America is not far from passing something like this in the near future.
Why am I telling you this? One, for you to pray! and Two, I believe persecution is coming to American Christians like we've never experienced before. The church in America has become fat and lazy. We have enjoyed our freedoms and conferences and potlucks for too long without really having to suffer at all.
Like many of you, I'm hoping for the Rapture to come soon! I still believe very much that it could be this year! But will we see some persecution beforehand? Please do not discount that. Christians in other countries have been persecuted for many years now.
Over 300 Christian girls were recently kidnapped in Nigeria by militants.
A pastor in Canada is currently imprisoned for speaking out against the Covid restrictions.
But this is mild compared to the hundreds and maybe thousands of Christians currently imprisoned or in labor camps in the Middle East, Africa, China and North Korea. I've even heard that some are being crucified. Yes, crucified.
Why do we think we will escape this? And yet, I have to wonder, would it be a bad thing? I recently learned this from Pastor J.D. Farag in his weekly Bible Prophecy Update. Before the current Communist Chinese Regime took over China there were roughly 1 million Christians in China. Now, years after the communists have taken over and have been eradicating churches and Christians, guess how many Christians there are now? I would have said very few. But there are an estimated 100 Million in China now!
Persecution always always creates converts. Always. You would think the opposite, wouldn't you? Here are my thoughts on the reasons.
Persecution gets rid of false, hypocritical or lukewarm Christians who turn people away from the Lord. When trouble hits, these are the first people to leave the church.
Persecution increases the faith of true Christians and produces more signs and miraculous wonders of God that normally wouldn't be needed or seen. This, of course, draws in more people.
The lost world is looking for something real, something to believe and cling to. When they see the love and faith of people who are being intensely persecuted, they can't help but be drawn in.
So, I ask you. When persecution hits, how will you react? When they come for your Bibles or come to throw you in prison. When your livelihood is taken away and you have no food or water, when they threaten to take your kids away, what will you do?
I'm not trying to scare anyone and I certainly hope we are gone before things get this bad, but you need to think about it now and make up your mind what you will do. How much do you believe in Jesus? How much do you love Him? How strong is your faith?
When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were about to be tossed into the fiery furnace if they didn't worship the statue, did they cower and obey?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18
When Paul and Silas had been beaten and tossed in prison, uncertain of their future, were they begging for their lives or were they singing praises to Jesus? So much so that people in the prison, including the jailer got saved!
When Stephen was being stoned to death, did he retract his belief in Jesus and give into their demands, or did he ask the Lord to forgive them of their sins?
When Paul knew that if he went to Jerusalem he would be put in chains and taken to Rome where he would die, did he run the other way?
The only way you're going to be able to face persecution is IF
- You know the Word of God
- You love Jesus more than you love this world
- You believe in eternity and that nothing they do to you here can compare with the glory you will receive forever.
So, set your mind on these things. Pray against evil, but be prepared for whatever is coming. Remember, nothing, and I mean NOTHING compares to the eternity God has prepared for those who love Him. Nothing! And the Lord will not allow you to suffer more than you can handle. In addition, we must all remember Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Oh boy that is something else. They aren't even trying to hide their agenda anymore. Thanks for sharing this Marylu and providing the scripture references to remind us we are apart from the world. Pam
ReplyDeleteMaryLu, I just read your book, When Angels Cry, and it was very timely for me as I have been absorbing the Scriptures, many of them in your book. I read it on my electronic device but then ordered the hardcopy as I thought of many whom I want to share it with. Very good book and I hope you do another one like this before the time is up. What a great way to share this time period. I also copied your 3/21 message to include with the book. Thank you very very much.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It blesses me a great deal to know the book helped you and also got you into the Scriptures. :-) I'm so glad you plan on using it as a witnessing tool. It was my goal when writing it that it would spread far and wide and wake people up to the times in which we are living so they can get right with God. I'm just now starting on the sequel, but it will take me awhile. I don't know if I will have enough time before either we are gone or they stop allowing Christian books to be sold. God knows. And He is in control! Blessings!
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