Persecuted for Christ

 1 Pet. 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

I don’t claim to be anything other than a Christian, and in my walk with the Lord I have been persecuted, shunned, blind sided, tormented and teased. Why would you be persecuted, some might ask? Well let me tell you.

Pss 119:161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.

When I was about fourteen years old, I claimed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and all that that entailed. I had went to Catholic school eight years of my life, and it was the Catholic religion who introduced me to Christ, Mary, Abraham and the Laws, but also as a child I yearned for more. Since my own family was dysfunctionally wrapped in alcohol and drugs, I knew there had to be more out in this world, so I sought.

I entered a Christian school and that is when I became a ‘born again’ Christian. I came home so excited to share the news with my family, to share with them that I had found JESUS! And that He washed my soul and cleansed my spirit! Sadly, as my voice echoed through the house, the news fell on deaf ears. “What is that school doing to you, brainwashing you?” Taunted, teased.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

The Catholic church had earlier denied me the confirmation ‘rite’ because they said I didn’t grasp the Holy Spirit, so I was denied confirmation by the Catholic church, but not by God himself.  I had failed to tell a priest my sins, and I told Sr. Margaret Mary that no man had the power within him to forgive me of my sins. She smiled and said, I think you understand the Holy Spirit just fine. She allowed me to attend the confirmation of my classmates, but to sit on the balcony overlooking the service. Through the service and prayer, God Himself confirmed me, and as tears dripped from the balcony to Sr. Margaret Mary’s hand as they proceeded out of the church, I knew, I had been touched by God.

Pss. 143:3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.

I didn’t hold anything against the Catholic church, and surely didn’t allow the situation to shape my walk with Christ. I wanted more of what I had been touched with, and that is when I converted to Christianity, at fourteen. My family didn’t accept my faith, they just shrugged it off as another one of Joni’s phases. It was a phase that to this day, I have not gotten over and never will, not even until the day I meet my maker in the glorious doorway that He has opened for me.  To this day I am still washed with His grace.

John 15: 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

No one understood, that when I became born again, my fleshly person died and I became an earthly creature of the spirit. I abhorred earthly things like materialism, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness and all those negative things that tried to control my life.

John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

That is also when Satan decided to circle me and dangle temptations in my face like a pacifier to an infant, a young child who knew no better than what my family had shown me. I dove into drugs and alcohol, until one day, as I lay in my own vomit after dying and being breathed back into existence, by an ‘unknown-to-you-but-known-to-me’ FORCE, I charged ahead as a Christian soldier, spitting in Satan and all his minions faces!

Gal. 4: 29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

On the day I was saved it did not make me a non-sinner, it made me AWARE of my sins, when I sinned, I CHOSE to sin. But as a FOLLOWER of Christ, I CHOOSE not to walk in the way of sin also. Christ was showing me a better way of life; I absorbed His love like a plant clipping placed in water, I drank, quenched my thirst, and grew with Him. Satan was angered by my closeness to Christ!

Gal 2:17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

I have been sober for almost 25 years now. And CHOOSE not to be a follower of men and Satan and his temptations but a LEADER in the community for Christ!

I leave you with this:

Jas. 8:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
 
1 The. 5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
 
1 Pet. 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: