Let There Be Peace in the People of God

Do people see a person at peace or one who is fearful when they see you?

There are certain things I have great difficulty imagining. I can't imagine a believer being tortured by communists for years straight in the most cruel and unimaginable ways and them only ever having a prayer or blessing on their lips for them.

I can't imagine having to face the choice that some believers have had to face. I'm mindful of a Romanian believer whose son was being tortured in front of him and threatened with his son's death if he would not deny Christ. They BOTH died when the son told him, "Don't do it father!"

I can't imagine the inner feelings of the reality that a pride of starving lions are about to be released because you are Nero's scapegoat as a Christian. Many of the Christians who died did so with songs and prayers of praise.

And the world can't imagine a person looking straight into the eyes of a disease with peace and serenity in their eyes and their demeanor. Is that what they are seeing in each of us?

Let's be responsible and prepare for the good or the bad. But remember that there have been Christians stand firmly and with strength against far worse than we are facing. If we remember God in the midst of all of this we are in the midst of how can we not overcome our struggles with peace in our hearts?

"Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground." Hebrews 11:35-38 by John Fields