{"id":658,"date":"2014-09-16T14:56:18","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T19:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/focuspressblog.com\/?p=658"},"modified":"2014-09-16T14:56:18","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T19:56:18","slug":"were-forgetting-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2014\/09\/16\/were-forgetting-something\/","title":{"rendered":"We&#8217;re Forgetting Something"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Turn on the news and you\u2019re bound to hear something absolutely terrifying. The fear of another new war is being discussed every day. The potential for the Ebola virus to spread worldwide has many carefully monitoring the spread of the disease. More local threats like the loss of free speech against homosexuality and the continuing decline of godliness in America leave us wondering where everything is going. But, amid all of this, it seems we\u2019re forgetting a few things.<br \/>\nEach of these leads us to worry in some way. We worry about the safety of our families and friends. We worry about our health. We worry about our rights, and we worry that if we speak up for God we might be labeled as hateful or bigoted and become shunned by those around us. This constant worry for our physical comfort and apprehension of evangelizing in a perverse generation are exactly the opposite of what Christians should have in their lives. What makes the Christian special isn\u2019t the ability to operate in times of comfort and ease. Anyone can do that. Instead, we must remember that by the blood of Christ we\u2019ve been given the confidence to stand up in times of turmoil and show the world that we are unafraid of the worst they can do to us. Here are three points that every Christian should remember in the midst of such troubling times.<br \/>\n<strong>1. We\u2019re forgetting that we\u2019re not of this world<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen we worry about the physical threats to our health and safety in the world, we ignore Jesus\u2019 exhortation in Matthew 6 that we should not worry about the things of this world. We also fail to follow the model Paul left when, writing from prison, he remarked that for him, \u201cTo live is Christ but to die is gain\u201d (Philippians 1:21). The worst this world can do to us is kill us \u2013 thereby sending us to spend eternity with our Father in heaven! We should walk in confidence knowing that if we live we shine His light and if we die we enter into our reward.<br \/>\n<strong>2. We\u2019re forgetting that Jesus said the world would hate us<\/strong><br \/>\nJesus left His followers with the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8), knowing full well that He was sending them into a world that would imprison them, beat them, and kill them. In fact, He warned them that such would happen while He was still alive. \u201cIf you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you\u201d (John 15:19). The world hated Jesus. The world put Him to death. He didn\u2019t back down. Just because our government or those around us want to silence Christians who preach against the sins of our generation doesn\u2019t mean we should back down or be crippled by fear.<br \/>\n<strong>3. We\u2019re forgetting that He\u2019s already won the battle<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen we worry about what\u2019s going to happen to us in this world we forget one of the most comforting passages in the entire Bible. In 1 John 5, John reminds His readers that the battle is already over. We don\u2019t need to worry about the outcome. \u201cAnd this is the victory that has overcome the world \u2013 our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes Jesus is the Son of God?\u201d (1 John 5:4b-5). When we worry we lose that faith that has already overcome the world. We know Him who is in control of it all. Why worry?<br \/>\nInstead of getting so caught up in the negativity of everything going on around us, let\u2019s purpose to remind people of those good things that will always be with us \u2013 God\u2019s love and patience toward us. Don\u2019t get me wrong, we need to be in tune with what\u2019s going on in the world around us and we need to act accordingly, but with all of our worry we deny that we have a God we can trust. Everybody worries, but a Christian who shows the world they aren\u2019t scared anymore because they have their eyes fixed on Jesus is the kind of light the world needs.<br \/>\n<strong>By Jack Wilkie<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Turn on the news and you\u2019re bound to hear something absolutely terrifying. The fear of another new war is being discussed every day. The potential for the Ebola virus to spread worldwide has many carefully monitoring the spread of the disease. More local threats like the loss of free speech against homosexuality and the continuing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,59],"tags":[322,323,324,265,251,23,24,166,178],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-christian-living","tag-1-john-54","tag-anxiety","tag-fear","tag-heaven","tag-islam","tag-jack","tag-jesus","tag-war","tag-worry","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>We&#039;re Forgetting Something - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2014\/09\/16\/were-forgetting-something\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We&#039;re Forgetting Something - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Turn on the news and you\u2019re bound to hear something absolutely terrifying. 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