We are in the midst of 4 Connection Pointe teams going out between Feb 20 – Apr 20
- India
- Turkey
- Roseland (Ms Pearl)
- Kenya
All of these places have significant challenges of poverty, with several having the added test of persecution because of being a Christian. But have you heard of the test of prosperity? A Romanian pastor, Dr. Paul Negrut, compared the pass rate of Christians for the tests of prosperity and persecution:
In my experience, 95% of the believers who faced the test of external persecution passed it, while 95% of those who now face the test of prosperity fail it. It is not persecution itself but the lessons learned under persecution that make and keep the church and an individual believer strong in the Lord…. What makes the difference is how we respond to persecution and how we respond to freedom.
All environments have their tests and challenges for Christian living. For those of us who enjoy prosperous lives, do we pass the test of how we handle our prosperity? Do we pass the test of how we handle our freedoms?
Til next week,
This is a very good thought, a very good challenge, Dan. One of my favorite quotes attributed to Mother Teresa is “We don’t know that Jesus is all we need until He is all we have.”
Many of the people with whom I’ve met this past week and a half in Kenya and Uganda have a minute fraction of what we have in the US yet they have real joy in Jesus.