{"id":9595,"date":"2016-08-17T00:48:54","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T05:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/commitmentpersecution-following-christ-current-conditions-shallowness\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T00:48:54","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T05:48:54","slug":"commitmentpersecution-following-christ-current-conditions-shallowness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/commitmentpersecution-following-christ-current-conditions-shallowness\/","title":{"rendered":"COMMITMENT;\nPERSECUTION; FOLLOWING CHRIST; CURRENT CONDITIONS: SHALLOWNESS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>In the Book of Acts faith was for each believer a beginning, not an end; it was a journey, not a bed in which to lie while waiting for the day of our Lord\u2019s triumph. Believing was not a once-done act; it was more than an act, it was an attitude of heart and mind which inspired and enabled the believer to take up his cross and follow the Lamb whithersoever He went.\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Those first believers turned to Christ with the full understanding that they were espousing an unpopular cause that could cost them everything. They knew they would henceforth be members of a hated minority group with life and liberty always in jeopardy.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>This is no idle flourish. Shortly after Pentecost some were jailed, many lost all their earthly goods, a few were slain outright and hundreds \u201cscattered abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>They could have escaped all this by the simple expedient of denying their faith and turning back to the world; but this they steadfastly refused to do.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Seen thus in comparison with each other, is the Christianity of American evangelicalism today the same as that of the first century? I wonder. But again, I think I know.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Luke 9:23\u201325; John 15:18\u201321; Acts 4:3; Acts 5:18, 41\u201342; Acts 7:58; Acts 8:3\u20134<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'><i>Born After Midnight,<\/i> 16, 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Book of Acts faith was for each believer a beginning, not an end; it was a journey, not a bed in which to lie while waiting for the day of our Lord\u2019s triumph. Believing was not a once-done act; it was more than an act, it was an attitude of heart and mind &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/commitmentpersecution-following-christ-current-conditions-shallowness\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;COMMITMENT;<br \/>\nPERSECUTION; FOLLOWING CHRIST; CURRENT CONDITIONS: SHALLOWNESS&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}