Those Having Been Persecuted

Sometimes we can claim we’re being persecuted, when I’m reality it’s not persecution at all.

Following Jesus puts love at the centre of everything we do. When we love as Jesus does, and refuse to take a side, we are risking being hated by both sides.

The love of Jesus includes. There is no “them”

Really, at the base of it, is the core conviction that the love of God, as we understand it, can tell a story, as we believe it, as it is told in the life of Jesus, is to me one of the most beautiful, profound, hopeful, scary, subversive and transformative ways that I could ever imagine living.

Jeremy Courtney, Preemptive Love

The StatisticsLink to this section

In the last year…

260,000,000 Christians live in places where they receive high levels of persecution.
2,983 Christians were killed for their faith.
9,488 churches have been attacked.
3,711 believers have been detained without trial, have been arrested or sentenced.

Top 5 most difficult countries to be a Christian

North Korea
Afghanistan
Libya
Somalia
Pakistan

People are often unreasonable, irrational and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
What you spend years creating others can destroy overnight. Create anyway.
The good you do today will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
The final analysis is between you and God. It was never between you and them.

Mother Teresa

Useful linksLink to this section

Preemptive Love
“We risk our lives for peace. We don’t wait for those in need to come to us. We go to them, serving on the frontlines of some of the world’s worst conflicts.”