It’s bad enough to face opposition from ordinary people, but what happens when your own governing authorities disagree with you? The stakes can be quite high for disobedience in those cases. That’s where Nicole and Sharon find the apostles in the early church, today. Join them for a discussion about how to handle opposition when you are doing what is right and still getting in trouble for it!

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Speaker 1:

It is time for a pause in your day. Welcome to a podcast where we press the pause button on our busy lives for a few moments, and we focus on God’s word with Sharon and Nicole. We pray this is a time of refreshing for you. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries.

Nicole:

Welcome to Sweet Selah Moments. This is episode 134, Facing Opposition. We are moving in our study of the Book of Acts from the earliest days when the Holy Spirit first indwelled believers to the beginning of persecution. Sharon, it seems like there has always been opposition and persecution for Christians.

Sharon:

Yes, there has. And you know what? It’s the strangest thing ’cause what did Jesus teach? He taught us to love. What is so scary about that? He calls us to come to him, that we might have life abundant. He forgives sins and cleanses people. He promises eternal life. We are even told to be nice to our enemies as Christians. So it puzzles me, Nicole, until I remember that the enemy, Satan, is as real as God is. The only explanation that makes sense to me considering Jesus’ teachings are so kind and so non-threatening, is that people throughout this century have been angry at peaceful Christians. So angry they wanna hurt them, is that the devil is at work in their hearts. There’s a battle raging.

Nicole:
Oh, there is.

Sharon:
And Satan does not want people to get clothed with immortality and live in heaven in a happy place.

Nicole:

No, he doesn’t. Well, he hates Jesus. He’s trying to be him. And he wants to get as many of us to follow him as possible. (Sharon: Yeah) I get get the Voice of the Martyr emails daily, and it’s always so staggering to me to see the persecution around the world. (Yes) And to see how powerful it’s happening and how big it’s happening, and how many people are affected by it ’cause we don’t, we don’t always see that here (We don’t) In the states.

Sharon:

I can remember communicating with a missionary in a restricted country and I could not use words like pray or God (Nicole: Wow) or Jesus or Bible. I could say, I talked to my dad about you. (Oh) And that was my way of saying, I’ve been praying for you. (Right) But she actually got kicked out because somebody was careless. (Oh, that’s so scary) And her phone was being tapped, and it’s a wonder she didn’t get imprisoned. (Yeah) You know? So, boy, oh boy, there’s persecution today, but here at the very beginning of the early church, there was persecution then. (Yeah) So, and I think it is absolutely related to the enemy. So we’re gonna look at what Paul has to say about the enemy and his tactics in a very familiar passage. E...