Matthew 11:12 (AMP)
12 And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize—a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].
“Kingdom of heaven is not for the well-meaning but for the desperate,” that no one drifts into the Kingdom, that the Kingdom only opens its doors to those who are prepared to make as great an effort to get into it as men do when they storm a city.
“Always my Kingdom will suffer violence; always savage men will try to break it up, and snatch it away and destroy it;
- and therefore only the man who is desperately in earnest,
- only the man in whom the violence of devotion matches and defeats the violence of persecution will in the end enter into it.”
It may well be that this saying of Jesus was originally at one and the same time a warning of violence to come and a challenge to produce a devotion which would be even stronger than the violence.
Matthew 5:11-12 (NKJV)
11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is
In Norway Jan(Yan) said he really admired the Americans because the Europeans had stopped fighting a long time ago and have just given into humanism, homosexualism, evolutionism and immoralism. But the US Christians are still fighting.
Sarah and I were standing in front of the great Collusium of Rome where Christians were thought to be fed to the lions and wild animals in early Christian days. History reports they were lighted as human torches tied to poles as Nero used them to light the way of the Roman Roads. We witnessed the gay parade in celebration of Gay Pride Day and celebration of Supreme Court legalizing Same sex marriage. With nudity and drunkenness and open sexual expression on the street, the Holy Spirit spoke to me…it is the same today as it was back then. America is following same road as ancient Rome.
Are you fighting today for the Kingdom, for your Christ, standing for His word, passionately seeking Him, repenting of the worldliness in your life and in the church, asking God to give you a fresh fire for Jesus, a passion fpr souls and hatred for worldliness and godlessness, or are you just being content with being a good person and responsible politically correct individual and contributing to the collective behavioral common welfare of all?
Kingdom of Heaven Suffers violence (persecution) but the More violent passionate for Christ take by force by fighting, by standing, by praying and fasting by not compromising
By being faithful to Jesus, to His word and to His Church ( people)
I have made a determination to fight and to be passionate for Christ. To have a holy hatred for sin and not be a friend with the World but to be a friend of God!
Story of Alesund, Norway
Matthew 5:13-20 (NKJV)
13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.