by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
In China, it is reported that if you do not renounce your faith in Jesus you will be tortured till you do. If that is so, I wonder how many of us would renounce Christ? In parts of Nigeria, you will be killed for believing in Jesus. In some states here, there is external pressure to not assemble, and there is mounting pressure to limit the content of teaching so as not to “offend” certain very immoral people or expose the “unfruitful works of darkness<\/em>” (Ephesians 5:11). Pressure is building to label these actions of love as “hate” instead of the love it takes to warn and appeal for people to repent so that they can be saved.<\/p>\n With all that has been happening, I hope that we are awake enough to see that the direction the world is moving and the fast rate of moral decline means that it might not be long until we are ordered not to assemble. They want us to think that it is for our good, but is it?<\/p>\n There are things that God commanded that must overrule the dictates of men. Peter said, “We ought to obey God rather than men!<\/em>” (Acts 5:29). This was when the local governing leaders commanded them not to teach in Jesus’ name anymore.\u00a0It was upsetting many people, who would not hear and face the truth. Likewise, teaching the truth today is upsetting some people. Truth has a way of doing that.<\/p>\n But think about a church that never meets. What is happening to that church? They are breaking down their commitment to each other to “build each other up in the most holy faith<\/em>.” Our passions of love for God and His people begin to smolder and die out. Put single coal in with other blazing coals and they keep each other going. But isolate each coal to themselves, and the fire goes out. The warmth of love dies, and the feeling of common brotherhood dies. We no longer “speak to one another in psalms. hymns, spiritual songs<\/em>” (Ephesians 5:19). We no longer share our common faith, hope, and love. We no longer confess Jesus to each other and keep His church edified in mutual togetherness. Our children now see the Lord’s church as optional, and not necessary or all-important. We are actually not doing what the Lord wants us to do and designed local churches to do.<\/p>\n At this level, we have already consented to the devil’s desire to have us. He sifts us as wheat and finds that we will easily give up confessing Jesus. All he lacks is a government mandate.<\/p>\n We must find ways to assemble and “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering” and “let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, nor forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some<\/em>.” (Hebrews 10:23-25). Don’t let the passion and enthusiasm for Jesus die within. God’s mandate is higher than human mandates and far more important. Let faith in Jesus raise you up into spiritual service. Don’t settle on weak or empty faith!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton In China, it is reported that if you do not renounce your faith in Jesus you will be tortured till you do. If that is so, I wonder how many of us would renounce Christ? In parts of Nigeria, you will be killed for believing in Jesus. In some states here,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[356,310],"class_list":["post-33955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-attendance","tag-government"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":87952,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-you-die-for-your-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":33955,"position":0},"title":"Would You Die for Your Faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton I keep hearing of people in other countries dying for their faith in Jesus at the hands of Muslims. It is so sad that this goes on without a government backlash against murderous Muslims. But, what about our faith here? Do we believe in Jesus so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69245,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-christians-assemble\/","url_meta":{"origin":33955,"position":1},"title":"Why Do Christians Assemble?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Question: \"Why do members of the church of Christ assemble together, and why do they assemble at various times?\" Answer: Members of the church of Christ assemble together because this is what is taught in the New Testament. And it is precisely what we find Christians\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85519,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-make-someone-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":33955,"position":2},"title":"How Do I Make Someone Change","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wilson Adams \"How do I make someone change?\" You won't like the answer. Are you ready? You can't. People change only when they're ready to. All the pushing, prodding, needling, and nagging will not bring change. Why? It's a fundamental law of human nature-you push, and they push back.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29457,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-tamar-renounce-judah-publically-or-privately\/","url_meta":{"origin":33955,"position":3},"title":"Did Tamar renounce Judah publically or privately?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about Genesis 38:24-27. When Tamar informed Judah that she was the harlot he went into at Timnah, did Tamar tell Judah privately, or was Judah publicly humiliated? In verses 24-25, it appears that Tamar was going to be burned in public for her harlotry. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32557,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-are-not-a-religious-non-denomination\/","url_meta":{"origin":33955,"position":4},"title":"We Are Not a Religious Non-Denomination","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Campbell Sentry Magazine, September 2001 \"Denominationalism\" denotes a group of people devoted to a specific religious belief system who assemble under the name of a person, or concept, as their focus within a formal organizational environment governed by those of prominence that hold to that belief system. They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86760,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/hunger-for-the-word\/","url_meta":{"origin":33955,"position":5},"title":"Hunger for the Word","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton In China, Christians have to find secret ways to meet, and some travel two hours to get to a private home to meet with other Christians. One female disciple asked, \"Why doesn't everybody in America go to church?\" She thought everyone who has such freedom to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}