by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But, what about our faith here? Do we believe in Jesus so strongly and with such loyal love for Him that we would rather die than renounce Him? Some today have so little faith in Jesus that they will not attend His church as He commands (Hebrews 10:24-25), much less face persecution for Him. That is because many do not truly know Him well enough to love Him deeply. Paul knew Him, and that caused him to love Jesus above everything else that had value in his life (Philippians 3:3-12). This led him to believe that Jesus must be glorified “whether by life or by death<\/em>” (Philippians 1:20-23).<\/p>\n Knowing Jesus is key to the value we place upon Him. To know Him is to love Him above all else, even if it costs us our temporary life in the flesh. Let us reflect on what we have in our hearts, what we lack, and what we need to do about it.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 strongly and with such loyal…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,572],"class_list":["post-87952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-faith","tag-persecution"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":87170,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-your-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":87952,"position":0},"title":"Is it Your Faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton It is one thing to try to fit in a circle of friends who profess faith, and so you jump on the bandwagon with them, but it is another thing to get to know Jesus and put your trust in Him when it may cost you\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":68821,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-case-of-the-philippian-jailor\/","url_meta":{"origin":87952,"position":1},"title":"The Case of the Philippian Jailor","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton He wanted to know, \"What shall I do to be saved?\" (Acts 16:30). The simple answer: \"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ\u2026and you will be saved\" (Acts 16:31). The details of why believe in Jesus, what to believe about Jesus, and how to express faith in\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":34180,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-should-prayer-be-done-at-a-wedding-when-the-in-laws-are-muslims\/","url_meta":{"origin":87952,"position":2},"title":"How should prayer be done at a wedding when the in-laws are Muslims?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have a friend in our Bible study group whose son is getting married to a gal who converted to the Christian faith a couple of years ago and has been immersed, but her family is Muslim (except one brother). The couple, both in their early 30s, chose\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":96198,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/encouraging-one-another\/","url_meta":{"origin":87952,"position":3},"title":"Encouraging One Another","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong We begin I Thessalonians 5 with a reminder that we are living with the foundation of God's great gift to us and the hope that we have in Jesus. Having warned these young in the faith disciples of the trouble and persecution they would face because of\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":48719,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-more-than-faith-required\/","url_meta":{"origin":87952,"position":4},"title":"Why is more than faith required?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm a bit confused about what Jesus is saying about how one gets to heaven. In John 3:16 he says that we just need to believe in God and we will be saved. And that there is no judgment for those who believe in Jesus. Yet, in Mathew 7:21\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":93624,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-jesus-marveled-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":87952,"position":5},"title":"When Jesus Marveled (Baggett)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Michael R. Baggett There are many occasions when individuals and crowds marveled at the gracious words and mighty miracles of Jesus. Did you know there were times when Jesus marveled at individuals and groups? There were ways people behaved that caused Jesus to observe with wonder. On one occasion,\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87952","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=87952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}