CHRISTIANS STILL PERSECUTED

* Last year (July 2009), Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City was told that she would help a doctor perform an abortion or be fired. Even though the hospital knew it was against her Christian values.

* In September of 2009 at Pace (Florida) High School, Principal Frank Lay and athletic director Robert Freeman went on trial in federal district court for saying grace before their meals on School property. They were charged criminally for "flagrant first amendment violations."

* Rifqa Bary (August 2009) fled her home in New Albany, Ohio last year because her father (a Muslim from Sri Lanka) was going to kill her in what is known as an "Islamic honor killing" because she converted to Christianity. She was spared the death. But not so for two sisters in Dallas, Texas.

* Amina and Sarah Said of Dallas were killed in January 2008, by the father (an Egyptian born Muslim) in an Islamic honor killing because of their faith in Christ.

I could give you other illustrations but suffice it to say that the potential of suffering for Christ is a very real and present danger. It comes in many forms ... but it comes none-the-less. John's Revelation informs us that it is not only the price of genuine faith but that it comes with an incorruptible reward as well.

(From a sermon by Ken Pell, The Underside of Faith, 8/8/2010)