the seed of the church

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Exodus 2:11-3:22. The Egyptians, under Pharaoh, are treating the Hebrews terribly. But the more they oppress them, the more the Hebrews flourish. We see this pattern throughout all of history since that time. The Jewish people, which come from the Hebrews, are persecuted time and again throughout time, but no one can ever get rid of them completely, even as hard as the Nazis tried. The Russian government also tried to destroy them in the 1800's. But these attempts only caused the nation of Israel to spread throughout the world.

This is true because God blessed that nation and called them His people. And Christianity came from that source. Today, all over the world people are killing Christians. They are forcing Christians to register with bar codes in China and participate in censuses. In Africa, thousands of Christians join the ranks of the martyrs as multiple genocides are taking place. But try as the world might, it can't stamp out the church. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, as Tertullian said so eloquently.

Let's pray for those Jewish people and those Christians who are suffering throughout the world today. But let's also draw strength from remembering that God works through our suffering to bring His message of hope and healing to the world. And the gates of hell will not prevail against us.

God, thanks for working even through our suffering to save the world.