Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 61

March 2;      Matthew 11:12;       11/260(IV);        ‘The Violent’

Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

Christians are not weak.  If any verse conveys this truth it is this one.  Many of those who oppose the Lord Jesus have violently attacked and even killed Christians.  Religion is almost always the primary enemy.  The Apostle Paul, then religious Saul was on a mission to destroy the church.  As you read the Gospels underline the number of times the religious Jewish leaders wanted to kill or destroy Jesus.  What is so wonderful about this verse is that Christians must have a violent response to what demonically inspired people would do to them.  Violent can also be translated strong.  Christians are strong.  It takes an incredibly strong individual to return love for hate.  Maturity in Christianity is love.  It is hard to love someone when your mind is telling you to verbally rebuke another.  When we do return love for hate, good for evil, it makes an incredible impression on people.  The Bible teaches that love never fails, it always impacts others.  Christians can and should be strong against the devil and what he does to others.  If you know who you are in Jesus Christ, the authority He gave you, without raising your voice you can demand that the devil release you or someone else from sickness or oppression of some type.  No, Christians are not weak.  Historically, the more Christians are persecuted the faster Christianity grows.  Hebrews talks about believers who had everything taken from them and they kept right on without ‘missing a beat.’  We have Jesus and He is everything to us.  Take your best shot devil, we get stronger.