Privilege of Persecution

This past week some of us from True North got the privilege to go on a mission's trip to Mexico! This was my first mission's trip so I was stoked, but at the same time I didnt really know what to expect. I mean, I knew that a majority of the population weren't very wealthy; however, what I saw made my heart break. I know you may hear many people say it, but going down there was such a humbling experience for me, especially after getting the opportunity to play with the kids at the orphanage we were staying at. They didnt have families like we do, let alone many of things that we have, and yet they were still so full of joy! It made me think how ridicuously selfish I can be sometimes when I ask for things and dont even need them, and I just prayed that God would forgive me for being so self centered.

Philippians 2:3-5 - "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ."

What a convicting verse! We need to always be thinking of others interests before our own, and Christ above all!

A message that really stood out to me while on the trip was called "Supremacy of God in Missions Through Suffering." We've been given the gift of salvation and we've also been given the gift to suffer for the name of Christ!

Philippians 1:29-30 - "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have."

He kept pouring out verse after verse saying that if you are a follower of Christ, you WILL suffer, and you WILL be persecuted. Not only that, but it is a PRIVILEGE to suffer for God's name sake.

2 Timothy 3:12 - "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

These verses really opened my eyes and made me realize that it just doesnt matter what people think of us here on earth; it only matters what our Father thinks of us and how we are spreading His name here while we still can and grabbing hold of every single opportunity that we can to get His name out to the lost.

My prayer is that all of us who went on this mission's trip will keep up the same energy we had to share Christ that we had in Mexico, and spreading His Word wherever we go; we dont have to be on a mission's trip just to tell others what Christ did for all of us!

"People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? ...Away with the word in such a view and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege."

David Livingstone (1813-1873) Scottish missionary to Africa