September 29, 2016 (Thursday)
Some who read this blog today can remember the television commercials for Times watches that featured John Cameron Swazey. The watches would be put through all sorts of punishment and afterwards retrieved by Swazey who would say, as he held up a watch for us to see, “takes a lickin’ but keeps on tickin'”
The Apostle Paul took a lickin’ but kept on tickin.’ He said, “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (Galatians 6:17 NIV). He told the Corinthian Christians about his sufferings: “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:24-28 NIV).
Mass Crucifixions on the Appian Way in Ancient Rome
Courage and bravery characterized thousands of the early Christians in times of persecution. They laid the foundation upon which we are privileged to build. Are the churches we build today worthy of the foundation laid by the Christians through the centuries who have shed their blood for the gospel?