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Why Do They Hate Us? - Part One Matthew 5:10-16 "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.
"Not only that-count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable.

You can be glad when that happens-give a cheer, even!-for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.
"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.
"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.
If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand.
Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand-shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. " - From "The Message" Bible by Eugene Peterson

It's tough to be a Christian today. We live in a country, where 85 percent of the people "claim" to be Christian, and the other 15 percent hate us, along with about 50 percent of those who call themselves Christians.

Just check out this google search if you want to see what the rest of the world thinks about us.
http://www.google.com/searc h?hl=en&lr=&q=%22stupid+christ ians%22

I will go into why they hate us, but the first thing to note is that it's to be expected. in fact, Jesus promised that we would be persecuted.

I am NOT saying that what the American church is going through is persecution.. that would trivialize the sufferings and the glory of Christians in the rest of the world.
http://www.persecution.c om/

But what I am saying is this.. we're not popular.
Maybe if we evaluate this, we'll learn how to deal with the anti-Christian bias in culture, but how to be Christians that make sense, and Christians that show love, and Christians that don't get lumped in with all the other "stupid christians." Why Do They Hate Us? - We Don't Understand Them. That's actually pretty important.

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