When I preach at church or make posts on social media, I don’t expect violent, physical attacks from those who disagree with me.

Sadly that is not the case in other parts of the world, where people risk their lives when they meet for church and when they say they worship Jesus.

Today more than 350 million Christians live under serious persecution for their faith, which makes Christianity the world’s most persecuted religion.

In the West, we usually don’t get physically attacked for saying we follow Jesus, but nonetheless the persecution of Christians is getting stronger and stronger.

Even though 44% of Aussies associated with Christianity in the last census, our faith is far from mainstream.

Yet, Jesus told his followers that this is what we should expect.

Speaking to his closest friends on the night before he died, he said:

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.” (John 15:18-19)

Jesus’ words clash with society, now more than ever, which means that those who love his words should expect to be hated by the world.

So, if you want to follow Jesus, then it’s harder than ever to sit on the fence.

If you follow Jesus, you’ll be hated by the world… so make your choice.

But the good news is that after Jesus returned to heaven, he sent his Holy Spirit to be an advocate for his followers, and to help his followers speak powerfully about Jesus.

That’s why our church wants everyone to know about Jesus, even if it’s unpopular.

Because the reason the world wants to silence Jesus is because he’s got something very important to say.

JODIE McNEILL

Each year our Parish Council gives prayerful consideration to our needs and opportunities as it sets the budget for the coming year, setting the target for giving necessary for our expenses.

This year we decided to increase our target by only enough to cover increases in costs from inflation, but in January we realised that we were really struggling to meet this amount.

So, we prayed that God would supply our needs.

We know that the Lord is intimately involved with every aspect of life, so we asked him to provide for our church so we could keep telling each person in the village, valley and region how to follow Jesus and why it matters.

Then, after weeks of prayer, our Parish Council asked each of us to consider an increase in our regular giving, or even the possibility of a special, one-off gift that could pay back our hall renovation loan, and reduce the repayments by $325 a week.

We prayed… and the Lord answered!

Giving has increased by at least $350 a week… and we’ve received a gift of $25,000 to cancel the loan and its repayments!

I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was… because even though I knew that the Lord hears and answers our prayers, I was blown away by the wonderful way he has done this for us.

Yet, the greatest blessing has not been an increase in our giving, it’s been an increase in our faith!

I can personally vouch for how much this trial has lead me to depend more on God, and to delight in asking him boldly for the big things and the little things… so that he will receive the glory.

What a wonderful surprise to see afresh the kindness of God!

JODIE McNEILL