UNASHAMED OF CHRIST Acts 5:29-33 “Peter and the other apostles replied: ‘We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead – whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Saviour that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.’ When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death.”
DON’S COMMENTS : To be a Christian during first century Roman rule was very dangerous. To be a preacher or openly share the Gospel was even more dangerous. To do so would guarantee you would be jailed and likely a short life and painful death. Christ’s disciples enduring such a death:
1. Simon Peter was crucified in Rome during reign of the tyrant Nero. He asked to be crucified upside down since he believed he was unworthy of dying the same way Christ died.
2. Andrew was scourged and tied to a cross (not nailed) but remained there 2 days til he died.
3. James (son of Zebedee) was beheaded along with his accuser who was converted after seeing James’ courage.
4. Philip became a missionary to Asia and Egypt and was eventually scourged and jailed and crucified there in 54AD.
5. Bartholomew preached in several countries, including India and translated the gospel of Matthew for believers there. Stories conflict but he was either skinned alive and beheaded or crucified there.
6. Thomas preached in Greece and India and killed with a spear.
7. Matthew was a missionary to Ethiopia where he was stabbed in the back and died at the hand of a swordsman sent by King Hertacus, after criticizing the king’s morals.
8. James (son of Alphaeus) was elected to head the churches in Jerusalem and was beaten and stoned to death at age 94 by persecutors.
9. Thaddaeus was crucified at Edessa (name given to cities between Turkey and Greece) in 72AD.
10. Simon the Canaanite (Zealot) preached in Mauritania on west coast of Africa and then in England where he was crucified in 74AD.
11. John was the only disciple who died peacefully on Patmos of old age about 100AD.
12. Judas Iscariot hanged himself (Mtt.27:3-6) from remorse of betraying Christ.
Even though Christians faced horrible persecution and suffering during the first 250 years of Christianity, the number of believers grew from a thousand or maybe a few more, at time of Christ’s crucifixion to 1 million by 100 AD and 3 million by 300 AD when Constantine was converted ushered in Christianity as official religion of the Roman Empire.
So why did so many accept Christ during that time at their own peril and peril of their families? Because the Gospel was hope and truth and believers showed a level of courage and joy and hope that overshadowed the consequences. The way Christians loved and cared for each other, forgave those who persecuted them, and courage they showed when facing suffering and death proved the message they preached and believed was real and true. Nothing offered such hope and meaning and level of courage that Christians demonstrated and preached. The moral lives they lived showed a transformation not attainable or sustained any other way. No other faith or religion preached nor exemplified such love and forgiveness and transformation.
If the early Christians could demonstrate such courage and boldness preaching the Gospel of Christ in an atmosphere of severe persecution and death, then can we be able to too? Yet the early churches were a mix of faithful and marginal Christians.
Well, persecution came in various degrees depending on location and passion with which the Gospel was preached (and threat those preaching it posed to the authorities in each community). This variation is evident in the description of each of the 7 churches described in Revelation 2-3 (below):
1. Ephesus demonstrated strong faith and discernment but lost the capacity for Christian love.
2. Smyrna suffered great persecution but remained faithful.
3. Pergemos didn’t forsake the faith except in tolerating pagan worship in their midst, which weakened and divided them.
4. Thyatira was strong in doing good works but tolerated a false prophetess in their midst who pulled many believers from their midst.
5. Sardis had a few faithful Christians who were warned to stay diligent and watchful, but were weak due to influence of the weak in their midst.
6. Philadelphia was a faithful church doing good works and living the Gospel they preached. They were given the assurance God would be faithful and give them courage and strength during times of trial and hardship.
7. Laodicea, however, was a lukewarm church that was spared persecution so had little motivation or passion to remain faithful. They didn’t deny nor spread the Gospel. This church was chastised the worst and warned that continuing their indifference would bring judgment from God.
Well, people haven’t really changed, so churches haven’t either. Is your / my congregation like the Laodiceans or those in Thyatira, or like those in Smyrna or Philadelphia? Which describes you and me? Will we remain faithful if or when persecution comes our way or will we give up our faith in order to get along and avoid conflict and persecution? Persecution does force us to decide, but persecution historically provided the fastest and most effective way of filling Christians with courage and inspiration by filling them with Holy Spirit. Their numbers and the message they shared had a level of authenticity and power that transformed them and all who knew them. There seems to be no other way or short cut to that level of maturity and obedience and effectiveness.
Well, if we are going to end well in our Christian walk at life’s end and make an eternal difference in the lives of our family and friends and neighbors and church and beyond, than you and I need to decide what we believe, the battles we will fight and issues we will not compromise. What we must be careful is to make those choices based on scripture and leading of the Holy Spirit, like the disciples did, and not by our own feelings and thoughts nor by level of consequence those choices will demand.
I do believe we are living in the last days and even in the United States we will see an increase in level of persecution and intolerance towards the gospel and those who believe and follow it’s teachings. Joshua instructed the Israelites, after crossing Jordan to decide, and I believe Christ is asking us to decide too while we can. Joshua 24:15 “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Published by donsdevotions
Don McDaniel - Who am I?
Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever.
Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me.
I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private.
However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool.
Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry.
He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 .
I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine.
I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward.
Don & Arlene McDaniel
In His Service,
Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ )
You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials. View all posts by donsdevotions
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