7.3- There are times that persecution comes to us as followers.

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 7.3-

There are times that persecution comes to us as followers.  It is not a sign of failure or of the absence of closeness to God.  Jesus teaches that people who hate instead of love don't know God.  We know that God is love.  To be filled with God is to be filled with love.  To be inside of God is to be inside of love.  Love is what we breathe in and out in our service every day.  Love is what Jesus did and what we do on a good day.  We must be sure that we don't give people any reason to hate us.

God sends a helper to help us to speak words that allow those near us to know that we are living in love regardless of what the surrounding world may do.  If they hate. We love.  If they love we love.  If they are apathetic we keep our passion for God and people. 

John 15.

18 “If the world hates you, [h]you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have [i]sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 The one who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have [j]sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. 25 But this has happened so that the word that is written in their Law will be fulfilled: ‘They hated Me for no reason.’

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