<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="mt+10:1-20">Matthew 10:1-20</span></span></p><p>We are saying that many Christians are ineffective witnesses because they attempt to water down their testimony to avoid persecution - and end up achieving nothing. Once we accept that those who reject Christ and His teaching will also reject us, we will then be free to throw our whole weight on the side of Christ and become fully identified with Him. In following this principle, however, we must be careful that our freedom from fear of rejection does not lead us to become objectionable. I know some Christians who have a hard time from their non-Christian acquaintances, not because of their likeness to Christ, but because of their tactlessness and lack of wisdom. I once met a man who told me he had convincing evidence that he was a true disciple of Christ. I was intrigued to know his reason for thinking this way, and in answer to my question "Why are you so sure?" he replied: "My neighbours won't talk to me and cross to the other side of the road when they see me coming. I take this persecution as proof that I am a true citizen of the kingdom." Some time later, I had occasion to talk to some of this man's neighbours, who told me that the reason they avoided him was because he continually accosted them with questions like "Do you know you are going to hell?" or "What if you were to drop dead at this moment - where would you spend eternity?" The neighbours thought it good policy to avoid him rather than to be faced continually with his belligerence. The man was suffering, not for Christ's sake, but for his own sake. </p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">O God my Father, I see how easy it is to bring suffering and persecution upon myself by my own tactlessness and folly. Help me to object without being objectionable and to disagree without being disagreeable. In Jesus' Name. Amen.</p><div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="2ti+3:1-13">2 Timothy 3:1-13</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="1co+13:3">1 Corinthians 13:3</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="re+2:10">Revelation 2:10</span></li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What is the result of living a godly life?</li><li>What is promised for faithfulness?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

"' be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." (v. 16, RSV)

<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="2ti+3:12-17">2 Timothy 3:12-17</span></span></p><p>We continue from where we left off yesterday in saying that persecution is one of the proofs that we are true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many Christians find great difficulty in coming to terms with this issue of persecution, and because they have never understood that those who reject Christ will also reject those who follow Christ, they become entangled in such things as conciliation and compromise. If you have never done so before, face the fact right now that when you identify yourself with Jesus Christ, the world will persecute you. The degree of persecution differs from one Christian to another, but in one way or another the world will react against you with hostility and contempt. Once you recognise this, you are nine-tenths of the way toward overcoming the fear which cripples so many Christians - the fear of witnessing. Not long after my conversion, an elderly Welsh miner gave me some advice that greatly helped to overcome my fear of rejection. He said: "Keep ever before you the fact that those who reject Christ will reject you. And the more like Christ you become, the more the world will resent you. Remember also that when they do reject you, it is not you personally whom they are against, but Christ who is alive and who is being seen in you." Never shall I forget the release that came through those wise words. Once I understood that becoming identified with Christ meant I was on a collision course with the world, I came to terms with the inevitability of this fact and was set free from fear. And what happened to me can happen to you - today. </p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">Lord Jesus Christ, I bring to You my fear of persecution and ask You to set me free from it right now. Help me to face the world's hostility in the knowledge that just as it could not overcome You, it cannot overcome me. Amen.</p><div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="joh+17:1-26">John 17:1-26</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="joh+15:20">John 15:20</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="joh+16:2">John 16:2</span></li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>How did the world respond to the first disciples?</li><li>What was Jesus' prayer?</li></ul></div></div>

"' everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." (v. 12)

<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="2ti+3:10-17">2 Timothy 3:10-17</span></span></p><p>The next aspect of Christian uniqueness we consider is the Holy Scriptures, which we call the Bible. Nearly every brand of religion is based on a book. Whether ancient or modern, mystical or historical, ceremonial or ethical, it is almost certain to follow the teaching of some allegedly sacred volume. The Hindus have their Vedas, the Muslims the Qur'an, and the Parsis their Zend Avesta. The Sikhs of India treat their sacred book, the Guru Granth Sahib, as though it were a person. They fan it in hot weather, offer it food, and put it to sleep under mosquito nets. Western religions have their books too, such as the Book of Mormon, Science and Health, and so on. Christianity too is based on a book, a holy book called the Bible. But the Bible is unique. Like the One about whom it speaks, it is in a category all by itself. It is unique because of its Author. Most people would agree that the most important thing about any book is not its title, its topic, its binding, its lettering, or its layout - but how well it is written, in other words its author. In reading and studying Holy Writ, that is the primary and pivotal question: Whose book is it? To that inquiry the Bible itself supplies the answer, as we see from our text today. God is its Author. With other books you have to understand the book in order to know the author. With the Bible you have to know the Author in order to understand the book. </p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">My Father and my God, what new light streams forth from the pages of the Bible since I have come to know You, the Author. The more I love You the more I love Your book, and the more I love Your book the more I love You. Blessed be Your Name forever. Amen.</p><div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="2pe+1:12-21">2 Peter 1:12-21</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="eze+1:3">Ezekiel 1:3</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="ac+1:16">Acts 1:16</span></li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What did Peter think it right to do?</li><li>Where did God's Word have its origin?</li></ul></div></div>

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness ..." (v. 16)

<p>I have come to “set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law… A man’s enemies will be those of his own household.” § Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. § Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.<br><br>If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. . . . “A servant is not greater than his master.” § I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.</p>

Daily Light on the Daily Path or Daily Light is a Christian daily devotional scripture reading published by Bagster & Sons about 1875. It has been reprinted continually since then. It consists of brief groupings of scripture passages which speak to prominent Biblical themes—two themes (morning and evening) for each day of the year. It appends no commentary, but simply allows scripture to speak for itself.

Evening Daily Light

 All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 

<p>By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report. § All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. § The offense of the cross.<br><br>If I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.<br><br>If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you … But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.<br><br>To you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. § If One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. § If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.</p>

 If anyone desires to come after Me,let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 

<p><span class="bible-text "> <sup class="verse-num ">12 </sup>In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,   </span></p>

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,<cr>1</cr> 

2 Timothy 3:12

 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,  

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

New International Version

 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

<p><span class="bible-text ">In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,   </span></p>

 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,  

Bible Verse of the Day

June 2, 2025

2 Timothy 3:12 NIV

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