“Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me . . . You can be glad when that happens. Jump for joy . . . for your reward is great in Heaven . . . you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.” (Luke 6:22, 23 The Message/ New King James Version)

Can we possibly understand “persecution” for God’s sake, in Canada? If you haven’t felt the sting of persecution, perhaps you should consider the following:
Toreadors attract bulls by waving capes
Rodeo cowboys distract bulls by costume and antic
Killdeers “attract” predators with “broken wing” acts
Christians “attract” persecution by ?  (Please complete.)

Have you felt the sting of rejection and persecution because of your positive life-witness for Christ? If you have, jump for joy for your reward in heaven is great! If you haven’t . . . how will you live TODAY?

“If I ask to be delivered from trial rather than for deliverance out of it, to the praise of His glory; if I forget that the way of the Cross leads to the Cross and not to a bank of flowers; if I regulate my life on these lines, or even unconsciously my thinking, so that I am surprised when the way is rough and think it strange, though the word is Think it NOT strange; Count it all Joy, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”
                                                                                                          Amy Charmichael,  IF,  Zondervan Corp., 1980