Today we see another side of the persecution the church faced. In this part of the church's life there was not the kind of structured and consistent persecution that happened later. At this point there was occasional persecution, but mostly, the Empire hadn't figured out what to do with the church. In this case James (Son of Zebadee) is executed and Peter put in jail. As often, God uses even persecution to share love. Today we see the same thing; in areas where the church is persecuted, people grow in faithfulness. Reading about the church's persecution then is a good reminder for us to pray for the persecuted church today.
God bless,
Sam
Acts
12:1-5
About
that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. 2He
had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. 3After he saw
that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (This was during
the festival of Unleavened Bread.) 4When he had seized him, he put
him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him,
intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. 5While
Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.
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