How Can Christians Bond Together In These Difficult Times?

In these final days of the “Age of Grace” there are some things that Christians can do to become a closely knit universal spiritual family.

1. Families need to come together. Settle relational disputes. Deal with and forgive hurts, and move on. In light of difficult times ahead and religious persecution, to what extent does some of this really matter?

2. Dump prosperity theology teaching, and don’t always pray to be “blessed.” If your neighbor next door is suffering persecution, how much difference does it truly make how nice of a car or how big of a house you have? Creflo Dollar should take his multi-million dollar jet airplane and fly to Iran to visit Pastor Saeed.

3. If any Christians think that everything is fine and dandy, and going about their daily activities like nothing is happening, they need to come out of denial and get out of their comfort zone.

4. Our churches should consider arming their people for spiritual warfare and how to withstand difficult times. This can happen through a focus on prayer and Bible teaching.

5. There must be continual praise and worship. The secular world can see that Christians are not deterred by world events and troubling times. As praise and worship experiences are held in our local churches, how much thought is given to those around the world who don’t have the pleasure of meeting together with other brothers and sisters in the Lord. Instead they are in a lonely prison cell. Maybe time should be taken from “traditional worship services” to just have prayer sessions. Pray for persecuted believers. Pray for strength to endure the difficult times we may face until the rapture occurs, because we don’t know on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad things will get.

6. Be prepared, if you have the financial means, to assist others in need, especially Christians who have lost their sources of income because of their beliefs, like the fire chief in Atlanta, the military chaplains who have been relieved of duty, and the flower shop and bakery owners who have had their businesses shut down, to name just a few examples.

7. Encourage one another with the words of I Thessalonians 4:16-18. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

8. Think about being changed from mortal to immortal in the twinkling of an eye, as expressed in I Corinthians 15:52-53. What a thought!

9. We must bond together to live holy lives, because we soon “shall see Him as He is.” Every person who has “this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure”(I John 3:2-3).

What can you do to begin bonding with other believers, locally or in other parts of the world, in these difficult days?