Not Ashamed

I was reading in my Bible this morning from Acts 5. I encourage everybody to read through the book of Acts. What a powerful book that tells of God's awesome power and moving of the Holy Spirit in the First Church. In Acts 5 we read about how Peter and some other apostles were brought before the Pharisee's to try to stop the apostles from preaching the name of Jesus. The apostles response was simple, "We would rather obey God than man." Knowing that the Pharisee's couldn't kill the apostles at the time because of the support they had, they instead whipped them and ordered them out. I love what chapter 5:41 says, "The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name." Wow! Did you get that? They were rejoicing after being whipped. What about us? Do we rejoice when we have to suffer for the name of Jesus? Many of us will never be whipped or beaten because of our faith, but often we whine when we suffer just a little bit of persecution from maybe our peers or co-workers. Let us take the attitude of the apostles and rejoice when we suffer persecution because of the name of Jesus. Jesus suffered for us while He was on the cross. He took our sins and nailed them once and for all. Let us not be ashamed of who we are and who's name we carry with us not matter what others may say.