I recently read polling data gathered by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. I wonder if it will shock you as much as it shocked me: Only 3 percent of Americans associate the word "pain" or the word "suffering" with Jesus. Here's another one that you might find even more shocking: Only 10 percent of Americans associate the word "crucified" with Jesus. Despite these poll results, around eighty percent of Americans say they are Christian. What do you think of that? Before I tell you what I think, let's listen to Jesus’ words to His followers and then a statement from Paul:

Everyone will hate you because of me. Many will give up their faith at that time; they will betray one another and hate one another…Such will be the spread of evil that many people's love will grow cold. (Matt. 24:9,10,12)

Everyone who wants to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus will be persecuted. (2 Tim. 3:12)

American Christians have very little experience with the kind of persecution and suffering that Jesus talks about in today’s passage from Matthew. It’s no wonder that only three percent of Americans associate pain and suffering with Jesus, they just don’t see many Christians experiencing persecution and imprisonment! I wonder what that percentage might be among people in Syria or China or Somalia. In those countries it can be very costly to publicly identify with Christ. To understand what persecution is like in many countries, take a long look at the Voice of the Martyrs website.  Still, in spite of the lack of persecution, many American Christians do not publicly identify with Jesus.

How about you? When was the last time you made it clear, to someone you don’t know well, that you are committed to following Jesus? There's lots of bad news all around us, but as believers in Jesus, you and I have something to share about God’s goodness to everyone around us. So today, let’s tell someone the Good News!