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Not Ashamed -- The Story of Perpetua

This is the first of our three-part series on the theme of Not Ashamed for the Children's Corner of Grace News. In this first instalment, Rachel Wong shares with us the example of Perpetua and encourages us to rely on the Holy Spirit who gives us faith and courage in our hearts to stand firm and be joyful.

 

You may have heard about our church’s theme for 2017 – it is “Not Ashamed”. Not ashamed of what? The clothes you wear, your marks in school, what you said to your brother yesterday? No, we are not to be ashamed of the gospel, which is what Paul said in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes”. This is another way of saying that we should not be ashamed of Jesus or of being a Christian or of going to church every Sunday. Not only should we not be ashamed, we should be so happy about it that we cannot help showing it and telling everyone that we belong to God!

Not Ashamed Childrens Corner artwork webpage

Maybe that sounds a little scary, but it’s not something that we have to do on our own because it is the Holy Spirit who gives us faith and courage in our hearts. The Holy Spirit is like a charging cable that connects us to God, who is our source of energy and power. Just like a mobile phone, we need constant recharging, otherwise we would soon run out of faith and love and joy and all the things that the Holy Spirit gives us, and then we would certainly be ashamed of the gospel.

There are lots of real-life examples of people who believed in Jesus and refused to be ashamed of Him even when they were told they would be killed unless they gave up their faith. One of them was a young lady called Perpetua, who lived in North Africa a long time ago. She was about to be killed by wild animals for believing in Jesus, and her father, who was not a Christian, came to beg her to save her own life. All she had to do to save her life was to say that she was ashamed of Jesus and didn’t want to believe in Him any more. But the Holy Spirit gave her strength and she refused. She told her father: “Father, you see this pitcher [jug]. Can we call it by any other name than what it is?” Her father answered, “No”. Perpetua answered, “Nor can I call myself by any other name than that of Christian.” She was only 22 years old when she died.

You and I probably will not have to face such a terrible test to show that we are not ashamed of the gospel. But there are still times when we have to take a stand for Jesus. In our next Children’s Corner we will look at how to show we are not ashamed to glorify God in the things we say.


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Read the full issue of Grace News..

You can also follow our sermon series on Not Ashamed and watch videos of GBC members sharing how they have experienced the power of the gospel in their lives, and are not ashamed of the gospel.