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As we pray with persecuted Christians, we often think of how we are helping them, but the truth is, we need them just as much. Their courage deepens our faith.

This connection across the global Church is mutual. That’s why we pray with our brothers and sisters rather than only for them. Their perseverance calls us to stand more boldly for Christ where we live.

Prayer is not passive. It is participation. When we pray, we link arms with believers across cultures and continents as one family in Christ.

While our enemy is real, the power of prayer is greater. Prayer strengthens those who persevere under pressure, and it equips us to stand with them.

Seven daily prayers for the persecuted church (from Spirit of Martyrdom International):

Unity – Pray for oneness in their witness so the Gospel shines with clarity and power.

Boldness – Pray for courage to share the truth without fear or compromise.

Authority – Pray they will walk confidently in the authority they have in Christ.

Faith – Lift up their trust in God as they endure hardship and persecution.

Provision – Pray for clear vision and for God’s provision as they make disciples.

Comfort – Ask for peace and strength for those imprisoned or separated from loved ones.

Love – Pray that their love will deepen for God, His people, and even for their enemies.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:19-20

Jesus’ final words to His disciples have come to be known as the Great Commission. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” has become a central rallying cry for missionaries from the early church to the present day. Being part of missions and spreading the gospel message allows us to bring change around the world and be changed ourselves. As we enter the Christmas Advent season, we celebrate Christ’s birth and the gospel message we are called to share; here at MCC, our attention turns towards supporting the missional work of Operation Christmas Child.

Taking part in Operation Christmas Child (OCC) is a great way to get involved in missions at MCC and partner with churches around the world to spread the good news of Christ. With OCC, you and your family can prayerfully gift a Christmas-themed shoebox filled with toys and necessities for a child. In 2024, churches around the world helped to send more than 11.9 million shoebox gifts to children in need. Each shoebox not only represents a gift of toys and necessities to a child, but something even more precious: the opportunity to share the love of God.

At the outreach events where the shoe boxes are delivered, local pastors and believers have the privilege to share the gospel with shoebox recipients and their families. These pastors and believers are trained by volunteers in the National Leadership Team on how to present the Gospel in a child-friendly way. After the event, children are invited back to take part in a 12-week discipleship program called the Greatest Journey. In the Greatest Journey, children learn more about the Bible, God, and how to share their faith with family and friends. Since 2009, 46 million recipients have participated in The Greatest Journey, and 23 million boys and girls have made professions of faith, changing not only their lives but the lives of their families as well.

Lives aren’t only changed around the world, but here at home as well, through end-to-end transformation. We encourage as you prepare your own shoebox, to be in prayer for the child that receives the box. Reflect on the Gospel message and the wonderful gift of Christ as you shop. Talk with your family about missions and how to reach the people around you with the good news of the gospel. There will be resources to help with prayer and discussion at the OCC table in the lobby. Feel free to contact Brittany Wendland with any questions or if you want more details on being involved with Operation Christmas Child. 

Bring change and be changed this Christmas season with Operation Christmas Child!

Can a mere human like me really rejoice in God while battling anxiety? Or do I have to wait for the dust to settle on my circumstances before trying to uncover joy again?

I probably don’t have to tell you about the current plague of anxiety in our society. Jonathan Haidt calls children born after 1995 “the anxious generation.” He cites reports showing anxiety levels doubling in recent decades, especially among 18-to-25-year-olds. Depression has climbed a similar path. Most concerning, suicides have spread like a dark and poisonous cloud. Nearly twice as many young men took their own lives in 2020 than in 2010; among young women, the number rose 167 percent. I have two young sons and a daughter, and their little faces make those otherwise clinical percentages dreadfully, fearfully human. What if my girl was one of those numbers? That thought alone threatens to add me to the hyper-anxious.

But this article is not mainly about the 18.2 percent (and climbing) of adults reporting moderate to severe levels of anxiety. This article is about you and your anxieties. When you lie in your bed at night, with all your hopes and hurts and unknowns, what worries wage war on your heart and rob you of joy? Could it be possible — truly, unexpectedly possible — to rejoice in God while battling the fears that sometimes plague you and me?

Not About Anything?

As I think back on the anxieties that have crept onto my pillow, even just over the last couple of years — health trouble, house trouble, work trouble, financial trouble, family trouble, and more — they’re not happy moments for me. They’re difficult moments, painful moments, can’t-this-just-be-over moments. I don’t associate them with rejoicing, at least not at first.

When I remember going to war with those worries, though, I think almost immediately of two verses that have been a sword and shield on my battlefield. In Philippians 4:6–7, the apostle Paul writes,

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

It’s a startling command and promise: Don’t be anxious about anything. Depend on God through prayer, and you’ll experience the peace of God in everything. That’s not exaggeration or naivete; that’s a God-wrought, God-breathed promise. Put your particular fear into the verse — “Do not be anxious about [blank]” — and it wouldn’t change what Paul said.

When the apostle says “anything,” he means anything. For those who know and love Christ, there is nothing in your health, your house, your life that God can’t cover with real heartfelt peace. But not only peace.

Rejoice in the Lord Always

Just two verses before Paul addresses anxiety and promises this mind-blowing peace, the apostle says something even more stunning:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. . . . Do not be anxious about anything. (Philippians 4:4–6)

Don’t be anxious about anything. Rejoice in the Lord always. This God not only holds out peace in every uncertain circumstance, but with that peace, he holds out joy — an always joy. Can you bear to believe that? Do you believe that the God of infinite strength and worth is able not only to still the raging storms in your mind but also to place a blazing lantern of joy in the darkness of your boat? Do you believe that the God who daily caters for 120 million cardinals and tailors the brilliant petals of billions of tulips might be able to find and satisfy you in this valley?

“One way God proves his glory in the universe is by holding and satisfying his people through terrible uncertainties.”

You probably know someone who has survived horrible uncertainty with surprising joy. Who’s been one of those joy-in-anxiety miracles in your life? When you think of him or her, you likely don’t see the bright, lighthearted face we often picture when we think of joy. No, joy in the valley of uncertainty is often a heavier, more serious kind of gladness. It’s not the joy of a five-year-old learning to ride a bike (I love that joy too). It’s more, I imagine, like the joy of a soldier finally getting the upper hand in a fierce battle, with his closest friends at his shoulder.

There’s a joy buried in every season of uncertainty, even on battlefields. That’s why Paul can say, “Rejoice in the Lord always” — and then repeat himself: “again I will say, rejoice.”

Even in Anxiety

So, is joy possible in anxiety? Is your anxiety beyond the scope of God’s “always”? One way God proves his glory in the universe is by holding and satisfying his people through terrible uncertainties. And there’s no uncertainty too great for him — not even yours.

We need to remember that Paul wrote these verses from the shadows of prison — and he knew he might not make it out this time (Philippians 1:20). His worry was death. When he wrote, “Do not be anxious about anything” and “Rejoice always,” he wasn’t printing pithy Christianese slogans from a place of comfort and security. If any of us has reasons to be anxious, he had more.

And yet right there — in the injustice of prison, in the hostility of persecution, at the very doorstep of death — he could rejoice because he always had more reasons to rejoice than he had to worry. He could say, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

If he could rejoice even then, can’t you rejoice even now?

DesiringGod. When Anxiety Clouds Reality. Marshall Segal. September 3, 2025.

Marshall Segal https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/when-anxiety-clouds-reality

This is a continuation of the article from last week where the first 4 differences were given...

Ask a serious Protestant today what is the biggest threat to orthodox Christianity today, and he might mention cultural hostilities, the sexual revolution, or nominalism in our churches. But if you would have asked a Protestant the same question a hundred years ago, he would have almost certainly mentioned the Roman Catholic Church. Until fairly recently, Protestants and Catholics in this country were, if not enemies, then certainly players on opposing teams.

Mary

According to Catholic doctrine, Mary is not only the Mother of Christ, but the Mother of the church. She was conceived without original sin (the immaculate conception) and at the end of her earthly life “was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things” (assumption). She intercedes for the church, “continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation,” and is “a mother to us in the order of grace.”

Mary was more than just the faith-filled mother of Jesus: “The Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”

Purgatory

Catholics also teach that those who die in God’s grace, but still imperfectly purified, are assured of eternal life, but must first undergo purification in purgatory. Because of the presence of this intermediate state, the Catholic Church has developed the practice of prayer for the dead. “The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.”

Concerning the salvation of those who do not hear the gospel, the Catholic Catechism is committed to inclusivism: “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation.”

Merit

It is not really fair to say “Catholics teach that you can earn your salvation.” That may be what many Catholics believe, but the official teaching of Rome is more nuanced, though still a long way off from the Reformation understanding sola gratia. The Catechism summarizes: “Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life.”

Justification

Catholic teaching rejects the Protestant doctrine of imputed righteousness. The question is this: is the righteousness whereby we are forgiven and made right with God a righteousness working in us or a righteousness reckoned to our account? Catholics say the former, Protestants the latter. According to Catholic teaching, justification is more than God’s declaration of our righteousness based on Christ’s work, it is also a renewal of the inner man and reconciliation with God. Of course, these are good things too, but Catholics make them present in and through justification, rather than by faith alone.

The Council of Trent, from the 16th century Catholic counter-reformation, declares: “If anyone says, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of grace and charity that is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favor of God: let him be anathema.” While individual Protestants and Catholics may work to find common ground on justification, the official teaching of the Roman Church is still opposed to any notion of an imputed righteousness through faith alone.

Conclusion

Should Catholics and Protestants treat each other decently and with respect? Of course. Will we labor side by side on important moral and social matters? Quite often. Can we find born-again Christians worshiping in Catholic churches? I’m sure. But are the disagreements between Protestants and Catholics, therefore, negligible? Hardly. The differences still exist, and they still matter.

Sanctify us by your truth, O Lord; your word is truth.

This article was originally published in 2017 and was updated in 2025.

ClearlyReformed. 8 Key Differences Between Catholics and Protestants. May 12, 2025. Kevin DeYoung

https://clearlyreformed.org/8-key-differences-between-catholics-and-protestants/

Ask a serious Protestant today what is the biggest threat to orthodox Christianity today, and he might mention cultural hostilities, the sexual revolution, or nominalism in our churches. But if you would have asked a Protestant the same question a hundred years ago, he would have almost certainly mentioned the Roman Catholic Church. Until fairly recently, Protestants and Catholics in this country were, if not enemies, then certainly players on opposing teams.

Today, much of that animosity has melted away. And to a large extent, the thaw between Protestants and Catholics has been a good thing. Sincere Protestants and Catholics often find themselves to be co-belligerents, defending the unborn, upholding traditional marriage, and standing up for religious liberty. And in an age that discounts doctrine, evangelical Protestants often share more in common theologically with a devout Roman Catholic steeped in historic orthodoxy than they do with liberal members of their own denominations. I personally have benefited over the years from Catholic authors like G. K. Chesterton, Richard John Neuhaus, and Robert George.

And yet, theological differences between Protestants and Catholics are still wide and in places very deep. It’s important to be conversant with some of the main issues that legitimately divide us, lest we think all the theological hills have been laid low and all the dogmatic valleys made into a plain.

Below are a few of the main points that still separate Catholics and Protestants. Of course, many Roman Catholics may not believe (or even know) what their formal theology states. But by seeking to understand official church documents we can get a good idea of what Catholics are supposed to believe and see how these differ from traditional Protestant beliefs (unless otherwise noted, quotations are from the Catechism of the Catholic Church).

The Church

Since Vatican II, the Catholic Church has softened its stance toward Protestants, calling them “estranged brothers.” Nevertheless, to be a part of the church in its fullness one must be immersed in the Roman Catholic system of sacraments, orders, and under the authority of the Pope. “Fully incorporated into the society of the Church are those who . . . are joined in the visible structure of the Church of Christ, who rules here through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops.”

Further, the Pope is considered infallible when he speaks ex cathedra (from the chair); that is, when he makes official doctrinal pronouncements.

The Catholic Church also has seven sacraments instead of two—Eucharist (or Lord’s Supper) and baptism like Protestants, and then penance, holy orders, marriage, confirmation, and last rites.

Scripture

Catholics have a larger biblical canon. In addition to the 66 books in the Protestant Bible, Catholic Bibles include the Apocrypha, with books like Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccebees, Sirach, and Baruch. Catholic teaching also elevates tradition more than Protestants do. Granted, many evangelicals suffer from ignoring tradition and the wisdom of the past. But Catholic theology goes beyond just respecting the past; it sacralizes it. “Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence,” the Catechism states.

Likewise, the Magisterium has the authority to make definitive interpretations. “The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living, teaching, office of the Church alone . . . to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.” The issue of authority continues to be the biggest practical divide between Protestants and Catholics.

Lord’s Supper

Central to the Catholic faith is the Mass (their worship service), and central to the Mass is the celebration of the Eucharist. Catholics believe that bread and wine are transubstantiated into the actual, physical body and blood of Jesus Christ.

The elements are offered as a sacrifice from the church and a sacrifice of Jesus Christ’s work on the cross. This is not simply a remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice, but the same atoning work: “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice . . . the sacrifice [of the Eucharist] is truly propitiatory.”

Baptism

Catholics teach that “justification is conferred in Baptism.” The waters of baptism wash away original sin and join us with Christ. Baptism is not merely a sign and seal of grace, but actually confers saving grace.

* * *

Come back next week for the rest of the article. 

ClearlyReformed. 8 Key Differences Between Catholics and Protestants. May 12, 2025. Kevin DeYoung

https://clearlyreformed.org/8-key-differences-between-catholics-and-protestants/