Christian Minister: Trials and Persecutions of

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. …

…the LORD had already spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and the sandals from your feet.” And Isaiah did so, walking around naked and barefoot.

Then the LORD said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush,

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, …

When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.”

There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words, …

Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. …

Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.

Truly, truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. …

For it seems to me that God has displayed us apostles at the end of the procession, like prisoners appointed for death. We have become a spectacle to the whole world, to angels as well as to men. …

Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities; …

For when we arrived in Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were pressed from every direction—conflicts on the outside, fears within.

Are they servants of Christ? (I am speaking as if I were out of my mind.) I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death. …

…or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. …

You know that it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.

And although my illness was a trial to you, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus Himself.

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles...

So I ask you not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.