Today I was refreshed and reminded of God’s grace within the women of Mars Hill, especially in the life of Jen Zug, who just made a wonderful post on the West Seattle blog.

Sometimes it is easy for me to tunnel-vision with my little world and see the problems I have to work through. It is so encouraging to look up and across the wider horizon - to spin around in a circle and gaze deeply into the past and future… because the grace of God is evident everywhere.

Take a minute to read Jen’s post. What about you? Can you give me a snapshot into your own life and how God has changed your heart in a specific area? You can leave a comment, or even better, email me and maybe I can post it to share with the other ladies and give us all another image of the glory of God.

Guess what? Remember Amy Knorr, interviewed here on the blog by Cambria?

She is the “point person” for women’s ministry at the Wedgwood Campus and is hosting a Women’s Event coming soon… mark you calendars for the evening of April 9th!

 Inductive Study 101
Reading God’s Word and Finally Getting It!
Teacher/Facilitator: Amy Knorr

Have you ever read a verse over and over again without getting it? Are you afraid you often misapply the Word? Or do you just feel stuck, like your knowledge and understanding of the Word is not deepening? Join us for an evening of teaching as we explore and practice one method of studying the Word of God. Bring your Bible and a notebook (and a friend!). We’ll be practicing what we learn, so be ready for an active night… not a lecture!

Campus: Wedgwood
Date: April 9, 2008
Time: 6:45-9:00 pm

Charity, strangely, has found its place in the primetime television contest show trend. Enter Oprah’s Big Give, a new reality game show. For those who may not be familiar with it, the premise is that several contestants are given an amount of money and a challenge to, “Give big or go home.” The end goal is $1,000,000 (though only viewers know this) and the title of “The Biggest Giver.”

In a rare moment of channel surfing this past Sunday, I happened to catch the most recent episode. The remaining seven contestants were each given $100,000 and told to give it away in one day. Sounds easy, but of course there was a catch. They couldn’t actually give cash away or spend more than $500 on one person, or $10,000 at one place.

Contestants’ competitive versions of charity ranged from buying computers, iPods and various electronics to donate door to door in an impoverished neighborhood to organizing impromptu shopping sprees at Target and buying $18, 000 worth of pet toys to donate to an animal shelter (Hello Seattle?).

After spending as much as they could in the time given, they returned to the resort to report on their day of donations. They were judged on their creativity, management under pressure and their stewardship of the resources given. The two who “just didn’t give big enough” were sent home.

Halfway through the episode, I caught the irony of watching it on Easter Sunday. I’ll admit I’m a sucker for analogies and parallels, and this was not about to be lost. I had already teared up during Extreme Home Makeover earlier in the evening and was feeling contemplative. As I sat in my living room, eating popcorn with chop sticks, my mind wandered to the Big Gift of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, and resurrection that we celebrate on Easter. It had been less than 10 hours since I had witnessed God moving in a beautiful and powerful way at MHC: Ballard, resulting in more than 150 spontaneous baptisms, so it was a logical connection. 

I was also intensely challenged to examine my own stewardship and giving. As usual, Oprah’s doctrine is not directly on target, but the concept isn’t too far off. Giving is completely Biblical. Though for the record, Jesus has outgiven Oprah by a lot.

2 Corinthians 9:7-9 (ESV)

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.”

My editor at Crossway has just published a new book that sounds like a great blessing to the Body of Christ. Read about it here.

 I really enjoyed the excerpt I read on contentment in the valleys of life and am intrigued to read more.

Check it out!

The human body, in its basic elements runs about $4.50 according to ever-reliable internet sources.
If you were able to sell off organs on the black market, that value would go up considerably, but there are only so many organs that you can live without.

So what are we really worth?

From all that I can discern, in the simplest sense – we are worth Jesus. Not of course because we are anything special, but because that is the worth that God has placed on us.

Do I live like I am worth Jesus?

We have just passed Easter and Good Friday, and while our culture has made these to be about ham, chocolate and bunnies that lay colored eggs, that isn’t what it is about at all. This holiday, to me more than any other, is about Jesus. What His entire life on earth was about. Jesus lived a sinless life, bombarded with temptation, then He died in my place.

Do I live like I am worth Jesus?

This is a frustrating concept to grasp on my own, and even more so to explain to others, especially those who see themselves as having no worth at all.

“Don’t you understand?! Jesus lived, died and conquered death! You are His! He has begun a good work in you and will complete it! He is going to use you to glorify Himself! How amazing is that?!”

And yet, I often forget this about myself. I set my eyes on mediocre things, and aim low. After all, I know me.

I know that I all too often believe the lie that I am worthless, and I know many others believe it about themselves. But we’re not. Though God does not need us, He values us highly. And He is the one who determines what we are worth.

Recently, I dropped my 1-year-old son off at church nursery. He wailed, despite the good care of the workers. When we went to pick him up, it was obvious he had made his peace with the caregivers. But when he got a glimpse of me through the window, his demeanor changed immediately—he must get to me RIGHT THEN. No obstacle could stop him. And he did it, making his escape and running into my arms before anyone could get in his way. It was quite sweet and affirming of my place in his heart.

I think of that scene when I read John 21.

4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. 8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

While the other disciples make a respectful return in the boat, Peter just jumps right into the water and swims/runs to Jesus. I get that! All was NOT well with Peter’s world. And I can imagine the moment for him—they had crucified his Lord. He had denied Jesus. And there the Savior was, standing on the shore. Peter’s response reflects his utter need for Jesus. “Jesus, I can’t do this on my own. I just denied You three times. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing now. I can’t even catch fish on my own. I’m sitting here fishing on this boat because I have no idea what else I’m supposed to be doing. I need You!” Like my son in nursery, nothing was getting in Peter’s way. In that moment, NOTHING else mattered. Getting to Jesus was number one priority.

I have moments in life when I imagine what it will be like to see Jesus face to face for the first time. It will be beautiful, and I envision that, like impetuous Peter, I’d stupidly jump into the water to get to Him, impatient for the time it takes to sail in the boat.

Envisioning that day sustains me quite often. Even so, Lord, come quickly!

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.  For what is a man profited if He shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?  For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with his angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works.  St. Matthew 16:24-27

“The spirit of reform broke out with surprising intensity in the 16th C, giving birth to Protestantism and shattering the papal leadership of western Christendom.  Bloody struggles…followed and Europe was ravaged by war before it became obvious that western Christendom was permanently divided and a few pioneers pointed toward a new way:  the denominational concept of the Church.”  History of the Church in Plain Language, Bruce L. Shelley

***

Dr. Rowland Taylor preached the Word of God in Hadley.  He was a good salt of the earth, savorly biting the corrupt manners of evil men; a light in God’s house, set upon a candlestick for all good men to imitate and follow.  At Lavenham, the sheriff and his company came to him a great number of gentlemen and justices upon great horses, who labored very sore to reduce Dr. Taylor’s doctrine to the Romish religion, promising him pardon and great promotions, yea a bishopric, if he would take it, if he would recant his message of salvation by Christ alone, but all their labour and flattering words were in vain.  Led away as a heretic, the streets of Hadley were beset on both sides the way with men and women who waited to see him; whom when they beheld him led to death, with weeping eyes and lamentable voices they cried, “Ah, Lord!  There goes our good shepherd from us, that so faithfully hath taught us, so fatherly cared for us.  O merciful God!  what shall we poor scattered lambs do?  What shall come of this most wicked world?  Lord strengthen him, and comfort him.”

And Dr. Taylor evermore said to the people, “I have preached to you God’s Word and truth, and am come this day to seal it with my blood.”  With that word, Homes, yeoman of the guard, who had used Dr. Taylor very cruelly all the way, gave him a great stroke upon the head.  Then he kneeled down and prayed, and a poor woman that was among the people, stepped in and prayed with him; but her they thrust away, and threatened to tread her down with horses. 

He went to the stake, and kissed it, and set himself into a pitchbarrel, which they had set for him and so stood with his back upright against the stake, with his hands folded together, and his eyes toward heaven, and so he continually prayed. 

Warwick cruelly cast a faggot at him, which lit upon his head, and brake his face, that the blood ran down his visage.  Then said Dr. Taylor, ‘O friend, I have harm enough; what needed that?’

At last they set to fire; and Dr. Taylor, holding up both his hands, called upon God, and said, ‘Merciful Father of heaven, for Jesus Christ my Saviour’s sake, receive my soul into Thy hands.’  So stood he still without either crying or moving, with his hands folded together, till Soyce with a halbert struck him on the head that the brains fell out, and the corpse fell into the fire.

John Lambert was questioned by the King about the sacrament on the altar, “Is this the body of Christ, or wilt deny it?”  Lambert replied, “I deny it to be the actual body of Christ.”

Of all other who have been burned at Smithfield, there was yet none so cruelly and piteously handled as this blessed martyr.  For, after that his legs were burned up to the stumps, and that the wretched tormentors and enemies of God had withdrawn the fire from him, so that but a small fire were left under him, two that stood on each side of him with their halberts pitched him upon their spikes.  Then he, lifting up such hands as he had, and his fingers’ ends flaming with fire, cried unto the people in these words, ‘None but Christ, none but Christ’; and so, being let down again from their halberts, fell into the fire, and there gave up his life, 1538.

George Carpenter a certain schoolmaster, was asked ‘Dost thou not fear the death and punishment which thou must suffer?  If thou wert let go, wouldst thou return to they wife and children?’  Wherein he admitted yes, he would.

“Revoke your opinions of Christ alone, and you shall be set at liberty.”

Whereunto George answered:  ‘My wife and my children are so dearly beloved unto me, that they cannot be bought from me for all the riches and possessions of the Duke of Bavaria; but, for the love of my God, I will willingly forsake them.’  Burned in Munich, 1527.

When the rope was put about Ann audebert, she called it her wedding-girdle wherewith she should be married to Christ; ‘Upon a Saturday,’ said she, ‘I was first married, and upon a Saturday I shall be married again.’  Burned, Orleans 1549

Master Rogers was asked to recant, which he answered, ‘That which I have preached I will seal with my blood.

“Then,” quoth Master Woodroofe, “Thou art a heretic.”

“That shall be known,” quoth Master Rogers, “at the day of judgment.”

“Well,” quoth Master Woodroofe, “I will never pray for thee.”

“But I will pray for you,” quoth Master Rogers. 

His wife and children, being eleven in number, and ten able to go, and one sucking on her breast, met him by the way as he went towards Smithfield. 

When the fire had taken hold both upon his legs and shoulders, he, as one feeling no smart, washed his hands in the flame, as though it had been cold water.  Burned, Smithfield, 1555

The chaplain asked who was the boy’s father.  The boy then pointed towards Lollards’ Tower, showed him that his father was in prison.

“Why,” quoth the priest, “they father is a heretic.”

The child, being of a bold and quick spirit, and also godly brought up, and instructed by his father in the knowledge of God, answered and said, “My father is no heretic; but you are an heretic, for you have Balaam’s mark.”

With that the priest took the child by the hand, and they did most shamefully and without all pity so whip and scourge, being naked, this tender child, that he was all in a gore-blood; and then they carried the child in his shirt unto his father, the blood running down by his heels. 

Bonner, bethinking in himself of the danger which the child was in by their whipping, and what peril might ensue thereupon, thought better to discharge the said father Fetty, willing him to go home and carry his child with him; which he so did, and that with a heavy heart, to see his poor boy in such extreme pain and grief.  But within fourteen days after the child died.  London, 1558.

***

“If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.”  1 Cor. 12:26

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.”  1 Peter 4:12, 13

THEREFORE, SINCE WE ARE SURROUNDED BY SUCH A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES, LET US THROW OFF EVERYTHING THAT HINDERS AND THE SIN THAT SO EASILY ENTANGLES, AND LET US RUN WITH PERSEVERANCE THE RACE MARKED OUT FOR US.  LET US FIX OUR EYES ON JESUS, THE AUTHOR AND PERFECTOR OF OUR FAITH, WHO FOR THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM ENDURED THE CROSS, SCORNING ITS SHAME, AND SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE THRONE OF GOD.”  Hebrews 12:1, 2

 “Do you think we run on uncertainties? …We forsake our dear children, whom I would not forsake for the whole world, and we stake upon it all we have - should we run on uncertainties yet?”  Confession of Claesken, who laid down her life for the testimony of Jesus, 1559

“By reasonable conviction, I mean a conviction founded on real evidence.  Scholarly arguments are extremely limited - What kind of a martyr does that produce?”  John Piper, Mars Hill Church, 2/25/08

***

Europe owes more to the Christian faith than most people realize.  When the barbarians destroyed the Roman Empire…it was the Christian church that put together a new order called Europe.  The Church took the lead in rule by law, the pursuit of knowledge, and the expressions of culture.  The underlying concept was Christendom, which united empire and Church.  It began under Charlemagne (8th C.), but the popes slowly assumed more and more power, until Innocent III (1198-1216) taught Europe to think of the popes as world rulers.  Later centuries, however, saw the popes corrupted by power and increasingly militant reformers cry out for change.  Church History in Plain Language, Bruce L. Shelley

JOHN WICKLIFF, THE MORNING STAR OF THE REFORMATION

Wickliff, being the public reader of divinity in the University of Oxford, was, for the rude time wherein he lived, famously reputed for a great clerk, a deep schoolman, and no less expert in all kinds of philosophy.

The Church did fall into all kind of extreme tyranny; whereas the poverty and simplicity of Christ were changed into cruelty and abomination of life.  What time there seemed to be no spark of pure doctrine remaining, this aforesaid Wickliff, by God’s providence, sprang up.  Complaining daily against the archbishop for stopping the Word of God and the Gospel of Christ to be preached, saying, that by indulgences, and other practices of the court of Rome, they sought their own profit, and not that of Jesus Christ; that they plucked from the sheep of Christ the wool and milk, and did not feed them, either with the Word of God, or with good examples. 

Albeit he was commanded by the bishops and prelates to keep silence, yet could not be suppressed, but that through the vehemency of the truth he burst out afterwards much more fiercely, again to stir up his doctrine amongst the common people, openly protesting in his sermons that it was his principal purpose to call back the Church from her idolatry, and had thus great displeasure and hatred at many men’s hands; especially of the monks and richest sort of priests.

On June 5, 1415, he was tried for the first time, and shut up in a tower with fetters on his legs, that he could scarce walk in the day-time, and at night he was fastened up to a rack against the wall hard by his bed. 

Some did outrage in words against him, and others spitefully mocked him; so that he, seeing himself overwhelmed with these rude and barbarous noises, and that it profited nothing to speak, determined finally with himself to hold his peace, and was thus condemned a heretic. 

The place appointed for the execution was before the Gottlieben gate. Kneeling down upon his knees, he prayed, and said certain Psalms, and especially the 31 and 51 Psalms.  And they who stood by, heard him oftentimes in prayer, with a merry and cheerful countenance, repeat  verse:  ‘Into Thy hands, O Lord!  I commend my spirit.  Lord Jesu Christ! help me, that with a constant and patient mind, I may suffer this cruel and ignominious death, whereunto I am condemned for the preaching of Thy most Holy Gospel and Word.’

Then was his neck tied with a chain unto the stake, which chain when he beheld, smiling he said, that he would willingly receive the same for Jesus Christ’s sake, Who, he knew, was bound with a far worse chain.  Under his feet they set two faggots, admixing straw withal, and so from the feet up to the chin, he was enclosed round about with wood. 

When the fire was kindled, and John Huss began to sing with a loud voice:  ‘Jesu Christ!  the Son of the living God!  have mercy upon me.’  And when he began to say the same the third time, the wind drove the flame so upon his face, that it choked him.  When all the wood was consumed, the upper part of the body was left hanging in the chain, which they threw down stake and all, and making a new fire, burned it, the head being first cut in small gobbets, that it might the sooner be consumed unto ashes.  The heart, which was found amongst the bowels, being well beaten with staves and clubs, was at last pricked upon a sharp stick, and roasted at a fire apart until it was consumed.  Then, with great diligence gathering the ashes together, they cast them into the river Rhine, that the least remnant of that man should not be left upon the earth, whose memory, notwithstanding, cannot be abolished out of the minds of the godly, neither by fire, neither by water, neither by any kind of torment.

This godly servant and martyr of Christ was burned at Constance, the sixth day of the month of July, A.D. 1415.

John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

***

[Amongst other accounts of the last days of John Huss, it is alleged that he said, "in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.  Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses of Contention to a church door in Wittenberg 102 years later. ]

“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The term martyr originally meant witness, and that is precisely what many Christians were at the moment of death.  In instance after instance what we find is cool courage in the face of  torment, courtesy toward enemies, and a joyful acceptance of suffering as the way appointed by the Lord to lead to his heavenly Kingdom.

First Century Christianity was a spiritual explosion.  Ignited by the Event, the presence of Jesus Christ, the Church hurtled in all directions, geographic as well as social.  The Second and Third Centuries provided the channel for this power.  Church History in Plain Language, Bruce L. Shelley

***

The Accounts of Blandina, Romanus, and Sanctus

“Blandina was endued with so much fortitude, that those who successively tortured her from morning to night were quite worn out with fatigue, owned themselves conquered and exhausted of their whole apparatus of tortures.  The blessed woman recovered fresh vigour in the act of confession; and it was an evident annihilation of all her pains to say,

‘I am a Christian, and no evil is committed among us’.

The blessed Blandina, last of all, as a generous mother having exhorted her children, and triumphing in her exit as if invited to a marriage supper, was seen suspended in the Amphitheatre in the form of a cross.  After she had endured stripes, the tearing of the beasts, and the iron chair, she was enclosed in a net, and thrown to a bull; and having been tossed some time by the animal, and proving quite superior to her pains, through the influence of hope, and the realising view of the objects of her faith and her fellowship with Christ, she at length breathed out her soul.

The second time Romanus preached the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ His well beloved Son, and eternal life through faith in His blood, Asclepiades commanded the tormentors to strike Romanus on the mouth, that his teeth being stricken out, his pronunciation at leastwise might be impaired.  The commandment was obeyed, his face buffeted, his eyelids torn with their nails, his cheeks scotched with knives; the skin of his beard plucked by little and little from the flesh; and finally, his face wholly defaced.

The prefect, astonished with his singular constancy, commanded them to cease from the tortures, and blasphemeth God, saying, ‘Thy crucified Christ is but a yesterday’s God!”

Sanctus, having sustained in a manner more than human the most barbarous indignities, while the impious hoped to extort from him something injurious to the Gospel, through the duration and intenseness of his sufferings, resisted with so much firmness, that he would neither tell his own name, nor that of his nation or state, nor whether he was a freeman or a slave; but to every interrogatory he answered,

‘I am a Christian’.

Thus Sanctus, Blandina, Attalus, and Maturus, were led to the wild beasts in the Amphitheatre to be the common spectacle of Gentile inhumanity, exposed to all the barbarities which the mad populace with shouts demanded, and above all to the hot iron chair, in which their bodies were roasted and emitted a disgusting smell.  These after remaining alive a long time, expired at length.”

Thou dost right well consider with thyself the marvellous working of God’s mighty power.  Wherein, if the power of man could have prevailed, what did they not do? If torments or pains of death could have helped, what cruelty of torment by man could be invented which was not attempted?  And yet, notwithstanding, to see how no counsel can stand against the Lord, note how all these be gone, and yet Christ and His Church doth stand.

John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”  Philippians 3:10, 11 

Paul, the apostle, who before was called Saul, after his great travail and unspeakable labours in promoting the Gospel of Christ, suffered also in this first persecution under Nero.  Abdias, declareth that unto his execution Nero sent two of his esquires to bring him word of his death.  They, coming to Paul instructing the people, desired him to pray for them, that they might believe; who told them that shortly after they should believe and be baptised at his sepulchre.   This done, the soldiers came and led him out of the city to the place of execution, where he, after his prayers made, gave his neck to the sword.*  First Century, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

(*Accounts of martyrdoms of the apostles mainly tradition.)

“People are often surprised to learn that I am an optimist.  They know how often I have been jailed, how frequently the days and nights have been filled with frustration and sorrow, how bitter and dangerous are my adversaries.  They expect these experiences to harden me into a grim and desperate man.  They fail, however, to perceive the sense of affirmation generated by the challenge of embracing struggle and surmounting obstacles.  They have no comprehension of the strength that comes from faith in God and man.”   Final essay, A Testament of Hope, Martin Luther King

THE PERSECUTION OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

“Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man.”

When he was brought to the tribunal, there was a great tumult as soon as it was generally understood that Polycarp was apprehended.  The proconsul asked him, if he were Polycarp.  When he assented, the former counselled him to deny Christ, saying, ‘Consider thyself, and have pity on thy own great age.  Swear by the fortune of Caesar.’

Polycarp answered, “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and he never once wronged me; how then shall I blaspheme my King, Who hath saved me?”

The proconsul again urged him, ‘Swear by the fortune of Caesar.’

“I am a Christian,” said Polycarp, “If you desire to learn the Christian doctrine, assign me a day, and you shall hear.”

Hereupon the proconsul said, ‘ I have wild beasts; and I will expose you to them, unless you repent.’

“Call for them,” replied Polycarp; “for repentance with us is a wicked thing, if it is to be a change from the better to the worse, but a good thing if it is to be a change from evil to good.”

‘If you scorn the beasts, I’ll have you burned.’

“You threaten me with fire, which burns for an hour, and is soon extinguished; but the fire of hell, and of eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly, you are ignorant of.  But why do you delay?  Do whatever you please.”

When they would have fastened him to the stake, he said, ”Leave me as I am; for he who giveth me strength to sustain the fire, will enable me also, without your securing me with nails, to remain without flinching in the pile.”  Upon which they bound him without nailing him.  So he said thus:  ‘O Father, I bless thee that thou hast counted me worthy to receive my portion among the number of martyrs.”

So it was that Polycarp prayed that his death would be an acceptable sacrifice, and as soon as he had uttered the word ‘Amen’, the officers lighted the fire, and he was burned at the stake.  

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, John Foxe

***

In the First Century, imperial authorities were remarkably tolerant of religions from those lands overrun by the Roman legions.  As long as Roman authorities considered Christians as just one more sect of Jews, followers of Jesus enjoyed the same immunity from imperial pressure. 

But when the Jews made it known in no uncertain terms that they would have nothing to do with the new movement, the situation changed dramatically.

Once the Roman discovered what the Christians were up to, they were confronted by the problem of toleration in a more exasperating form than even the Jews had presented.  The Jews, after all, were “a sort of closed corporation, a people set apart from others by the mark of circumcision, who lived and worshiped largely by themselves, and did no active proselyting.” 

The Christians, on the other hand, were always talking about Jesus.

Church History in Plain Language, Bruce L. Shelley

***

After the martyrdom of Stephen, suffered next James the holy apostle of Christ, and brother of John. 

‘When this James,’ saith Clement, ‘was brought to the tribunal seat, he that brought him and was the cause of his trouble, seeing him to be condemned and that he should suffer death, was such sort moved therewith in heart and conscience that as he went to the execution he confessed himself also, of his own accord, to be a Christian.  And so were they led forth together, where in the way he desired of James to forgive him what he had done.  After that James had a little paused with himself upon the matter, turning to him he saith “Peace be to thee, brother;” and kissed him.  And both were beheaded together, A.D. 36.’*

Matthew, otherwise named Levi, first of a publican made an apostle, wrote his Gospel to the Jews in the Hebrew tongue.  After he had converted to the faith Aethiopia and all Egypt, Hircanus, their king, sent one to run him through with a spear.*

Philip, the holy apostle, after he had much laboured among the barbarous nations in preaching the word of salvation to them, at length suffered, in Hierapolis, a city of Phrygia, being there crucified and stoned to death; where also he was buried, and his daughters also with him.*

(*It should be understood that the accounts of the martyrdoms of apostles are mainly traditional.)

And whatsoever mishappened to the city or provinces of Rome, either famine, pestilence, earthquake, wars, wonders, unseasonableness of weather, or what other evils soever, it was imputed to the Christians.

Whatsoever the cruelness of man’s invention could devise for the punishment of man’s body, was practised against the Christians.

‘Tell me, my babe, whether thou think it reason that we should worship one Christ, and in Christ one Father, or else that we worship many gods?’

The babe answered, ‘Inasmuch as Christ is unique, of necessity Christ must be the true God; for that there be many gods, we children cannot believe.’

The prefect hereat clean amazed, said, ‘Thou young villain and traitor, where, and of whom learnedst thou this lesson?’

“Of my mother,’ quoth the child.

The prefect commanded the child to be hoisted up and scourged, and committeth the blessed babe to the stinking prison.

And after, when they were come to the place, the tormentors required the child of the mother.

‘Farewell,’ she said, ‘my sweet child; and when thou hast entered the Kingdom of Christ, there in thy blest estate remember thy mother.’ 

And as the hangman applied his sword to the babe’s neck, the innocent’s head being cut off, the mother wrapped it up in her garment, and laid it on her breast.

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, John Foxe

Yesterday:  Blood Brothers:  Intro to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

Tomorrow:  Age of Martyrdom, 2-4th Centuries

Thursday:  Middle Age Martyrdom, 5-15th Centuries

Friday:  Martyrs of the Reformation, 16th Century