What do you remember

I remember that in my public High School, when studying the history of the world, we were looking at the time at the early 100's AD.  They had a few paragraphs about the persecution of the Christian church at the time, but in that whole textbook that was it.  And then they went on.  I thought it was funny at the time, that the religion and faith that I had, and our brothers and sisters who went before us, were summarized in a moment in a huge textbook.  

I am sure, as a Christian, if I had the desire to dig deeper into what was happening in the early church I would have realized more about the history of the faith I believe and would have come to some different conclusions at an earlier age.  Like only though extreme persecution did the church really thrive and grow, and that during the times of acceptance and peace it weakened the faithful the most.  There was a time that I wanted to shy away for persecution as much as possible.  Another thing I would have remembered is that Christianity was never really accepted in the true form by organized government, and those who tried apologetics to fight their cause with the authority at the time were usually left in vain.  It was the power of God that drew people, that healed them, that fought for them, and not by their own strength.  How many times have I tried to do things in my own strength.  

I applaud the groups and organizations trying to fight for Christian principles and Christian morals through the avenue of politics and government, but somewhere along the way our government, no matter how much they stress tolerance and acceptance, will never truly accept Christianity at it's truest form.  Because they serve the god of this world and it is a spiritual battle.  That Kingdom of God principles are so different than what the world will accept and perceive, and we are going to be miss-understood and hated, because they hated Jesus first.  

Did you remember that?  In many ways what we experience today is not much different then what they experienced thousands of years ago, only are we learning from our Christian history, or did it get passed over and forgotten.  Do we think we won't be faced with the same choices as we try to follow God in our lives, and be in the world but not of it.  What do you remember about history?