Brett Armstrong's Blog, page 10

A Pest’s Perspective

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Today I read that verse and I think I felt more of its significance than on other casual reads. To explain, I have to digress a little, so stay with me on this.

I read this famous passage shortly after I discussed the mole problem I have at my house with my mom. To give some context, we have moles. Lots of moles. More moles than perhaps all the rest of the eastern United States combined. Our toddler became comfortable saying, “Hole,” before he did saying, “Dad.” But I can’t bring myself to harm the moles. I hate the idea of killing another creature, particularly one that originally seemed so harmless. It’s only recently that I’ve started empathize with Bill Murray’s [image error]character in Caddyshack and wished the little creatures would just disappear. After all, we have a toddler and few things catch the breath in my chest like seeing him running in our yard happily only to be tripped up by infernal mole holes.

So, knowing my reluctance to kill the moles, my mom was telling me the moles are a sign there are lots of grubs in the ground and if we killed the grubs the moles would go away. No harm to the moles. No more holes. No more worries about my son getting hurt. I felt bad about killing the grubs, but had almost convinced myself it was better to kill grubs than have my son get hurt, when I felt like the Lord touched my heart and forced to me think about that for a second in a greater context. A deeper one.

When God sent Christ into the world, He was sending His precious and dear Son. More valuable in terms of honor, splendor, power, eternality, magnificence, and reciprocal love for God the Father than any other being. Certainly far more precious than a race of creatures who spit on and mock the name of God at every chance. Who places animals atop polls and bow to them or worse place themselves atop a dais and claim to be the ultimate product of the universe.

Think about why we tend to not value grubs. They live in filth for one, which makes them seem like pals with disease and decay. They’re so small and have such short lives. There are so many and their minds aren’t even capable of thoughts worth considering. I would imagine, to the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal Creator Who need not mince a single extra word when forming billions of galaxies; that is what we could look like. If the universe indicates how big God could loom over us, we’re more like subatomic particles than grubs really. As I said, we love the things that defile us, wretched and perverse things and it would be a lie to say any of us have never indulged in dark desires even if only in our minds. Our lifespans aren’t even worth comparing against the backdrop of recorded human history, let alone eternity past and to come.[image error]

So what drew me up short as I read Isaiah 53:3-4 was this notion that God didn’t look at us grubs with disdain and think the world would be better rid of us. He looked at His beloved Son and asked Him to suffer horrible things, things no other being could begin to shoulder, and said that sacrifice would be for creatures who can’t even comprehend what God would be doing for them. In fact, God knew in advance that we would look at Christ’s sacrifice and think, terribly, He must have gotten what He deserved. But He didn’t. He took what we, who eschew everything noble so often and decided to redeem us. To take the hurt needed to let us live with God. To put it even more sharply into perspective, I may not kill those grubs in my yard, but I’m not going to go have chats with them. But God does. He chose to not only put away the offensiveness that would force Him to remove us from His creation, but offers a chance to look up from the soil we scurry in and see and interact with a God Who is so much more than we will ever fathom. That is what Isaiah 53 imparts. That is what the Bible is all about. God drawing the eyes of ungrateful specks of His creative prowess to see what they should never have chosen to their backs on in the first place. And I think this grub is slowly growing to appreciate the beauty of that idea a little more fully now.

What is Good Enough?

I saw a video recently where Ravi Zacharias answered a student at Yale’s question, which was essentially, “Why can’t I just do good? Why do I have to become a Christian?”

And Ravi Zacharias answered the question, but I feel like he over-complicated it or at least expressed it in a more esoteric or indirect way than needed.  There is a fairly direct answer to the question.  It’s because no matter how good you are, you aren’t correcting the core problem humanity has.

God is life’s source.  It’s something that every theist can comprehend.  God was the originator of life and most theists will also agree man has an innate hunger for communion with God.  Now, consider that almost every desire we have corresponds to some kind of need. We get hungry because we need food.  We get tired because we need sleep.  We long for God, because we don’t have Him.  But the Bible explains why we don’t have Him.  Because we choose to reject Him.  We choose to supplant Him in our hearts with something, anything, and everything else.  There is a relationship that is broken, but that relationship is with the source of life.  So no matter what good deeds you do for others, it will never address that broken relationship.  A hose with a break in it will never let water flow through, no matter how earnestly you point it in the direction of the flowers that need the water.  Likewise, we have broken that vital connection to the source of life and our good intentions do not repair that.

Even more so, since the question doesn’t discount the Gospel as a truthful accounting, it merely calls into question whether we need to adhere to all the tenants of the Bible and Christian faith.  If our root problem is a broken relationship with God, and He really did send His Son to die an excruciating and humiliating death for us; and you consider Christ’s claim to be The Way, The Truth, and the Life, assuring us no one gets to the Father except through Him (John 14:6), then how can we spit in God’s face and say, “No, no.  You’re way isn’t needed.  I know I can do it somehow.  I’ll just do nice things.”  I’ve been married long enough to know that doing something nice that ignores the issue between my wife and I is not going to help anything.  Not to mention, the whole thing smacks of the very problem that started mankind’s rebellion.  In Genesis, man is told don’t eat the fruit from one tree.  Everything else is ok, but not that one tree.  But man questioned God and said, “Nah.  That tree is good too.”

We have to choose to stop putting ourselves as god in our lives and acknowledge, “God you’re right.  I submit to You.”  And we do that by accepting the sacrifice He provided in Christ.  Then good works result.  Then good works matter and are pleasing offerings before God.  Everything else is just trying to enthrone self and that is never going to please the God Who spoke the vast universe into existence.

What You Can Learn From Wingdings Font

The other day I was playing around and typed “JESUS” in various fonts and, of course, gave in to the temptation to see the Wingdings font version.  Surprisingly, I found the eclectic character set has some pretty deep meaning to be attached to how it represents my Savior’s name:

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[image error] (J) : There is joy in Christ.  Real, lasting, see you through the storms of life when all else is crumbling, joy.

[image error] (E): It’s interesting that between the symbol for J and the remaining letters of the Lord’s name is a finger pointing to the smiling face.  There is a finger in the character set that points the opposite way, but the one in Christ’s name is pointing this way.  This reminds me of what He said in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father but my Me.”  It is also a firm reminder that the joy we all seek and the peace with God we need only flow from what the last three letters are representing.

[image error] (S): The Lord shed His blood for me.  Death is the punishment for sin, not from caprice but because sin involves rejecting God.  God is the source of life and when you reject Him, death naturally follows.  But what could pay the debt needed to reconcile someone who has enthroned him or herself as god to the God Who rightfully rules?  Christ didn’t die by caprice.  He paid a very necessary price, no one else could properly afford.

[image error] (U): It is unavoidable.  The name of Jesus must take us to the cross, where all of human history hinges. That is where our debt was paid and is a reminder we carry that act of love with us, our redemption with us, everywhere we go and every time we speak His precious, holy, and blessed name.

[image error] (S): The Lord shed His blood for you.  I say this, because at times we remember all too clearly Christ died for believers, but His atoning work is available for all to embrace.  The most obstinate atheist and ruthless villain still has an opportunity.  A choice to embrace the Savior and the life we were always meant to have.

I feel like that’s quite a lot to pick up from a simple character set swap, but isn’t that what pictographs, and all linguistic expression, are intended to convey?  Not only literal meaning but deeper meaning.  The sense of a word, its sound, all of it is meant to impart understanding to the hearer and reader.  My greatest hope is that when I hear and see the name of Jesus, whatever form it is in, I will regard its Bearer with the reverence, awe, and gratitude He deserves.

Treason & Reason

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On Twitter I follow Christianity Today and recently there have been a series of articles on the site around the topic of the “Benedict Option”.  This refers to the proposition put forth by an article run in their magazine’s March edition that suggests Christians should wash their hands of western culture and withdraw to isolated communities with other Christians.  The reasoning being that western culture has become too secular and despondent towards Christian principles and outright hostile towards Christianity in many cases.  There is a fair hint of “…holding to the form of godliness but denying its power.” about as well (2 Timothy 3:5).  Thus, Christians should retreat to cloistered communities.  The proposal strikes me as something similar to how the Essenes of Christ’s time are believed to have lived.

There were some interesting counters to the idea, while taking the suggestion seriously.  The often espoused concept of, “be in the world but not of the world,” was of course mentioned.  And rightly so, because it is firmly rooted in Christ’s words (John 15:19).  For my part, I think the notion of a “Benedict Option” seems a little obtuse.  The very phrase implies that today’s Christians, like General Benedict Arnold during the Revolutionary War, are about to turn on our country. Betray our own with whom we’ve fought and side with the enemy for gain.  I would argue, we were never on western culture’s side.  Or any culture’s side.

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That verse is in the Old Testament and directed towards Israel, but it’s the same lesson for us.  Before Christ in Israel’s history, the people lived literally surrounded by cultures and people groups who had rejected the God of Creation and adopted practices that were in many cases the antithesis of God’s will and plan.  God provided laws for the Israelites and it isn’t hard to see, though some allowed them to live with some similarities to their neighbors, they were also a way of keeping very distinct and focused on God.  There has always been a notion of God’s people as foreigners and sojourners in this world.  Beginning with Abraham and throughout Israel’s history the notion repeatedly comes up.  Even after they were settled in the Promised Land.  The Book of Hebrews in the New Testament makes an explicit bridge between ancient Israel and the needed Christian ethos: “But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one…” (Hebrews 11:16)

This circles back to the “be in the world, but not of the world.”  We are to be pockets of light in a dark landscape.  Distinct and separate but not dispassionate and withdrawn.  This isn’t an easy task for most of us.  One reason this can be so hard, like lifting a car overhead, is we have made the same error ancient Israel often made.  We have looked at what those around us have and do and decided we should do and desire the same.  We quite well remember the Apostle Paul’s words, “I have the right to do anything…” but forget he went on to say, “but not everything is beneficial…” and “I will not be mastered by anything.” (1 Corinthians 6:12)  Our enticement by the trappings of our neighboring cultures has caused us to lose our identity.  Or at least lose sight of our identity.

Not wavering amidst the increasing streams of discord in society is a key impetus for my writing, particularly DQR and Day Moon.   There is little interest in culture conforming to God’s desires, but that doesn’t mean we just abscond with the words of life.  We are encouraged to love everyone, but not live as they live.  To humbly and gratefully enjoy our freedom in Christ, but not let it become an excuse to take our eyes off of where our hope lies.  This world is a wonderful place to journey through, but there is something better Christians are seeking.  So, should we be weighing the betrayal of western culture?  No, because western culture was never our culture. No culture has ever been.  We are ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20) for Christ, lights in the world (Philippians 2:15) and sent to be among all the peoples of the world and compassionately point out that better city we are looking forward to.

A Quick Look

I’ve been keeping pretty tight-lipped about my new book, Day Moon, and went over a hundred different (and somewhat dorky) ways to announce this, but I’m opting for the minimalist approach.  So, in TWO WEEKS, on March 28th, Day Moon will be released.  For all those interested, here is a synopsis of the story and cover art for this, my second published novel, and one of richest most rewarding writing experiences the Lord has blessed me with:

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In A.D. 2039, a prodigious seventeen year old, Elliott, is assigned to work on a global software initiative his deceased grandfather helped found.  Project Alexandria is intended to provide the entire world secure and equal access to all accumulated human knowledge.  All forms of print are destroyed in good faith, to ensure everyone has equal footing in this new era of human history. Elliott knows he must soon part with his final treasure:  a book of Shakespeare’s complete works gifted him by his grandfather.  Before it is destroyed, however, Elliott notices something is amiss with the book, or rather Project Alexandria.  The two do not match, including an extra sonnet in his grandfather’s book titled “Day Moon”.  When Elliott investigates, he uncovers far more than he bargained for.  There are sinister forces backing Project Alexandria who have no intention of using it for its public purpose.  Elliott soon finds himself on the run from federal authorities and facing betrayals and deceit from those closest to him.  Following clues left by his grandfather, with agents close at hand, Elliott desperately hopes to find a way to stop Project Alexandria.  All of history past and yet to be depend on it.

Before and Beyond the Grave

 

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The other day I was thinking about how short life is, particularly compared to the incomprehensible stretch of eternity. James the half-brother of the Lord said, “…yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:14) That seems like a fairly accurate description of how brief our time in this world can be. It doesn’t help we too often are flippant about our use of time. We bide it, kill it, and wait things out. None of that is to say we shouldn’t be still, meditative, wait on the Lord (Psalm 27:14), what I’m getting at is our regard for the seconds and minutes and hours of our lives is very poor and subject to waste. They sieve through our fingers and it isn’t until we see the mound of sand adding up to months and years and even decades that we take notice. There is no moment guaranteed to us, yet we regard life in such a way as if it were, we presume so much. But our lives are not our own when we belong to Christ and we have to be careful to redeem the time we have on this earth (Ephesians 5:16).

While thinking on the subject of the brevity of life, something over which I’ve been troubled for some time, the Lord gave me a breakthrough. For a long time I rationalized how short our stay in this world is based on comparisons in the natural world. The length of time we’re in our mother’s womb versus our lifetimes or the time spent on vacation before coming home. Both seem like fitting parallels, but I always felt like I was missing something deeper about it. The starkness of death, the sudden and sweeping feeling of unease it so often evokes in us demanded looking further. The world, after all, is obsessed with death. In the stories we read, particularly cherished classics and new favorites, death is the centerpiece. Just look at the popularity of The Hunger Games series or detective dramas on television. I watched the series Psych for years before stopping to recognize it was comedy where someone almost always was killed. The drama of life and death is captivating to us. It’s extremely relatable, as we are assured, “… it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment…” (Hebrews 9:27) Christians are taught that death is a result of sin and sin entered the world at the Fall when man chose to assert himself as his god rather than serve the LORD. It’s really starting from there that the Lord helped me come to a better place of understanding about life and death.

Much like my previous apologetics post on the reasonableness of the Gospel’s foundations, this too has a kind of cyclic element to it. Not that things are in a continuous cycle as Hindu reincarnation teaches, but rather that God is bringing history and man back to a similar place of fellowship and union with Him, which existed before the Fall of man. In that vein of thought, life now on earth wasn’t formed to be a phase preceding eternity, it was to be a continual state for man. It was only after the Fall where the curse of death fell on man’s body and spirit. We often see life before physical death as distinct from thereafter, but really Christ redeems us to give us both new spiritual and physical life at the same time. In other words, eternal life begins at salvation and continues without end, save the mortal body under the curse is destroyed and replaced by a new body prepared for each believer. As in my previous post, it bears mentioning that it was by man’s act of defiance that sin entered the world and condemned him, but it was God’s work at Calvary which demands an act of obedience and submission of us now. The Lord is restoring things to the way they should have been and what we see as transitory is really a facet of our eternity. So, I suppose what I’m getting at is, the Lord helped me see life as a sentence that man’s rebellion required God to insert punctuation into. What comes after the punctuation can be what the Lord always intended to follow unbroken before the Fall or take on the character of rebellion and rejection that resulted in death in the first place.

Death is such a heavy thing to contemplate, and it is no coincidence that God left the authoritative word on what happens after it to His Son, Who after sacrificing Himself for our sins, opened the door to continuing the sentence of life when He rose from the dead. The passage from the instant of death to a new life thereafter is mysterious to us and again is without surprise in its requirement of faith. We have to trust the Lord Jesus to restore us to life eternal, just as He trusted He would be able to raise Himself to life. This isn’t to diminish the harsh reality of death, but to offer some perspective.

Most importantly, in the midst of all the tragedy of death and sin in our world, we have this sure hope: “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered…” (Revelation 5:5, ESV).

Amen.

Looking for a Sign-or a Symbol

 

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Some time ago, I was sitting in church listening to a Nigerian missionary my church supports and his sermon made mention of mathematics. At times my thoughts can begin very far from where they end, but this time it produced a valuable realization about God’s visibility in the natural world. In order to establish my reasoning, I should give some background. If you’re familiar with the M. Night Shyamalan film Unbreakable, then forgive my summarizing for others. Essentially, a man born with a disease that makes his bones extremely fragile, Elijah (played by Samuel L. Jackson), takes it upon himself to find his opposite in life. That is someone who has the reverse of his condition and is so durable the person would be “unbreakable.”

Now, consider the history of mathematics. Many of the Enlightenment pioneers of mathematics began their inquiry into the nature of mathematical infinity as a way to prove God’s existence. Of course, there are a great many people who use these mathematician’s work without sharing their theistic convictions. But perhaps they have not considered a fascinating detail or rather collection of them.

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Everyone wants to be able to see the immortal and invisible God. Skeptics feel that there should be greater evidence of His presence in the natural world. A fingerprint, as it were, because generally we consider fingerprints to be evidence that a person has touched something. Now, bearing all the aforementioned in mind, if Enlightenment mathematicians’ exercises, not unlike Elijah’s in Unbreakable, were meant to explore the existence of an infinite being with the notion that He must be since there are such things as discrete, finite beings, then the fingerprint of God is in the infinite. Here’s what I mean. For centuries, millennia, man has been examining the natural world pushing his knowledge to its furthest reaches in mathematics, astronomy, physics, etc. and one concept is integral to these pursuits, indeed is integral to the description of how our universe functions at the greatest macroscopic levels and most minute subatomic levels: infinity.

In a discrete world bounded by the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, everything is laced with the underlying concept of infinity. Yet there is no practical experience of infinity available in the natural world, save one. The infinite, eternal, and blessed Creator: God. In His wondrous work of forming the universe, He left His invisible fingerprints on everything. We can [image error]recognize His work and only through it are we able to come closer to fully understanding the universe’s working. If other proofs are ignored it is no surprise this will be either, but God has indeed imbued His divine tool marks on the universe in accordance with Romans 1. So that whether desensitized through intellect to the wonders of the natural world or not, everyone is without excuse for ignoring the evidence of His presence and His power amongst us. I suppose it is akin to the adage of not being able to see the forest for the trees.

 

The thoughts are bit scattered, but hopefully you come away with the same incredible realization I did. Men want to see proof of God in the natural world. Our universe and everything in it is finite, yet conceptually everything is built around the notion of the infinitesimal and the infinite. If we cannot begin to conceive of our modern world and the knowledge we’ve acquired without depending on the concept of infinity to do it, then perhaps we should step back and realize that in all our searching for God’s mark on our world, we too often neglect to observe the obvious.

For more along this line of thought, check out: Colossians 1:15-20, The Message

Real Rewards

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It’s been some time since the site has been up and I’ve still been slow to update it. Events of life, particularly the bigger ones tend to interrupt the flow of things and I certainly am experiencing a lot of new and interesting things. Every day has become filled with small adventures, because of our family’s little addition. That being said, I also have been thinking a lot about areas where I heard questions while helping with the church’s youth group. It seems a few of the questions could and should be answered. Below are the thoughts that came to me while pondering about one of those questions.

 

An issue that consistently came up with the youth group was, “Why should we worry about all the work and pursuit of God daily?” The logic some youth put forward was that Heaven is enough and if Heaven is the best how can there be anything better? The youth leaders tried to explain the concept of rewards to them but again they saw riches as crowns and jewels and since Heaven is a place where we will lack nothing, why work for a reward?

 

Of the many reasons to follow hard after Christ I have one in particular to offer. When I was growing up, I had lost all but one of my grandparents by age 14. The only one I had left was my grandmother on my dad’s side. I didn’t get to spend very much time with her comparatively. Every other Sunday or so, we’d go visit her for an hour or two. She was always kind and loving towards me, she would make mini pizzas and Kool-Aid when I was little and homemade biscuits when I was a teen, simply because I liked them. I never had to doubt she loved me and cared about me, that she enjoyed me coming with my parents to see her.

 

But, without ever realizing it, I developed this kind of distant relationship with her where I knew her, but because I was always with others when I saw her, and infrequently at that, there was never the kind of relationship I saw my older cousins have with her. I knew her as my mommaw. She was the title and position first and I knew she deserved my love for the love she showed me. I also knew that I should love her for who she was, and I did, but I didn’t know her personally and closely.

 

Therein lies the difference. If I had spent more personal time with her and gotten to know her as a person, I could have truly known her. That doesn’t mean I should ever forget she was my grandmother nor fail to show her the respect due her position. There was just an added nuance to how I could have related to her. Likewise, we should go to church, we should love Christ, and believe in Him simply for Who He is and what He has done for us. We love Him because He first loved us, of course, but we need to know Him personally. Deeply. Truly and passionately.

 

Another way of looking at it is like this. At a birthday party a lot of people are invited. Friends, fringe friends, and relatives often come to such a gathering. Consider now, who gets to sit closest to the “birthday boy?” Those [image error]closest to him. In Heaven, who will be closest to Christ, seeing Him best and praising Him most fervently? It only makes sense that it would be those who knew Him best and spent the most time with Him in life. That is the reward we should be striving for, why we must pursue Him every day, with purpose and without fail. In the endless ages of eternity, when everything of this world is pulled away, and we no longer desire our idols and our other distractions, when we see Him as He is and understand just how magnificent and how worthy of our adoration He is, wouldn’t it be tragic to see Him and be so close and realize only then that we could have been closer, done more, loved Him and known Him more powerfully?

 

The author Hebrews, as usual, says it so artfully and so much better than I can: “Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.

For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you won’t grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Amen.

A New-ish Beginning

 

For anyone who was familiar with my blog on my site BrettArmstrong.net, you may have noticed some significant changes, including the sudden absence of my previous posts. I hope you will be able to take them in stride, as, by God’s grace, I’m trying to do so. Over time I’ll add the previous articles back (and I’ll annotate them to indicate they were previously published ones).  I also will be adding new articles and information, particularly as March 28th nears and my new novel, Day Moon, is released!  So stick with me, as new and, Lord willing and providing, good things are coming soon.

Why Write

 

Martin Scorsese’s film, Silence, about Jesuit missionaries in search of their mentor in 17th Century Japan comes out January 1st.  Two Portuguese priests sneak into Japan, where Christianity was outlawed at the time, to find their mentor who may have committed apostasy.  Based on a novel of the same name by Shūsaku Endō, the film is said to be an intense presentation of the sufferings Christians have gone through, and in endure in the present, for following Christ. 

I recently read an interview with executive producer Tyler Zacharia conducted by Eliza Thomas of the International Mission Board about the movie.  Mr. Zacharia said something that resonated with me and was a huge factor for me writing the novel Destitutio Quod Remissio (DQR): “…our perceptions of the world are based on our experiences and the stories that we see, hear, and live. Our experience of suffering, of God, of morality—our whole worldview—can be shaped by stories. When we can walk in someone else’s shoes for a brief moment, whether through a film or a book, we can share in an experience, learn from it, and grow in our own worldview.”

Mr. Zacharia very succinctly put to words what was going through my mind as I wrote about Christian-in-secret Marcus Servius, who loses all his worldly possessions, his position as a Roman senator, and all those closest to him when the secret of his faith is betrayed.  Like the movie Silence, my hope is readers will find in his sufferings and his continuous challenge over choosing to forgive his tormentors or succumbing to his desire for vengeance, an aria of hope.  The realization God is with us in our darkest hours and may be using us in ways we never imagined.  In DQR, the fate of Rome’s Christians was at stake and it takes some time for Marcus to realize it.  Even after it, choosing to follow Colossians 3:13 (“…forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”) continued to be a struggle.

We often forget the heroes of the faith in the Bible like the Apostles, King David, Gideon, Moses, Abraham, and Noah all had to face the extraordinary challenges and circumstances they were in with the same sort of limited vision we have.  They didn’t get to see in the midst of their ordeals the victory.  They had to act on faith and allow God to work as He willed.  Gideon had to be panicking inside as he watched 9,700 of the 10,000 soldiers he’d gathered walk home.  God promised to give him victory with the 300 remaining, but any of us would still be apprehensive and pretty convinced the battle against the Midianites would work so much better with at least a couple thousand of those sent away along for the task.  Abraham had to leave his home and travel to a land he’d never seen, trust he’d have a son at age 100, and be prepared to offer that son and heir (around whom all God’s promises to bless Abraham had been built).  Noah had to build a MASSIVE boat to survive a flood brought on by the God EVERYONE around him had rejected utterly.

It is easy to question whether God really wants us to do something we know will lead to our suffering.  Anything painful we tend to avoid, yet Christ promised us: “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in Me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, NLT)

Note my choice of words, promised over warned.  A dual promise.  None of us wants to suffer or to see others suffer.  Yet, Christians around the world are suffering and have suffered for millennia.  Those who choose to follow God in a world rejecting Him will always face opposition and persecution.   It’s been happening since Cain killed Abel.  Ultimately, though, as hard as it is for us, we need to face the reality of persecution ever conscious of the Lord’s promise of His victory.  He has not, nor will He ever fail us. 

I write, by the Lord’s leading, ever with the hope I can encourage and build up readers to face life’s challenges and hardships without wavering in the faith to the very end.  And for me, that is a beautiful thing.

 

 

* NOTE: If you want to read the interview I mentioned (which I would recommend), here is a link:

https://www.imb.org/2016/12/19/silence-suffering-and-mission-a-conversation-with-tyler-zacharia-executive-producer-of-silence-by-martin-scorsese/