A Tale of Two Stories

You will never hear me say that being a Christian is easy.
Following Jesus doesn’t necessarily make life on earth better for you, and it adds challenges you wouldn’t have if you choose to go with the flow only. When Jesus comes into your heart, it ignites a light to shine from your life, and that glare certainly does irritate those that prefer to do their deeds in the darkness.
Believers should not take the opposition personally because it’s God working in us that rubs the culture the wrong way.  The day one surrenders their heart to the Lord is the day that he or she becomes a citizen of heaven.
Christians are known as sojourners, pilgrims, visitors and strangers in a foreign land. No longer are followers of Jesus at home on this planet.
We aren’t the top people to look out for anymore because that place has been set aside for the Lord, but God is not going to wait until we get to glory to begin the process of making us His saints. That transformation begins the moment you and I put on the uniform informing all those around us that we now play for God. Learning doesn’t happen in the classroom, as much as it occurs in the course of everyday living.
God never wastes a teaching opportunity.
Scripture says that He works for the good to those who love Him. He makes messes into masterpieces. He redeems trash into treasure.
What was blatantly unfair can be repackaged by the Lord to give us a glimpse of the hope and the future that He promised us. God uses the trials of this world to ready us for the triumph of when we move to our new address, being heaven. It is part of God’s providence.
It is part of God’s plan and purpose. Actually, it is clear evidence that God has not forsaken you.
When you enlist or are drafted into the armed forces, you are officially a soldier. While that may be true on paper, someone is going to be in charge of making it a reality in practice. You may be recognized as a soldier, but as a new recruit, you are a “Soldier In Name Only (SINO).”
The drill instructor that you are assigned to in boot camp has one job, which is to turn you into the real deal. He will not be gentle, meek and mild. You might even assume that he doesn’t like you.
He will challenge you with difficult assignments to get you to live up to your name. Whatever it takes to get you battle ready is fair game.
People called “Christians in Name Only” don’t exist. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, will make you live up to the talk. The evidence that will define you as a follower of Jesus will be the spiritual fruits that are produced because of your holy roots.
Our purpose is to bring glory to God in everything we say and do. God provides the equipment needed to stay focused on heaven, no matter how much hell might be breaking loose in our midst.
Earth no longer grades our report card. We have graduated to living by faith through grace, and only in that realm does anything make sense.
While some call me crazy for what they have concluded to be me throwing my life away, I am blessed that God doesn’t let any move or moment go to waste. Even when the hammering is happening via hellish and horrible means, I’ve got heaven protecting my back.
The Lord purges and purifies us, even as the world pounds us. When you are tempted to run from Him, you should be running into His arms. The way to paradise is more about becoming a warrior than it is taking another quiet walk in the park.
During World War II, the ten Boom family, of Holland, harbored Jews in their home until the Gestapo arrested the elderly father and his two grown daughters, Corrie and Betsie. Months later, after their father died, the sisters faced unimaginable cruelty in a concentration camp. Yet, in the face of extreme darkness, Betsie, in her dying days, felt compelled to continue sharing Christ’s love with others.
She remarked to Corrie that we “must tell them what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that he is not deeper still. They will listen to us, Corrie, because we have been here.”
These words, recounted in Corrie’s book “The Hiding Place,” are indeed moving and inspirational, but how can we know they are absolutely true? Because as believers in Jesus, we have tasted life in the hole, where it seemed like we were destined to dwell.
When it appeared that we might have been forgotten by God, we experienced His presence, and it gave us what we needed to press on. What would knock us out, according to the world, has only made us more determined.
In August 1984, Terri and I were ready to share that she was pregnant again.
Our first child was miscarried April 24, 1983. On the night we felt confident to tell people of the pregnancy, we saw our baby go to glory earlier than expected.
In the waiting room of Morristown Memorial Hospital, I faced another possible crisis moment in my Christian walk. I wanted to scream, shout and knock somebody out. I begged God for answers, and all He gave me was a verse from Deuteronomy 29:29, which let me know that secrets belonged to the Lord, but He would tell me what I needed to know.
Since then, Terri and I would have the honor to raise four of our children, but we have five in heaven. Without the Lord, I’d be a distant memory. Because of Him, He still gets life out of this broken and busted up believer.
Because Jesus bore the weight of the world’s sin for us, willing to sink deeper into the pit of separation from God than we’ll ever comprehend, we are going to be raised up. Nothing will stop the momentum of God’s mighty hand.
ED. NOTE: The author is the senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9 South, Court House.