Summer season is
moving onward forward, making way for the Autumn season which is both
colorful and brilliant. The Lord blessed us with a wonderful and sweet
evening in His House yesterday. Our Church hosted an evening of food,
fellowship, and sharing. Men of the church grilled hamburgers and hot
dogs outside the church, which produced a sweet aroma. Women of the
church served with much joy and love. They served all kinds of summer
comfort foods. The Church Fellowshp Hall was filled with families,
friends, and neighbors, along with youth and children, reverberating with
joyful sounds of sweet conversations, smiles, and laughter. Alice
and I harvested another batch of fresh produce from our garden this
morning. This is the real "garden Fresh". Alice made 11
pint jars of relish, and canned six quart jars of fresh tomatoes. I
had a friend of mine join us for lunch today. He is a US veteran who
served in the US Air Force. He is also a cancer
survivor. He has a winning and victorious spirit, and
he loves the Lord and serves Him faithfully. Praise the Lord again for a
great cloud of witnesses.
The
Christian life is an invitation to an undisturbed joy and it also is
accompanied by unending battles. We may face sudden new challenges
in life that come to us uninvited. Often our extremities
become the Lord's opportunities in our lives. Our
disappointments become the Lord's appointments with us. In the Book
of James we are reminded that standing strong in hard times brings its own
reward. We will be “approved” by God. We will “pass the
test.” We will “gain the prize.”
Jesus told His disciples what would happen to
those who follow Him: “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I
have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Many Christians in the West don’t
take verses like that very seriously. We hear about mounting atrocities
against Christians in the Middle East, and we think, “That could never happen
here.” Don’t be so sure about that.
“Brother
will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will even rise
up against their parents.
Many
of you remember the 21 Coptic Christians who were beheaded by ISIS on the
shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Libya. They were marched out in orange
jumpsuits, each one standing in front of a man dressed in black. One by
one their throats were slit, all of it captured on video and shared with the
world by the terrorists. Many of the men died with the name of Jesus on
their lips. No one recanted. A few months ago Tom Doyle, author of Killing Christians: Living the Faith Where It’s Not Safe to
Believe, visited the
Christian villages south of Cairo where most of the men came from. It was
not easy to get there and not entirely safe to go there. He met with the
families of the men who had been beheaded. That very day we interviewed
him on the radio. When we asked him what the families had said, he
replied they spoke of their deep pride in their men. They repeated the
Scripture promises of heaven. Then they said of the martyred men, “They
were like lions. Did you see how brave they were? They walked without
fear.”
They were like lions! They were like lions! Like lions who follow the Lamb who is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
In Christ,
Brown
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