Praise the Lord for all His promises. Praise the Lord for His power. Praise the Lord for His matchless love that never ends. I praise the Lord for the lives of our nephew Bryan and Pastor Bill Turner, our collegue and fellowservant of Jesus our Lord. These two men loved Jesus and served Him faithfully. Our daughters and their families came home for the funeral service for their cousin. Our grandchildren also came along. It was a great blessing and comfort. Praise the Lord for all His simple gifts.
We will gather for our midweek fellowship and study this evening at 6 PM. We will start with a special meal at 6 PM followed by the Bible Study. We will be looking at 1 Corinthians 15. Jesus the Risen Lord is the Alpha and Omega.
Jesus is Lord of the extremes. He is there at the
beginning, and he is there at the end. Because He conquered death, death itself
cannot conquer us. To use John Stott’s phrase, death has become a “trivial
episode” for the people of God. I ran across this quote from Max Lucado about
what death means to the Christian:
In heaven, we’ll remember the day we died with the same fondness we remember graduation day.
Many contemporary Christians have never heard
of the man who was named Polycarp. The early believers knew all about him
because he was one of the first well-known martyrs of the Christian faith.
In his youth he was a disciple of the Apostle John. For many years he served
as Bishop of the church in Smyrna. During a wave of persecution in AD 155, when
a mob demanded his death, Roman officials tried to save his life by offering him
repeated chances to deny his faith in Christ. He refused each time. When given
one final chance to save his own life, he replied in words that echo across the
centuries:
“For 86 years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who has saved me?”
As the soldiers prepared to nail him to the
stake, he refused, saying, “Leave me as I am. For He who grants me to endure
the fire will enable me also to remain on the pyre unmoved, without the security
you desire from nails.” The fire was lit and Polycarp burned to death. As the
flames consumed him, he was heard to pray, “I thank you, O Lord, that you have
deemed me worthy this day and this hour to take up the cross of Christ with many
witnesses.”
I do know that the Risen Lord has his Polycarps all over the world today. They are the brave men and women who will not bow the knee to Baal, who will not swear allegiance to Caesar, who will not give up their Christian faith, and who will not return to Islam. They would rather die than surrender what Jesus has given them. Of such men and women the world is not worthy. Truly, the “second death” cannot hurt men and woman like that.
I remember the story of an evangelist who was told he would be killed if he didn’t stop preaching the gospel. “You can’t threaten me with heaven,” he replied. Death itself has no power over the believer who remains faithful. Few of us will be called upon to do what Polycarp did. For most of us the sufferings we endure will be less dramatic, the pressures more subtle, the temptations harder to spot. But the call from Jesus remains the same.
To those who stand strong in the midst of trials, the best
is yet to come.
In Christ,
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment