Praise the Lord for this new day. We will rejoice and be glad in it. A small
team of short term missionaries have gone to the area where I was born. Another
team will be traveling there towards the middle of the month. They re all from
the Southern tier New York. They will be working with children, encouraging
local pastors and leaders, and coming alongside many who are laboring in
the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior. I
would like to share a portion from the Morning Prayer, "A Diary of Private
Prayer", by John Bailie. "O God without me, forbid that I should look today
upon the work of Thy hand, and give no thought to Thee, the Maker. Let the
Heavens declare Thy glory, to me, and the hills Thy majesty. Let every
fleeting loveliness I see speak to me of a loveliness that does not fade. Let
the beauty of the earth, be to me a sacrament of the beauty of holiness made
manifest in Jesus Christ my
Lord."
As we watch the news and read the news papers we
get glimpses of a world that has gone insane. Day by day we witness that some
of the foundations of the civilization are crumbling. Godlessness and the
lawlessness are rampant. Men of evil intent and depravity are on the move,
destroying and decimating nations and people. Innocent and powerless people
have become soft targets of terrorism and violence. Christians around the world
are facing torture and persecution. In the midst of all this, though to some it
does not make any sense, we turn our eyes unto Jesus. The Bible says, “Everyone born of God overcomes the
world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith”
(1
John 5:4). It goes on to say, “We know that anyone born of
God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and
the evil one cannot harm him” (1
John 5:18). All this is from God, for Jesus said, “I have
told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will
have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world”
(John
16:33).
In the third century,
Cyprian wrote to his friend, Donatus: “This seems a cheerful world,
Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden under the shadow of these vines.
But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you
know very well what I would see. Brigands on the high road, pirates on the seas,
in the amphitheaters men murdered to please the applauding crowds, under all
roofs, misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly
bad world. Yet in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and holy people. They
have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this
sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have
overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians. . . and I am one
of them.”
While trials are not things we want to think about, it is
absolutely vital that we are prepared. Maybe it will never happen in our
lifetime — may God let it be so! But we cannot deceive ourselves into thinking
that the biblical cautions about persecution don’t apply to us. It was Jesus
who said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven". Mathew
5
In Christ.
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment