Category Archives: Persecution

Is there any hope?

Is there any hope?

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On December 17, 1927, USS S-4 (SS-109), an eight year old S-class submarine, was submerged just off the coast of Provincetown, Massachusetts. Right nearby, on the surface, the USCGC Paulding, a Coast Guard destroyer, was headed southeast. At 3:37 in the afternoon, the officer of the deck on the Coast Guard ship didn’t see the periscope of the submarine until it was too late. The Paulding unintentionally rammed the sub with a section of her bow, crushing into the hull of S-4 and punching a hole in the ballast tank and one in the pressure hull. 

Freezing water flooded into the boat and she immediately began to sink. The saltwater flooding the battery compartment mixed with battery acid and formed toxic chlorine gas, quickly filling any space not yet occupied by water. Soon the deadly gas was forced by the water into where the survivors were huddling. By morning, when the first rescue diver knocked on the torpedo loading hatch, he was met with six slow taps in response to his question about how many had survived. Six men were still alive.

But try as they may, help was not coming fast enough. The next to last communication heard from the remaining crew in Morse code was “Is there any hope?” But unfortunately, the toxic gas took the lives of all 40 men.

Hope comes in many different forms and we use the word, as we do the word Love, interchangeably for the big and the small all throughout our lives. We hope we get an A on our test. We hope the cute boy in the third row looks our way. We hope we receive a Christmas bonus. We hope for a boy or a girl…or both! 

We may also hope for enough money to pay the rent, buy milk for the baby that we hoped for and hope that our hope is enough to sustain us until, hopefully, something better comes along. 

We even hope for hope!

But Jesus said we didn’t have to live that way any longer. He came as the Hope of the World! Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” 

In a world full of darkness and seemingly constant despair, Jesus is our hope, our peace, our confidence and no matter what comes into our lives, even the unthinkable, He has promised to NEVER leave us or forsake us! NEVER! 

We like to think we live in a picture perfect world especially after we give our hearts and lives to God. Filled with His spirit, we can conquer anything according to the Word of God. But we are still living in a sin-filled world until Jesus returns for His church and we will face things here just as the disciples did many, many years ago. 

And just as the men on the submarine faced…..they wanted to know if there was hope and yet they perished. Why? Because we aren’t promised a life without trouble or pain but we are promised that Jesus will be WITH us, IN us and right beside us no matter what we go through. And news flash, we don’t live forever down here! Our hope is in eternity and no doubt there were men on that submarine tapping into their Hope, finding that perfect peace in their last moments; Jesus didn’t forsake them, He walked them into eternity!

The HOPE we have today is that He is WITH us, He is IN us, and the more we pray and read and depend on His Word, the more confident we become in that glorious Hope.

Hope has a name and it’s JESUS!

We don’t have to be afraid, we don’t have to live in a constant state of worry and anxiety. We can still live joyfully and accomplish what God has put us here to do: tell others what He has done for us; share the Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus gave HIS life for us that we could live FOREVER with Him someday. And until that day comes, we can live victoriously and full of hope here on this earth, abounding in the work of God, encouraging our neighbor and bringing that Hope, sharing that Hope, with those we come in contact with.

Spend this week studying about hope in the Bible. Look up scriptures pertaining to hope and see how Jesus has always been, and still is, that Hope that saved the world!

Then, remember that there are others watching you and desiring to have what you have, don’t keep Him to yourself, Jesus Christ, the Living Hope!

For the kingdom

God never said the weapons wouldn’t form.

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Weapons. They are a hot topic today. They are used against us and they are used to protect us. They are necessary and they can be detrimental. I am not here to debate gun control except to say I would be happy to have a weapon to defend myself and my family if it came down to it. I pray that right is never taken from us!

Last November, in the three simultaneous terrorist attacks in Paris, one occurred in a cafe. Absolute chaos had taken over as people scrambled to escape. Some were hiding under tables, chairs, under the counter, wherever they could find a place of escape. One woman was hiding by the front door when one of the terrorists approached her with aAK-47 and he put it to her head and pulled the trigger.

It did not fire.

In stunned disbelief, he lifts the weapon away from her, instead of firing again, and walks away as she runs out the door.

At the end of that day of carnage, 129 people had perished.

No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD. Isaiah 54:17

Just reading this scripture, we could surmise that what that woman in Paris experienced that day is what every Christian would experience and benefit from every day of their life.

The verse doesn’t say the weapon won’t form, it doesn’t say it won’t be put to the test, or that the enemy won’t come after us with his fiery darts. No, it says the weapon will not prosper.

Let’s look at that as well. If we took that at face value, we would say or assume that a Christian would never be killed by the enemy or a terrorist or anyone else. That God would intervene and jam the chamber on every weapon. But we know that doesn’t happen. We know bad things happen to good people, the righteous have been crucified, the disciples all gave their very lives, and many thousands of Christ-followers since then have perished.

So, what does it mean?

I think we have to look at the verse before this one to break it down.

See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc…

Who is in control here? The One who created the blacksmith that forges the weapon for the work! And that craftsman is under the Lord’s control. He ultimately decides if and when a child of God is taken out of this world and no matter the weapon, if it is not God’s time, it won’t happen.

Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, says it well:

Behold, I have created the smith – The sense of this verse is, “Everything that can effect your welfare is under my control. The smith who manufactures the instruments of war or of torture is under me. His life, his strength, his skill, are all in my hands, and he can do nothing which I shall not deem it best to permit him to do. So with the enemy of the church himself – the waster who destroys. I bare made him, and he is wholly under my control and at my disposal.” The smith who bloweth the coals, denotes the man who is engaged in forging instruments for war, or for any other purpose. Here it refers to him who should be engaged in forging instruments of battle to attack the church; and why should it not refer also to him who should be engaged in making instruments of torture – such as are used in times of persecution?

I have created the waster to destroy – I have formed every man who is engaged in spreading desolation by wars, and I have every such man under my control (see the notes at Isaiah 10:5-7; Isaiah 37:26-27; Isaiah 46:1-6). The sense here is, that as God had all such conquerors under his control, they could accomplish no more than he permitted them to do.

So what is it in your life that has you in turmoil? Are you facing persecution? Is your job on the line? How about your health or that of a loved one? Relationships? Children away from God? Anxiety? Insomnia? Worry about the future? The state of the world?

It may seem as if the enemy is having a field day, so to speak. But he can only do what God gives him time and space for and just like Job, he cannot take our lives, only God has the power to do that. Does that mean we are completely out of danger because we walk with God?

Christians die too. We are all appointed to leave this life at one point in time but the good news is that we don’t check out until He says so! He is ultimately in control! He not only decides whether the weapon is used against us, He decides who forges the weapon! And that enemy, that weapon, can do nothing unless God says so.

If that doesn’t bring comfort to you, I don’t know what will. Our God is sovereign and yes, even though we live in a broken and sin-filled world, and we will until Jesus comes, that is the hope…that He will come again, we will have a way of escape whether it is here in this life or in the catching away…we win because He won.

Loving so much it hurts

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Loving so much it hurtsWe have another year behind us with opportunity and anticipation ahead. One thing we cannot say is that 2016 was boring. I won’t bore you with a repeat of all the highlights from the past year, you will see enough of that on social media.

I have reflected on the year personally, as I am sure you have. This 55th year of my birth brought many, many changes for me and The Sweetheart.

  • Norah Jayne. The miracle we have waited more than ten years for finally arrived 4/2/16. She literally lights up our lives. Those eyes and that smile melt me and if I could give her the world I would.
  • We moved. Well, of course we moved! Six hours south to be near Norah Jayne. A new city, a new church, some old and some new friends, all because of a miracle.
  • I went to work full time. For those that know me at all, I was blessed when My Three Sons were all home to be there for them. Then, with pastoring and traveling, etc., I was busy with curriculum editing for Revival By Design the last five years. Now, I want to be available for Norah, but still have some money to spend on headbands and bows, so I now work at night, from home, for Amazon customer service, in my pajamas if I want!

Norah has brought so many changes to my world, the list could easily be longer. I miss my family back in Indiana terribly but when I walk in the door and that little face brightens up when she sees me and those arms reach out for her Nana…well…I have to admit I am in heaven on earth.

Love so much it hurts at times. I want her to be able to climb up in my lap and know that all is well. I want her to know she is loved and that in the arms of her family she is safe and cared for. (Don’t worry, she is!) But I think about her when I am not with her, I miss her if it’s more than a day or two, and naturally, I don’t want her to forget me.

I have been with The Sweetheart for 40 years, married for 37. It seems as if we have always been a couple, an item, a duo. I can’t imagine my life without him and if I allow my head to go there, to try to imagine losing him, my heart feels as if it would break in two. Many of you reading this, that have experienced that loss, can relate to that. You love so much it hurts!

In 2012, Marjorie and James Landis of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, died just 88 minutes apart. They had been married 65 years. One couldn’t imagine surviving and going on without the other.

A few years ago a group of doctors at Johns Hopkins University reported a rare but lethal heart condition caused by acute emotional distress. The technical name is stress cardiomyopathy; we call it broken heart syndrome. A current example of this would be the actresses Debbie Reynolds and her daughter, Carrie Fisher. Literally heartbroken over the death of her daughter, Debbie Reynolds suffered a stroke and died one day after her beloved daughter. She is reported to have said that she just wanted to be with Carrie.

I was thinking of all of that in prayer time today. I reflected on the past year and the many blessings of the Lord: the good, the bad, the ugly and the wonderful. I was thankful for it all because God was with me, He was faithful.

And for His love, the love He had for us. He loved so much it hurt too. He came as an infant, knowing He would be wounded, physically, verbally, etc., but He still came. He also knew He would give so much that it hurt; physical torture and rejection from His own people. But that love trumped pain, it triumphed over rejection and even abandonment. He paid the ultimate price all because He loved us so much.

He would do it all again you know; just as you would stand in the gap for your children and grandchildren. You would take the punishment for them, you would likely give your life for them because you love so much.

As we enter a new year, uncertainties abound: Political unrest, terrorism that grows increasingly close to our door and endtime prophecy being fulfilled all around us. The one thing that is definite is that we are loved, we are cared for and we are safe in the arms of our Father. We can climb up in His lap, so to speak, and be assured that whatever comes our way, whatever 2017 holds for us as God’s children, He will be faithful to His Word. Persecution may come, difficulties may be present but He will walk with us through any fire or trial. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

That’s a Father’s love for His children. Unconditional, unwavering, a really good hurt.

 

 

The Daniel Fast DevotionalIt’s that time of year again…a time of reflection, renewal and denial. Many churches begin corporate fasts at the beginning of the New Year and individuals choose a fast of some kind as well. Pick up a copy of The Daniel Fast, a Devotional! Available in Kindle and paperback, it’s an easy read, full of 21 days of devotions for ANY FAST. There are also daily recipes for the Daniel Fast or a no meats, no sweets fast if you choose that route. Whatever you do, fast unto the Lord! Click on the book or this link to order from Amazon.com!