THE PRICE FOR YOUR FAITH

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

-Matthew 5:5-10

You are a single male, an educator teaching in a local junior college. You show up for classes on Monday morning to be greeted by a trio of khaki-clad men who ask to talk with you. You are escorted to a small room where one of the men reads a document accusing you of being a religious zealot. They show you a photo of yourself, obviously shot with a telephoto lens. Your mind reels, trying to place the location. The building in the photo is the apartment where your friend lives, the one who invited you to attend a small gathering of believers who meet weekly for prayer and Bible Study.

The three men say you need to reeducated and effective immediately, you are relieved of your teaching duties. You have seven days to report to a country farm where you will work and attend indoctrination classes. There’s no trial, no appeal.

Absurd! That all depends on where you live. The fact is that this very scene, reminiscent of what took place in the Cultural Revolution in China, is again taking place.

Donald, my son-in-law and I have been to China and got to talk to a lot of people including veterans of previous repressions. “What can believers elsewhere do to be ready should persecution ever come to us?” Donald asked them. We heard them suggest three things.

First – tell people to make sure that they are Born Again. Scores of people know about Christianity and consider themselves Christians yet have never been Born Again. Second – tell people to internalize their faith. In other words, get your faith in your heart. Don’t wear in on your sleeve. Third – tell people to know the Word of God and be able to stand on it.

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THE GREATEST TEMPTATION

The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?

-Psalm 27:1

There is an old story that says when Christians were under severe persecution in Rome, Peter decided he would leave. As Peter walks out of Rome, he encounters the resurrected Christ who is going the opposite direction. When asked by Peter, “Quo Vadis?” (Where are you going?), Christ replies that He is going back to Rome to die again. Whereupon Peter returns to Rome and there, according to tradition, is martyred, having been crucified upside down.

Anyone who has ever experienced the fear of persecution can understand the struggle, the desire to flee, and save his hide. But only those who have survived have any right to criticize those who waver. Such as Wang Ming Tao, who lived most of his life in seething caldron of controversy and challenge.

Finding Christ as a young man, Wang first felt the bitter taste of rejection when he was thrown out of school because of his decision to be baptized. Eventually, Wang Ming Tao and his wife were both sent to prison; he for 22 years, and she for 20 years because of their refusal to give up what they believed in.

Shortly before of his death, Wang told a friend, “Living in this world, a person will encounter three strong temptations. The first is the temptation of material things. The second temptation is that of vanity. The third temptation is of the flesh.” Reflecting on these he continued, “I have encountered all of these, and thanks be to God, for none of these things did I ever fail.” Then with remorse he said, “But at the end I fell, but for what reason? Fear.” Then he added, “And now, after many years of great trial, I have learned another lesson. Even fear will give way to victory!”

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ON GIVING THANKS

“Give thanks in all circumstances.”

-1 Thessalonians 5:18

Give thanks? How can I give thanks on such a day as this? All over the world there are wars, hunger, oppression, and unrest. How can I truly give thanks under the present conditions?

There is a man in history called Habakkuk. He lived about 600 years before Christ, when the world was in great turmoil. There appeared to be no hope for Habakkuk’s nation of Israel. He saw corruption and confusion everywhere. “Why does God not intervene?” He asked. “Why is God silent in times of disaster?”

Habakkuk did find answer. The answer lies in that God is still on the throne of the universe. He is from everlasting to everlasting. Said the Psalmist: “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thy hand. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure, thou changest them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end” (Psalm 102:25-28).

Habakkuk had questions in his mind; but he brought them to God. God not only answered his questions, but He also put a song in his heart.

You will find that as you put your faith in Jesus, peace and joy will flood your heart, in spite of difficult circumstances about you. Any thanksgiving time will be the best ever, because your happiness does not depend upon world conditions or material gain but upon a loving heavenly Father who is still on the throne and who cares for us individually. Give thanks? Yes, you can if your faith rests in God.

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MEN AND WOMEN DO NOT TALK THE SAME

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

-Genesis 2:18

Men and women just don’t communicate the same way, contends a new book “You just don’t understand women and men in conversation.” Written by sociologist Deborah Tannen. Tannen videotaped hundreds of hours of conversations between males and females and analyzed the substance of their conversations.

Have you experienced difficulty in communicating with your mate or members of the opposite sex?

One: Remember that men communicate from the realm of the physical, women the emotional. Communication has three levels (1) trivia (2) facts (3) emotions. Men reach the limits of their ability to communicate when they explore feelings. With women, however, it begins there and go from the physical to the emotional.

Two: Remember that communication means something totally different to men. When asked to rate themselves as a communicator on a scale of 1 to 10, men always rate themselves 3 points above their wive’s rating.

Three: Understand that every person has a vital need to communicate; look for the level of communication which allows adequate expressions. For a man, it means opening up to vent emotions and feelings; for a woman, it means understanding that her husband may be trying when she reads his efforts as insufficient. And she offers criticism.

Four: Accept that communication skills can be learned no matter how you grew up.

Five: Learn to interpret the non-verbal signals which communicate in more than 700, 000 ways.

Six: Tell your mate how much you value your relationship and why communication is important to you.

Charles Dickens gave good advice when he said: Never close your lips to him to whom you have opened your heart.

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LIFE IS FRAGILE

Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow, what is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

-James 4:14

Boris Yeltzin was weathering the stormy coup in Moscow. As he mounted the barricade outside the parliament, he allowed his five-year-old granddaughter to climb up and stand by his side. History was being made and it was a grand moment to share with this little girl.

Seeing the soldiers and tanks, the little girl turned to her now powerful grandfather and asked, “Grandfather, will the soldiers shoot us in the head?” at her question, reality turned and I felt the fragility of life, Yeltzin said in an interview of CNN.

“What is your life?” asks one of the first New Testament books to be written. I thought of those words as I stood beside the bed of a friend’s dad who was described as a very careful driver. He always wore seatbelts and never exceeded the speed limit. Yet a car approaching from the opposite direction drifting off the highway and injuring him.

Moses, who had known both the classroom of Egypt and the vastness of a classroom under the stars as he took care of his father-in-law’s sheep, said life is like a tale that is told, or a story which a shepherd would tell around the camp fire at the end of the day (Psalm 90:4).

Three thousand years ago, Moses talked about our years as being “Threescore years and ten” (Psalm 90:10), or 70 years, still about the length of the average life span today. But of one thing I am certain – eventually, we will cross the threshold which separates us from eternity.

The real enemy is not death: it is an empty life which brings us to the end with no assurance of life beyond the grave. Think about it.

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HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED

I will remember the deeds of the Lord… I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.

-Psalm 77:11,12

How would you like to be remembered when you die? The American humorist Mark Twain said, “So live that when you die, even the undertaker will be sorry”  - not an easy accomplishment. Douglas Mac Arthur is remembered for saying, “Old Soldiers never die, they just fade away.” Jonas Salk as the man who discovered the polio vaccine. And some will be remembered for their evil deeds – as serial killers, assassins, political terrorists, rapist or thieves.

 In the Old Testament book of Chronicles are fascinating stories of famous and powerful people. Some went to their deaths in disgrace and some in fame and glory. Their life stories finish with a one – line summary. For example, King Jehoram, was arrogant and ill-liked. He died at 32 of an incurable disease. The chapter on his life closes with these words: “He passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.” (2 Chronicles 21:20).

What a contrast to another king Josiah, who lived a few generations later. Of him it was written, “He was buried in the tombs of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.” Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah which to this day are sung.

If for some strange reason God draws a line at the end of your life at 12 tonight, how would you be remembered? No one knows when we should prepare the epitaph for our final resting place. Yet we are remembered both for what we are and what we do, negatively or positively.

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CIRCUMSTANCES

Be still and know that I am God.

-Psalm 46:10

Two prospectors went to a desert in search for a gold. They carefully noted every landmark, because to be lost could mean certain death. One night a great storm drove them into a cave, and from there they watched the lightning flash. Soon the rain began to pour and floodwaters gushed across the desert, ripping up cacti and completely changing the terrain.

One of the prospectors cried out in panic, “All the landmarks are swept away and we are lost!” But the other man calmly said, “Wait! Soon the storm clouds will be gone, and we will see the sky.” Sure enough, the clouds rolled back and when the two old prospectors saw the stars, they found their bearings.

The prospectors have faded into history, but the panic that one feels when the landmarks are swept away is still in the hearts of many people today. People see the landscape of humanity destroyed and are quick to panic. As the prospectors had to wait and look up, so the solution to your concern lies in looking upward.

Two things give me peace amidst the storms of life. One is by looking at the stars in the heavens, I realize that the God who placed them above, eons of years ago, is the same today. Second, by remembering the ruins of ancient civilizations, I realize that the problems confronting me are not here to stay. They are merely part of the challenge of life, and they, like the civilizations of the past, will not be with me forever.

It is by looking upward that gives us our bearing when the circumstances of life are chaotic. There is the anchor of a loving God who never changes. He speaks to our hearts today amidst the thunder and roar of life.

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BELIEF WITHOUT PROOF

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

-Hebrews 11:1

“Faith,” wrote the Quaker scholar Elton Trueblood, “is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.” Yet the fact is, faith seems to contradict the world of reality.

The saying goes, “Seeing is believing” but in reality, believing is seeing. This is what Jesus taught in John 10. It was part of a heated conversation Jesus had with some religious leaders of the day who called Him “demon-possessed” (John 10:19). The people, who had more spiritual insight than their leaders said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” (John 10:21).

Jesus said, “Believe the miracles, that you may learn and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father” (John 10:38). Notice the progression of those three verbs which are like steps to spiritual understanding: First, believe – then learn, then understand.

We reverse it today. First, we want to understand everything. We want proof. Only then are we willing to believe. That’s our problem. Believing comes first, said Jesus. Then knowing, then understanding.

In writing to the Corinthians, Paul said, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corintihans 2:14).

Have you reversed the order, insisting that you understand first, and then you will believe? Try it the other way around. Believe, and with the step of faith will come knowledge, then understanding. Believing is seeing!

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MOOD: wanna move to another city and start a new life

I love the sound of smooth winds and gentle wings of butterflies and dragonflies on a quiet field. I find it so peaceful.

I love the sound of heavy rain and thunder on a dark night. I find it so peaceful.

It is always nice to stop and smell the roses, or the sunflowers.

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