Greetings to all, in the blessed name of Jesus.
Have you ever thought of how much it cost early Christians and earlier followers of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to keep faithful to God's calling in their lives?
Noah was ridiculed, mocked, and cursed at for building this huge boat to carry his family and several hundreds of types of animals, birds, and other critters.
He was an old man, when God told him what a cubit was and how to build this humongous cargo hauler, Noah was a whole lot older when the rains came.
Suddenly, the ridicule, the mocking and the cursing stopped.
Nehemiah ran into people who resented him and wanted to destroy him for re-building the walls around Jerusalem.
Nehemiah convinced the various families to help share the burden of restoring the walls and saw his city restored. Nehemiah's detractors were effectively called to account for their actions, and God got the ultimate glory.
Elijah literally had to run for his life to avoid the wrath of Jezebel and Ahab, but God supplied Elijah's needs, kept the prophet safe from harm, and destroyed Ahab and jezebel and gave the neighborhood dogs a feast in the process.
Jesus gave sight to the blind, healed the sick, and afflicted, showed compassion, love and grace for the lost, and suffered more than we can imagine for the redemption of the lost in this world.
Think about it.
Jesus, not only had His feelings trampled on, He also suffered unbelievable torture and beatings from the religious community.
Our Lord and Savior was mocked, had His beard pulled out by thugs, was beaten with a "Cat-o-nine-tails" until His flesh was stripped from His body, and then was spat upon, forced to carry part of His cross up to Golgotha's Mount Calvary, then had spikes driven through His wrists and ankles and was hung on the cross to die an excruciating death.
He went through all of this willingly, and then hung there, He took all of the dark, ugly and horrible sins of the world upon Himself.
As he did so, God was forced to turn away, because God is so holy He cannot look upin sin.
Jesus, for a brief period, was alone and forsaken on that cruel cross.
It wasn't easy.
And then, Jesus conquered; sin, beat death, the grave and hell.
He rose the third day.
When He arose, He allowed those of us to have access to salvation and the same resurrection that He sacrificed His life for.
The lesson here is simple, really.
We may find the Christian walk hard at times.
We may get our feelings hurt, we may have our characters questioned, and we may even suffer ridicule or worse.
The Apostle Paul went through that and more and even died for his service to Christ.
Paul knew that his walk would not be easy.
He willingly suffered beatings, shipwrecks, whippings, and persecutions.
Yet, he fought the good fight, finished his race, and resides in the presence of Jesus today.
Compared to the past saints and their lives, how tough is our walk?
I mean, really?
If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.
Take heart, brothers and sisters, as the return of Christ comes closer, our walk may get more difficult, but our calling has never been more important.
Let's agree not to look back at the past, but keep our eyes on the future.
God has called each of us.
He will fight our battles and heal our wounds.
Lay aside every weight.
Let God lead the way.
Your sometimes tired, but always believing, brother in Christ,
David D.
The Hudson Hawk
Have you ever thought of how much it cost early Christians and earlier followers of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to keep faithful to God's calling in their lives?
Noah was ridiculed, mocked, and cursed at for building this huge boat to carry his family and several hundreds of types of animals, birds, and other critters.
He was an old man, when God told him what a cubit was and how to build this humongous cargo hauler, Noah was a whole lot older when the rains came.
Suddenly, the ridicule, the mocking and the cursing stopped.
Nehemiah ran into people who resented him and wanted to destroy him for re-building the walls around Jerusalem.
Nehemiah convinced the various families to help share the burden of restoring the walls and saw his city restored. Nehemiah's detractors were effectively called to account for their actions, and God got the ultimate glory.
Elijah literally had to run for his life to avoid the wrath of Jezebel and Ahab, but God supplied Elijah's needs, kept the prophet safe from harm, and destroyed Ahab and jezebel and gave the neighborhood dogs a feast in the process.
Jesus gave sight to the blind, healed the sick, and afflicted, showed compassion, love and grace for the lost, and suffered more than we can imagine for the redemption of the lost in this world.
Think about it.
Jesus, not only had His feelings trampled on, He also suffered unbelievable torture and beatings from the religious community.
Our Lord and Savior was mocked, had His beard pulled out by thugs, was beaten with a "Cat-o-nine-tails" until His flesh was stripped from His body, and then was spat upon, forced to carry part of His cross up to Golgotha's Mount Calvary, then had spikes driven through His wrists and ankles and was hung on the cross to die an excruciating death.
He went through all of this willingly, and then hung there, He took all of the dark, ugly and horrible sins of the world upon Himself.
As he did so, God was forced to turn away, because God is so holy He cannot look upin sin.
Jesus, for a brief period, was alone and forsaken on that cruel cross.
It wasn't easy.
And then, Jesus conquered; sin, beat death, the grave and hell.
He rose the third day.
When He arose, He allowed those of us to have access to salvation and the same resurrection that He sacrificed His life for.
The lesson here is simple, really.
We may find the Christian walk hard at times.
We may get our feelings hurt, we may have our characters questioned, and we may even suffer ridicule or worse.
The Apostle Paul went through that and more and even died for his service to Christ.
Paul knew that his walk would not be easy.
He willingly suffered beatings, shipwrecks, whippings, and persecutions.
Yet, he fought the good fight, finished his race, and resides in the presence of Jesus today.
Compared to the past saints and their lives, how tough is our walk?
I mean, really?
If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.
Take heart, brothers and sisters, as the return of Christ comes closer, our walk may get more difficult, but our calling has never been more important.
Let's agree not to look back at the past, but keep our eyes on the future.
God has called each of us.
He will fight our battles and heal our wounds.
Lay aside every weight.
Let God lead the way.
Your sometimes tired, but always believing, brother in Christ,
David D.
The Hudson Hawk
