War and Peace

The newest Supreme Court justice cannot (will not) define what a woman is because she is “not a biologist”. My alma mater (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville) issued a no contact order to a Christian graduate student because other students found her beliefs offensive. A member of the Finnish parliament was put on trial for hate speech because she believes in the biblical definition of marriage. These instances are just a drop in the bucket of what is happening and what’s to come.

“Learn your doctrine in peacetime so you can deploy it in war. When you know who God is, you can trust him for what he does.” —Tim Challies shortly after the sudden death of his son

We’re still in relative peacetime—I don’t think it’s going to last for long. So get ready.

Last night I was laying in bed thinking about the madness of the world we live in and what my children are going to have to face. It’s so easy to give way to fear and worry.

And Jesus loves my children better than I ever could. He made them for such a time as this. And he’s entrusted them to me for a time to raise them to know Him.

Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

It’s so easy to be distracted by all the bells and whistles of this world—to be sucked in by the glitz and the glam and the excess. But we’re called to so much more than that.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:6-11

Do not be shocked by what’s happening. How rapidly the culture is changing. How swiftly they turn on you. Jesus told us that the world would hate us because we belong to Him, not to this world.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And

“If the righteous is scarcely saved,
    what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. 1 Peter 4:12-19

We can suffer with joy, giving thanks for being counted worthy to suffer for Jesus.

My prayer for myself, my husband, my children, my family, and the church at large is that we would be so enamored with Jesus, so filled up by His word, so strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit, so taken aback by God’s wondrous mercy and grace to us, that we would willingly and joyfully suffer for a little while. That we wouldn’t react in anger and shock, as I have been guilty of, but that we would respond with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Standing firm. Waiting expectantly for eternal glory with our Lord and Savior.

In the meantime, take heart.

In the word you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 16:33