A meaningful life

 

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Richard was dead. For forty years I had been planning to look him up and apologize for my reaction to something he had said as a joke. When I did eventually look for him, I discovered that he had died ten years after the incident and that shocked me and had me scratching about in the past: photographs, messages, and school yearbooks. Names and faces had my brain racing. Was I ever that young? Some names made me smile, some I remembered with displeasure, some I did not.

Thirty of us sat in a classroom forty years ago, and I don't recall one of them trying to contact me since then. I don't blame them. I am not an easy person to get along with. I am not one who would be remembered. I would call very few friends even though we spent five years in the same classroom. Still, I wondered what had become of them.

Christian bashing

 

The_Death of Stephen
 by Gustave_Doré

Christians are lambasted these days as idiots and buffoons. They are ridiculed, laughed at, and mocked. In some countries, Christians are persecuted, hunted, imprisoned, and executed for their beliefs. Christian bashing has become vogue among people who fear the truth about God, life, and death and feel the need to protect their own belief system or religion. It is easier to rant and rave and drown out anyone who threatens your religion or lifestyle than it is to admit they’re wrong. But let’s be honest, the unbelieving world is the last that should be throwing stones at Christians because their vitriol is filled with the same arrogance, malice, and lack of knowledge they accuse Christians of.

Christians all over the world bemoan these attacks and claim that it is getting worse. They point to the 'great falling away’ and wonder, like Elijah, if they are the last generation to hold onto the faith. Elijah was to learn that there were still many who believed. When these attacks come we, like Elijah, feel alone and isolated but take heart that we are not.

Heb 13:5b … for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

It's not how much we give

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

 Giving can be a pain and extremely hard to   do. One Sunday during a service some years   ago, at collection time, I found myself nervously   fingering the money I had brought. How much   should I give? The collection plate was being   passed along the pews and I needed to do my   sums quickly. What did I need to buy at the   shop on the way home? How much could I give and not feel guilty? What about later in the week, would I have enough to get through? I made my calculations and never gave that week or the next. It was only later, a long time later, that I took the time to consider my dilemma in church, and it dawned on me that while considering my own needs, I gave no thought to the needs of the church or congregation. Every Sunday I sit in relative comfort, in a clean building, with electric lights and running water. How many of these things could be maintained with the paltry amount I had held back? It had never occurred to me that the preacher might not have enough to feed his family or service his car. What about the cleaner, the groundsman, the property tax, electricity, and water accounts, all these needed to be paid, and the building needed to be maintained.

The Christian Militant

The martyrdom of St. Stephen
 by Juan Correa de Vivar 

...for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Mat 26:52

From the outset, the Christian church has been under attack. Stephen was stoned, James beheaded, and the apostles beaten and imprisoned, yet there was no retaliation, no revenge, and no counterstruggle, at least not a physically violent one. Their methods of combat were prayer, compassion, and preaching because they believed:

2Cor.10:4  For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, and yet:

Acts 6:7  And the Word of God was increasing. And the number of the disciples in Jerusalem was multiplying exceedingly; even a great crowd of the priests obeyed the faith.

For the next three centuries Christians were persecuted, murdered, used for circus entertainment, set alight as human torches, and fed to wild animals, and yet:

Acts 12:24...the Word of God grew and increased.

Over the years Christians were attacked by Romans, Jews, Persians, Muslims, Vikings, pagans, and even other Christians, and yet:

Acts 19:20  So the Word of God grew mightily and prevailed.

Christianity has been at war since the birth of Jesus when Herod sent his army to kill the babes of Bethlehem. Its weapons of resistance have always been the Word of God and prayer. It was a war won with the blood of martyrs, some of whom gave their lives voluntarily. The endless attacks eventually spilled over into physical retaliation. 

Applied Christianity

Image by popmelon from pixabay

 

Matthew.4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 

For a long time, historians have been trying to make history relevant in the modern world. There was a time when the study of history was considered crucial for anyone thinking of a career as a diplomat, politician, or military officer. After World War Two, history lost its relevance for the younger generation, but in recent years, there has been a major effort by historians to make their subject relevant again.