August 11, 2009

Number 32

VIEWPOINT

“I couldn’t have asked for a better wife!  She took care of me, she took care of our family, she helped me in so many ways!”  Those words were the first ones that Everett used when he started telling me about losing Martha.  After all, they’d been married 62 years.  Their lives have been deeply entwined in faithfulness to each other. 

In fact, that faithfulness is one of the chief characteristics about Martha’s personality.  She was deeply committed to her family, and the difficulties they faced took a toll on her.  But the joys they shared on the other hand delighted her. 

She was also dedicated to the Lord’s church.  That’s what made last Sunday abnormal – Martha’s absence was highly unusual.  Participating in the assembly wasn’t ever a question to be debated; from her childhood she’d been worshipping God.  It was an issue that had been settled long ago and she never considered variation from that custom. 

We’re going to miss Martha – her red outfits and her funny comments.  We’ll miss her thoughtfulness and her kind words.  But we’ll look forward to a day when we see her again. 

“The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality . . . then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:51, 54, 57).   RA

Blessed Are the Persecuted

BLESSED are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:10-12).

IN THE FACE of persecution, Jesus' followers have two reasons to rejoice and be glad.  First, they know that God rewards those who suffer for their faith, and that their reward will indeed be great in heaven.  The second reason Jesus' followers can rejoice in tribulation is that they stand in good company:  In the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you, Jesus says. (Richard B. Gardner, Matthew)

IT MAY SEEM strange that Jesus should pass from peacemaking to persecution, from the work of reconciliation to the experience of hostility.  Yet however hard we may try to make peace with some people, they refuse to live at peace with us.  Not all attempts at reconciliation succeed. (John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount)

JESUS' CLIMAX at the end of the Beatitudes says exactly this: Stand faithful and do not get blown about by the ideologies of the world.   If we lose our distinction from the world's greed, uncaring, self-centeredness, exclusionism, unfaithfulness, and violence, then we have no purpose.  (Glen H. Stassen, Living the Sermon on the Mount)

WE HAVE ONLY one Master, whose service is incompatible with any state of servitude to any other master. It is his will which governs our dealings with the world, and so we cannot accept that the world has any right to order us around. And if the world chooses to penalize us for this, that is a price we are prepared to pay. (Simon Tugwell, The Beatitudes)

ONE WONDERS why Christians today get off so easily. Is it because unchristian Americans are that much better than unchristian Romans, or is our light so dim that the tormentor can't see it? What are the things we do that are worth persecuting? (Clarence Jordan, Sermon on the Mount)  

– Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman