Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

• 1 Peter 4:12-14

“Several years ago I was in Africa in a little country where an enemy had taken over the government. There was great oppression against the Christians by the new government. The first night I was there some of the native Christians were commanded to come to the police station to be registered. When they arrived they were arrested and during the night they were secretly executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. By that time the entire district realized that the Christians were being systematically murdered. It was the intent of the new government to eradicate them all—men, women, and children-—much as Hitler tried to eradicate all the Jews.
“I was to speak in a little church on Sunday morning. The people came, but I could see fear and tension written on every face. All during the service they looked at each other, their eyes asking the same questions: ‘Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one to be killed? Will I be the next one?’ …
“If you are reproached for being Christ’s followers, that is a great privilege, for you can be sure that God’s Spirit of glory is resting upon you.
“I closed the Book and began to talk, simply, as an aunt would talk to her nieces and nephews. ‘When I was a little girl,’ I said, ‘I went to my father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.”
“ ‘ “Tell me,” Father said, “when you take a train trip from Haarlem to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?”
“ ‘ “No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.”
“ ‘ “That is right,” my father said, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our wise Father in heaven knows when you are going to need things too. Today you do not need the strength to be a martyr; but as -soon as you are called upon for the honor of facing death for Jesus, He will supply the strength you need—just in time.’
“I looked out at my African friends. Many of them had already lost loved ones to the firing squad or the headsman’s axe. I knew that others would surely die that week. They were listening intently.
“ ‘I took great comfort in my father’s advice,’ I said. ‘Later I had to suffer for Jesus in a concentration camp. He indeed gave me all the courage and power I needed.’
“My African friends were nodding seriously. They, too, believed God would supply all their needs, even the power to face death bravely. …
“The meeting was over and the Africans stood to leave. Then softly, in the back of the room, someone began singing an old gospel song. [in the Sweet by and by] …
“I don’t know how many were killed that week, but someone told me that more than half those who had attended that service met a martyr’s death—and thus received a martyr’s crown. But I know that God’s Spirit of glory had been resting upon them. (See 1 Peter 4:14.)”

• Corrie ten Boom, Tramp for the Lord

We may not be facing a firing squad or the blade of an axe man.  But we may be facing a doctor’s diagnosis, and we may not want to go to that appointment.

I was reminded this morning of an old story that I cannot remember.  I will just have to invent a similar one.

An old lady was in the doctor’s office.  He told her that she had cancer, and over the next year or two, she would suffer great pain.  But then, it would be over.  She thanked the doctor and on her way to her car, she thought.  She began to weep.  She began to worry.

After all, the old woman had macular degeneration.  It was any day now that they would take her car keys away from her.  She needed hearing aids, but she could not afford them.  Her taste buds were getting so weak that nothing tasted good anymore.  She needed both hips and both knees replaced, but the doctor said she was too old.

As she walked across the street to the parking lot, she looked to heaven and asked, “God, how can I cope with all this.”

And that is when the truck ran over her.  The End.

Many times in the Old Testament, God tells His Chosen People, through a prophet, that He did this or that for a reason.  So that you will know that I am the Lord your God.

We need to trust in God and He will take care of the details.

On the day writing this, obviously not on a Sunday when it comes out, I am about to leave for a doctor visit.  With the results of several recent tests, the doctor may require surgery or he may have worse news.  Or it may be a wasted trip in that he just does not know what is going on.  But I know where I am going; anything short of that is a little more pain.  In the sweet by and by, we shall all meet on that beautiful shore.

Here are the Oak Ridge Boys singing In the Sweet By and By.  They might harmonize better than in that little church in Africa, but the words meant the same.  And maybe in that little church, they meant more.

Lord, strengthen me.  I definitely need that strength today.  Many of us are not afraid to die.  We know we are going to be with You.  But sometimes we are concerned about what happens right before that point.  Help us be brave, relying on your strength.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.