ASK THE PASTOR WITH DALE RATZLAFF | Pastor and Founder, Life Assurance Ministries (1936–2024)
How should we react to the frightening news stories we are hearing? Should we be preparing to run to the hills?
Throughout history there have been wars, and all too often they have been associated with unspeakable massacres. We should not expect to see anything different now. For man is deceitfully wicked, born in sin to sin. For many years the West has lived in relative peace. We have been blessed to live in a country that at least gave lip service to Judeo-Christian values. But things are changing, or should we say, going back to the wicked normal. Currently, throughout the world, thousands of Christians are being martyred for their faith: burned, crucified, buried alive, and beheaded—all because they refuse to convert to Islam. And we do not know when these “far away atrocities” will appear in our neighborhood.
For our daily devotions Carolyn and I are reading a Psalm each evening, and many questions come into our minds. There are so many promises of protection and deliverance. Yet we see Christians given over to the sword, dying unprotected. Many of them are actually in the process of taking the gospel of Christ to other lands and losing their lives in the process.
David had the same questions. Sometimes he cried out to God, and God did not seem to be there; he heard only silence. At other times David saw God intervene on his behalf. There is a certain mystery to God’s providence that is out of reach for us mortals. In Luke 21:16-19 Jesus gave his disciples these words:
“But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.”
This statement almost seems like double speak—“some of you will be put to death…not a hair of your head will perish.”
THERE IS A CERTAIN MYSTERY TO GOD’S PROVIDENCE THAT IS OUT OF REACH FOR US MORTALS.
During times when we or those whom we love and for whom we pray face uncertainty or even death, we would do well to focus on the promises of God that will not fail, promises we can claim 100%.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (Jn. 5:24).
“Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:12-13).
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1 Pet. 4:12-14).
Come what may, if we cling to gospel statements such as these, our Anchor will hold in times like these.†
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