Life Matters - May 8, 2024
“Without courage we can’t face any other virtue consistently, we can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous or honest.” -Maya Angelou
To be a heartless, wavering, unmerciful, greedy liar would soon enough reduce anyone, whether running for cover, running for office, or desperately manning a machine gun, into a coward at heart. Am I speaking from experience? Well… yes… I’m ashamed to admit… I have at one time or the other been touched down upon by all of those cowardly feelings, though thankfully, not all at the same time, but still, enough so to know that, “But for the grace of God, there go I.” To be a coward is the natural state of man without God.
To have true, lasting, unwavering, courage is the natural outflow of a life in harmony with God, having been reconciled to Him, having been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. (Romans 5:10) To be in reconciled harmony with our Father God through Jesus Christ whom He has sent is to be a grateful recipient of courage flowing from the throne of His grace. To have courage is to be free from condemnation, not by avoiding condemnation, but through facing it and the source of its troubled conscience, to find forgiveness, peace and rest in our souls by faith in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Taking part in His rising by the renewal of Life. A renewal that has courage woven into the very tapestry of its invigoratingly kind, true, merciful, generous, and honest life. Have you been perfect? Have I been perfect? No. But… our Father God is the master of new beginnings. Coming to Him in repentance and faith opens the heart’s door to a fresh start, a new beginning.
The cowardly invasion of Ukraine, bought and paid for by the Russian government, was begun by a show of might meant (by all appearances) to intimidate all Ukrainians into submissive obedience to Russian might and will. Or else…? The “or else” has not been an empty threat, as attested to by dead bodies, bombed out buildings, including homes and apartment buildings, refugees left homeless, soldiers and untold numbers of civilians wounded, maimed, or killed. The Ukrainian spirit, wishing to be free of Russia’s “oversight,” remains indomitable, unbroken. Though millions have fled the country, yet those remaining labor on in defense of freedom from the attempted renewal of “oversight” that, in the past century, degenerated a “breadbasket of Europe” into a country of poverty, to the point of starvation at times.
Many have also stayed to labor on in the Gospel, the good news that, through our Lord Jesus Christ, the vices of men and of demons have been broken, enabling a rising to newness of life. A newness of life that has courage coursing through its very essence, because the outcome of war in the realm of spirits has already been sealed in the heart and mind of God the Father because of Jesus Christ His Son, who once for all has proven the Power that love has over hatred. The power that virtue has over vice. The power that courage has over cowardice.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9 NIV) I wish giving up to Hitler’s demands had not been an option in Nazi Germany. I wish and pray that surrender to the alphabet mob of perversions would not be an option in America. I hope and pray that virtue will, once and for all, win over vice. Oh! I seem to be speaking of a different world than the one we are living in now! I seem to be speaking of a kingdom of God that is “within you.” (Luke 17:21) A kingdom unshaken by the turmoils of this world, a kingdom from which the Neumollers, the Blaurocks, the TenBooms, the spiritual warriors and martyrs in the ages before them and in the years after, gained their courage because of its king, Jesus Christ The Righteous. Our gracious king for all time and eternity. And he, dear reader, (I include myself) is the only source of consistent, realistic, courage. The secret of Christian strength. Courage that is “out of this world.”
For reasons we do not yet understand, God limited Himself when He did not make us robots, but people with minds and wills to choose whom we will serve. In essence, to choose between hatred or love. The former is the framework of cowardice, the latter of courage. Let us not become weary in doing good!
Life matters!