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Horrific Despair… into Joy Unspeakable

Look around in the world today and there are many reasons to despair. On many different levels in many different countries.

Minor despair of financial difficulties.

To the major despair of war coming to steal from and to murder entire towns of people.

When Jesus was betrayed, arrested, set up, tortured and killed slowly in public. What despair his followers and family must have felt. All seemed lost, all his teachings must have seemed in question. The entire religion of Judaism and belief he was the messiah dashed to pieces in their minds.

Life can very often tempt one to ask in despair:

“Who can live in such a world?”

“Why does everything have to be so hard?”

“Why are those people so cruel and selfish?”

“What are we going to do?”

“Are we even safe? Will we be able to buy food and stay in our homes?”

The resurrection of Jesus Christ turned this despair of humanity into joy unspeakable.

Unspeakable because it is inexplicable. For those in Christ it bubbles up from within, in the midst of terrible life situations.

Joy because our days of death and suffering are numbered. Precisely numbered and meticulously planned out. Not indefinite, not forever, not alone.

Our suffering and deaths are for a particular purpose and appointed at a particular time. (See Hebrew 9:27).

Furthermore Jesus himself promises to strengthen and be with us as we suffer. Even further we are actually partaking in the sufferings of Christ. They actually are his sufferings if we can understand spiritual reality. All our suffering in this world is a result of Satan’s lashing out against Jesus Christ. As Jesus expands and takes back his humanity and his earth it terrifies and likely infuriates Satan and his principalities and powers.

But their end is coming. New bodies, new hope, new future, new heavens, new earth, eternal growth, eternal expansion, eternal glorification, and more are all in store for Jesus Christ. And for us also, if we are in Him.

Therefore the Joy that is unspeakably wonderful cones bubbling up from within even at the prospect of suffering and death.

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Detailed Description of Reality

The perfect detailed description of reality is the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Life can be very discouraging and painful if we don’t understand spiritual reality.

Ignoring huge portions of reality in order to not be depressed and stay positive and optimistic is not healthy and it’s not helpful, that is like taking medicine to just alleviate symptoms but ignoring root cause.

The gospel of the kingdom explains why and how we got here, it also explains God’s purpose for human suffering.

Cutting and pasting 5% of it out of the Bible to insert into the end of our sermons is a discredit to the entire gospel story, which most Christians have not heard.

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kissing Jesus while betraying him
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Refusing Persecution

If we refuse to be manipulated, abused, persecuted and taken advantage of..

Because we can see it coming, and are skilled at exposing and avoiding and escaping all the schemes of evil men.

Being able to see the schemes does not necessarily mean we have Gods permission or power to avoid or escape them.

“And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.””
‭‭Mark‬ ‭8:32-33‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Peter knew there was an evil scheme awaiting Jesus, and was trying to help Jesus to avoid it. Jesus responded to him “get behind me Satan”. It was God’s plan for Jesus to walk into a trap of suffering and death. Peter assumed, because it seemed terrible and evil, that must be it was not a thing God wanted

If we are constantly activists against evil schemes, some of which succeed (temporarily). Then we may, at times, find ourselves refusing to follow Jesus Christ. We may even find ourselves fighting and undermining what Jesus is doing in the earth. We may get swept up in a battle he simply is not fighting. Using our limited ability to see the big picture and logic we may find ourselves taking a side that seems good but is not necessarily his side.

He may intentionally lead us into trouble, he just may have that for us for a time. That may be in our cup to bear. And if He is our Lord that should be ok with us.

Following his path for us just might result in humiliation, injustice, and peril. If he wants us to take all that, it’s our job to not whine and to accept it. Like a good soldier, and like a loyal bond-slave.

So don’t spend your days as an activist an antagonist of Satan and his helpers. Instead spend your days as an obsessed activist of Jesus Christ and come what may, take it all as his will for you.

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