Sometimes, we are not at our best but we still have to function.
Case in point: I am currently battling a cold and recovering from a migraine at the same time.
Waaah.
I still need to write a blog.
Actually, “need” is not the right word. I want to write the blog. I love writing this blog because God opens doors for my soul to discover and learn things I would not discover or learn by laying on the couch and making sounds like an expiring bovine while lamenting how terribly sick I am. There are immeasurable blessings to be found in being diligent and faithful to bless people other than yourself –even when it is slightly inconvenient to do so.
To put it more succinctly: “Suck it up, buttercup.”
Yes, I know that is totally antithetical to American culture today. I know that there are vast corporations who have made kajillions (spellcheck says that is not a word) of dollars on the premise of giving me what I want, how I want it, and when I want it –which is always right now.
That’s all fine and well. Many people have jobs, support their families, and make life better for many other people because of companies like that.
But that’s not what we want in the Church.
The whole premise of the Gospel is based on eternal life AFTER this life. We are eternal beings living a temporal existence. I have posted these verses many times before: For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17 & 18 (ESV)
And, since a picture is worth a thousand words, that building in the picture above is a church in the Dominican Republic. One of my sisters in Christ recently posted that picture on Facebook with photos and video of over 30 people worshiping in that church. My friend and brother in Christ, Pastor Secundino Ulloa was shown preaching in that church and, even though my Spanish is not all that good, I am pretty sure he was saying that Jesus is the Word and the Word is life.
With children chattering and sitting on their parent’s laps, with light shining in through the cracks in the walls and the holes in the rusty tin roof, the Word is life and the darkness cannot, does not, and will not extinguish it. The darkness trembles at this light that cannot be quenched. Ever.
When I asked the name of the church in that photo I was told it is “La Capilla de la Victoria, which means, “The Chapel of the Victory.”
It’s images like this that come to me when I am tempted to complain because my toast is not as perfectly golden as I would like it. It’s images like this that come to me when I am tempted to complain about… well, virtually anything.
Our blessings are beyond measure. The Israelites complained in the dessert about the manna, even though it was the bread of life that had come down from heaven. No, it was not toasted perfectly golden brown.
I have nothing, absolutely nothing, to complain about.
As far as I am concerned, the church in the picture is as grand and glorious as any mega-church I’ve ever been in because the King of kings and Lord of lords attends that church.
It is indeed the Chapel of The Victory because this LORD who came to earth was born in a stable as simple and humble as that chapel. He walked the dusty streets of Jerusalem, of Bethany, and of Samaria and preached the Good News. He died on a cross for your sins and for my sins. And He rose from the dead because death could not hold Him and the grave could not keep Him.
This humble Savior who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped rose in complete Victory over sin, death, and the devil!
He is the same LORD you hear about every day on Kinship Christian Radio and he is still saving souls and still changing the world!
Today’s Praise.
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:20 (ESV)