Two of my closest friends need prayer today. Walt Wilson is Chairman / Founder / CEO of Global Media Outreach, a ministry that has reached a billion people for Christ with over 100 million decisions. Sadly, he lost his wife this week and her funeral service will be held this coming Monday. Walt and Dee were married for over 50 years and I can personally attest he loved her with all of his heart and the days ahead will be difficult.
My other friend who is in need of prayer is former Baylor All American and NFL superstar Bill Glass. He is in the hospital suffering with a dangerous pulmonary embolism. Bill founded the Bill Glass Behind the Walls prison ministry and over the past forty years has seen over a million decisions for Christ by formerly dangerous inmates whose lives were completely transformed.
Both men love Jesus with all of their hearts and have dedicated their lives to spreading the Gospel to those in need. I’m not normally an emotional person but it breaks my heart to see them suffer so and I have wept for them as I prayed that God would draw near.
Just because you may a Christian doing wonderful things for the Lord does not mean you will escape the curse of this world. Matthew 5:45 states: For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. Even giants of Christian men and women suffer in this world. In fact, it has been my observation that sometimes they suffer more than the average as Satan takes aim at them in an all-out effort to silence them.
I have wondered for many moons as to “why” God allows the persecution of His servants, and I have scoured the Bible trying to find an answer. Why does the Lord allow His faithful to suffer? I cannot find a black and white answer and thus am left to my own conjecture which may or may not be correct and I refuse to even offer an opinion.
I can state unequivocally though that when we started out in the Garden, there was no suffering. When sin entered the picture via Satan’s temptation, and Adam and Eve succumbed to it and the rest of humanity followed suite, God put a curse upon us and even the earth where we live. It was leveled at all of us to include the so called “righteous”. (Actually the Bible states that only Jesus is righteous because we have all sinned.)
At times when the good folks suffer, many angrily curse God for not sparing them. I will say that no one ever suffered more than God’s one and only Son Jesus Christ. He exemplified righteousness perfectly and led a sinless life in order that we can be reconciled and find redemption through His sacrifice, and He suffered more than anyone will ever suffer.
God cannot tolerate sin. It is sin that changed our world. It was introduced by Satan. If we want someone to be a target of our rants, then it should be him and not our Creator.
After our relatively short stint on this dysfunctional earth thanks to the suffering of Christ and being born again we can look forward to an eternity of peace, with no sickness, violence, chaotic storms, tears, suffering, or perversion. We can enjoy peace, joy, and happiness as we rest in our Lord and Savior forever. Dee is there right now, and I bet she is smiling as never before.
For now, the primary tool we have to relieve our suffering is prayer. I ask you to join me wherever you are and pray for these two humble servants of God as they battle the satanic oppression that is attacking them, and while you are at it, please pray for all of those who are sacrificing so much to serve our King, Jesus Christ.
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday.
Phil. 2:13
so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world
August 26 2016 – Click here to listen