Nailing Jesus to Me
Soul Snack 73/12 ... Nailing Jesus to Me
Pastor Youceff Nardarkhani has been jailed in Iran. He had objected to his son being forced to study the Koran. His attorney has been jailed for nine years for representing people whose human rights have been violated. Nardarkhani now faces the death sentence on the charge of apostasy. Unable to find legal representation (as you would expect) the courts now falsely claim his death penalty is due to extortion and rape charges.
This kinda brings a corrective light to my life's events, personal troubles and regular gripes.
Satan is boldly multiplying his malevolence. Families are destroyed, poverty is increasing, Islam is spreading, cancers grow and countless people are daily crushed by depression. Death still wins. Ill-will appears without reason, hatred is as present in life as sickness and Jesus' own are both burdened and broken.
In this world of pain only ever a handful will bend the knee to Jesus and even fewer will refuse to blame Him for suffering.
And yet I still worry about my own pettiness, my own injustices, my own jealousies, my own betrayals and my own desires. I indulgently proffer a scant regard to the Youceff Nardarkhanis of this world and even less frequent prayer.
My prejudices, my greeds and my fears are but mere earthly vapor, yet they consume so much of me. However, correcting me is Jesus' care for the eternal; that which belongs beyond our frail planet. Only people will live forever; His heart is that my heart is to place others above me.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (Jn 15:16-17)
Today's Soul Snippet:
God measures life by what we gave and not by what we got.