When God's people find themselves in a culture alien to faith, they can remain formidable witnesses of Biblical truth. Joseph, son of Jacob DID in heathen Egypt, not only through 13 years of slavery, but through 80 years of prosperity. The first 13 served as a catalyst changing Joseph into the admirable MAN concerned for others from the spoiled BOY with a crush on himself. Those turbulent years changed a dead-end life into an open-ended era of spiritual heroics.
Teaching us a great spiritual truth: life circumstances can harden us inside ourselves, from which we don't exit. They can also soften our pride and make us aware of human vulnerability that draws us through them TO God. The former will lead us to regret having faith in God. The latter, praise God, will lead us as surely to regret...but only regret of what we:
Of all the things Joseph could have regretted, he possibly regretted not having grabbed the cloak Potiphar's wife snatched from him as he fled. For she turned that innocent garment into damning evidence. BUT...things aren't always what they seem. And, eliminating lots of what could be said, like us, Joseph wouldn't have intentionally written the script as his history unfolded. But since he couldn't change his past, he didn't regret how it advanced him into his vault to fame, power and wealth. In all those years he found GOD ALONE sufficient and faith in GOD ALONE all he needed. Which we American Christians seldom experience. For we have so much on which we depend...because we have so much besides GOD. That surfeit of things makes us impatient with any problem threatening it. We need to learn faithfulness to God:
So we can be ready for the CRITICAL TIMES when preparation in faith translates into ACTION, and God calls us to serve. End Part II NOTE: didn't know till I wrote this I had a third, final part.
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Older Christians—say the age of the writer at 85 years—matured in a society broadly influenced by, tolerant of and subjected to the limits of Judeo-Christian morality. Given that fact, we can say that it's easier to maintain one's faith in God when one's spiritual convictions and society's values exist in equilibrium—when what we believe society as a whole accepts.
Times have changed. What people the age of the writer took for granted no longer exists. We now know by experience what Marion Henderson warned us might happen in America: Christianity would not always be welcomed. It isn't now. Any other religion, yes. The absolutely true and final Revelation of God in Christ, NO. Now that we experience rejection of Christianity by culture, we value the granite-solid Biblical teaching received in Lincoln Bible Institute. Its very existence inspired renewal in hundreds of churches throughout Illinois. Its sister colleges Cincinnati Bible College and Ozark Bible College had the same effect on their states. Sadly, only Ozark Bible College, renamed Ozark Christian College, remains true to its origins. Cincinnati Bible College has vanished and Lincoln Bible Institute—now self-important University--is vanishing. I used these named institutions of Bible learning as an introduction to the second Part of this blog. Tomorrow...discover how two men, one in the Patriarchal Period, the other in a weakened Mosaic Period, successfully lived for God with no help from society; indeed, despite the efforts of society to strengthen its appeal and destroy God's. They built models our discipleship can follow. End Part I |
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