A Friday of Perseverance

Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.  Revelation 3:10

There is a dash in front of the number on the temperature readout thingy again. Winter is an enjoyable season for me up to a point. That is of course the point where I grow weary of it and hope to not see those little dashes on the thermometer for a few months. March is usually about the time that point comes and I am tested in patience and endurance. 

That seems rather a minor testing to you, and you might think me overly dramatic, weakly faithful, or even just downright silly. Look at all the wars and plagues around the world! See the persecution of our brothers and sisters! What have you to complain about? You would say to me on this frosty morning. All too true, I say, but what we want to examine today is how easily we tramp down the sufferings of others. Always to us the real suffering is way over there in that foreign land. In the meantime, a neighbor right here is laid out with a mortal condition, a family is financially ruined, a friend suffers mental illness in silence due to the stigma she feels, and another one goes to work to get ground up in all ways by a corporate machine. 

Those of you who have read many of these messages will be thinking, "Bucky read another of those books where the author says all persecution is over yonder and we don't know nothing in our safe and secure place in America!" You're right of course, and I still hate it when they do that to us. Persecution comes in many flavors and it ain't all way over there. The Lord will see me through another cold day, but in our land are people suffering this day. And I would like to remind those 'only over yonder' authors that our Lord Jesus called them by a term we do well to recall, neighbors, as in love them.  

God's love and my love to you on this frosty morning, whatever you may be suffering this day. 

Bucky