Gladness in Our Only Sure Joy

Sometimes we cannot help but be heartbroken and downcast at the triumph of malignant evil, in the lives of our close friends, and in our community and nation. Our own friends and their children are attacked and harmed by the government with no end in sight and no rescue.

Of course, the Saints have long witnessed and experienced such evil and sadness. Slavery, massacres, bombings, the butchery of countless helpless babies - and we recognize that it could be far worse!

Our nation is like that described by God to Isaiah - a place where injustice reigns because the people have rejected justice and righteousness and turned to evil. No hope lies in weak man, and when anybody dares stand up for right, that man is also destroyed.

But God will one day bring salvation for His people and judgment and wrath against evildoers!

Here in America, believers have a real problem grasping the fact that our only hope is in the Lord, because we remember a time when Christians thought they had a dominant influence on our society and culture.

But there is nothing of lasting value in America, or any other country. Our only precious possession is everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Jesus repeatedly urged His disciples to let go of everything of this world and lay hold upon eternal life though faith in Him. Indeed, He promised that even if they take our lives, none of us will perish!

Hallelujah, the resurrection overthrows everything evil that befalls the Lord's people!

Paul reiterates the justice of God promised by Isaiah, that it is fitting and right of our God to destroy those who handled His people wickedly, when He rescues us for eternity one day!