"Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until , and I will give you a crown of life" (Rev. 2:10).

The apostle John encourages Christians to never give up being a faithful Chris­tian, even in the face of Satan's fierce attacks. In the end, the crown of eternal life far outweighs any cost in this life.

This verse has encouraged me to never give up. In growing up, I had a hard situation to overcome. My mother was physically unable to care for me and my father was an irresponsible alcoholic. I was placed in foster care, went through several homes throughout Indiana, even enduring physical abuse in some places. I ended up in an "orphans home," where I learned the gospel and obeyed the Lord.

Yet, in living on my own, my problems didn't stop. My brother and dad would continually pressure me to do things that were wrong, harassing me so I'd leave the church of Christ. My guilty con­science would bother me. Besides re­peatedly praying to God for forgiveness of my sins, I probably hold the world's record for coming forward at church to ask for the prayers of the saints.

Can someone like me have any hope of being a stronger Christian? When I think over the problems of my past, it would seem doubtful. I had run away from sev­eral foster homes, stole a car once, stole some guns another time, did some time in jail, and even had to seek the help of mental health professionals.

I felt many times like giving up. I never totally gave up because I remembered the Lord would not give up on me. Paul, while unjustly imprisoned, proclaimed, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). Despite my repeated failures, I knew God would not fail me. "I will never leave you or for­sake you" (Heb. 13:5). I never gave up on on the gospel because I knew that no matter how hard things were in my life, that God would be there when no one else would be.

One day, I got tired of life as a yo-yo and being persecuted by an unbelieving family. With the Lord's help, I knew I could do better if I had a change of scenery. A good friend told me about a preacher-training program in Ellettsville, Indiana. Believe it or not, my life's dream is to preach God's soul-saving word. I eventually moved there to learn the way of gospel preaching. I have grown a great deal in many months of intensive Bible training, teaching and preaching. Wonder of wonders, I re­cently moved to Rochester, Minnesota to work in partially supporting myself to preach for a small but encouraging group of Christians. Praise God for the gospel of the second chance!

Dear reader, don't ever give up! Don't ever say you cannot live a faithful Christian life. If someone like me can overcome past problems through Christ, then there is no doubt that anyone can overcome by God's grace.

I am determined that when I am about to pass from this life, that I want to say like Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day, and not to me only but also to alJ who have loved His appearing" (2 Tim. 4:7-8) Believe me, you can do it. I hope and pray that I'll see you in heaven someday, When God wipes away the tears from our eyes, they will stay dry. Then we can praise God together for His grace and say, "surely, heaven is worth it all.” - Tom Tebault, in Biblical e-Sights

 

 

 

Someone has said, "procrastination is the grave in which our opportunities are buried." And yet how many are afflicted by it! Most of us, however, only procrastinate concerning things we are not particularly interested in, or things that may be unpleasant to face, regardless how important they may be. But we need to remember that these things may be extremely impor­tant to other people.

Give us something we are interested in, and watch us go! Of course, this is nothing more than another form of selfishness, and selfishness is an ugly sin. Things that are our responsibili­ties, because they require some effort that we do not want to expend, are put off even at the inconvenience of oth­ers. We need to take note of such at­titudes!

When we put something off until to­morrow, we will more than likely want to put it off when tomorrow comes too! One day of delaying; one day of shoving things to the proverbial "back burner" that we have accepted as our peculiar duty, just makes it that much easier to put it even further into the future.

Then there is another saying about procrastination that I like. It says: "Procrastination is the fertilizer that makes our problems grow." I wish I had thought of that! Let's get rid of whatever "put-off-ism" that may be in our lives, and get on with taking care of the things that we have been en­trusted with. - Bill Moseley

 

 

 

The woman went to the police station to report her husband missing, and took her neighbor with her. In describing him she said, "well, he's 35, 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 185 pounds, dark eyes, dark wavy hair, an athletic build, soft spoken and is great with the chil­dren." Whereupon the neighbor broke in and said, "now wait a minute - your husband is 5 feet 2 inches tall, with a pot belly, bald, has a big mouth and is mean with the kids." The first lady then said, "yeah, but who wants him back?"

And so the scenario is repeated over and over again. Some young man meets "miss Right," or she meets "mister Per­fect," and they are going to live happily every after. Well, yes... that's a good thought. But, as is so often the case, the flaws in "miss Right," and in "mister Perfect" begin to show themselves. Of course, they knew they were there all along, but were going to "change them" after they were married. Where have I heard that one before?

Advice to young folks - you would do well to make whatever changes you feel need to be made in one another be­fore you commit yourselves for life. The cold hard facts are that, so far as the Lord is concerned, you're stuck with whomever you were determined to marry in spite of their flaws. The Lord sure won't listen to, "who wants to be married to somebody like that?" He will tell you, "well, you got'em - now you're stuck with'em." - Bill Moseley