Day 2986 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Matthew 5:10 NIV

In order to find a promise very few care to find one must walk a path very few care to walk.

That is in fact the path of the life of a follower of Christ. It leads us through this life teaching us to stop worrying so much about this life. It asks us to trust that there awaits us a promise worth enduring whatever hardship may remain in our way. It calls us to take up our crosses and follow the One who showed us how it’s done. And in that calling we find the reality that our experience down here is likely to be far more in line with what Christ experienced than the comforts everyone else chases.

Because He proved that home isn’t here, but also that here doesn’t change the home that’s still to come.

You've likely heard it said that your home is your sanctuary. It's supposed to be this place of peace and comfort and a warmth that soothes away the pains of life. Home is this idea of a place where we belong, a place where we're welcomed without hesitation into a love without restraint. Home is where we go to just be who we simply are without question or controversy. And if that is indeed the case, then all the hostility sure to come our way proves only that we're not yet home.

That's one of those truths that's become something of a rallying cry amongst the faithful. It's this encouraging hope that serves to pull us through the days spent trudging through the monotony of immorality. The reminder that there's a home still to come, a home to which we're headed, a home that is truly all that a home ought to be is just enough to keep our spirits aloft when much of the world seeks to sink them beneath the waves of wickedness and the actions done in its name.

These past few days I've found myself in a funk I've never really experienced before. And even as I sit here typing out this offering, I still find myself unable to understand it. It's this mix of anger and frustration with a spiritual and mental exhaustion that has simply left me reeling in a way I've never felt. But through all the thinking and wondering and trying to resolve whatever has caused this troubling within, I just can't help but realize that it's something big.

We look around at a world filled with what are sad underestimations. Scripture tells us that love will grow cold, but I don't think we realized just how bitter and numbing that cold would become. We're told that many will fall away from the faith, but none of us would have ever guessed just how many that many will eventually be. We're told that we'll be hated, that persecution will come, that wickedness will soar and hearts will give into that allure offered within the welcoming arms of a world lost.

But I doubt that anyone would imagine just how rapidly things would seem to unravel.

And amidst all these terrifying misunderstandings stands a few simply trying to do some good in the only way they know how. There is still good in this place, still those seeking to love according to a love not understood and no longer welcome. There are still those clinging to truth and trying to share it so that it may cut through some of this hatred and harshness infecting so many. There are still some who are desperate to reach out for Christ as well as for those still apart from Him.

But friends, it's dwindling. As I woke up this morning, my normal prayer was interrupted with a realistic recount of how I feel in this moment in this place. Every single day we see far more hatred and strife than anything anywhere close to decent. We walk around and see nothing but shadows of despair upon the faces passing us by. We hear the vicious, venomous and violent voices speaking so much louder than those gently whispering beneath the noise.

And at some point it just dawns on you that this is the road home. This is what's happening. This is the beginning of the rest of the end. And while none of us know when that day will come, the fact remains undoubted in that what we're seeing is a society imploding in the ongoing search to satisfy self through the indulgence of all manner of wayward vice. And just as the Bible was so obviously correct about love growing cold and folks falling away, we should trust that things will only get worse before He makes everything right once more.

I think the hard part of this suddenly increasing difficulty is that we find ourselves tasting a sample of what those who've gone before us endured. Now sure, we're not yet to the part of flogging and crucifixion and other public disgraces being levied against those who refuse to refuse their faith. But seeing the ways in which things are advancing rapidly in a very wrong direction, I don't think it much of a stretch to imagine that those things aren't far away.

The fact is that no matter how optimistic or hopeful or expectant of the revival of hearts and souls brought back to reality we may be, reality is still there pointing quite clearly to only the continuance of the downward spiral of this society still happily falling down before the throne of selfish depravity and utter disparity due to the devoted dedication to deceit and malice and the ongoing social acceptance of all things despicable.

And as the wickedness grows in popularity and infects hearts in new ways, in deeper ways, those clinging to the truth that points to the dire danger of living such a life filled with such a lack of eternal consideration will find themselves attacked and hated and ridiculed and reprimanded and ostracized and rejected and ignored and berated and belittled in ways we've never felt before.

So why would anyone choose that path of such incredible and likely painful resistance? Why would anyone opt for the misery when it's so much easier to simply go along with whatever everyone else demands we do so that we can get through the rest of this with as little hardship and hassle as possible? Why would we pick to be hated?

Because that's the example we've been given, and though it obviously foolish to those finding the warmth and welcome of a society that makes it clear what's expected in exchange for that acceptance, our hope is placed in the promise of a home that is still to come.

This doesn't need to be the best part of our ride because our faith tells us that this is just the start. And even if this part sucks, we understand that this part is temporary. And since these lives won't last forever, then we know that the pains and torments and trials and sufferings we face will too end, and when they do, they will give way to our arrival at that promised home that is all the good things a home is supposed to be.

We don't have to find our place here, and in that truth lies a courage that compels along the narrowing path even though that shrinking is in no way enjoyable.

My point is my friends that we better buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride the rest of the way. Sure, as I said, there is still that which is good, or at least decent, or maybe closer to passingly okay to be found around us. But make no mistake, the Bible doesn't lie. Christ didn't lie. He told us plainly that we will be hated because of Him and because we refuse to let go of Him. He meant it because He knows what this world can do, what this world will do.

And He simply wants us to be aware of all that's on the table so that something someone does doesn't come along and take us by surprise.

Still, that definitely doesn't make it easy. There's very little about this that's easy. Watching a world continue to choose everything reprehensible isn't easy. Watching people fall away as they give into the pressures being increased for us to do so isn't easy. Hearing our faith mocked and our King denied and His truth overwritten isn't easy. Seeing a society scream toward hell isn't easy. And feeling the heat of their hatred waft off of their already ruined souls isn't easy.

But folks, that's just the reality in a place where the lines have been drawn so deeply that many have no interest in salvation, in repentance, in truth nor in those who speak of such things. Because many have chosen their path. But so have we. And as those paths diverge and the downfall deepens within the crater formed in the middle, each side has to firmly understand what their choice means.

For us who refuse to let go of our faith, it means persecution. It means hatred. It means rejection and exclusion and other forms of social injustice. It means we may very well find ourselves in places and situations very similar to what others have experienced down this path ahead of us. And it means we must still speak the truth even knowing what it may cost us.

Because even if those on the other side walking along that wide and popular path enjoying their home here have chosen to follow that to the end no matter what, we have the responsibility of telling them what that "no matter what" really means.

What we need to keep in mind is that we can't force them to change their minds. But we can't allow them to force us to change ours. We might not be able to break through these immensely thick walls being built around hearts. But we can't allow their hatred of us to cause us to put up walls around ours. We might not be able to make much of a difference as the world so clearly does not wish to be different.

But we can try, and should that trying cost us everything, well, at least we be able to say we did it all in the hopes that He would be seen through our willingness to refuse to give up and let Him down.

Home is a sanctuary. A place filled with love and laughter, kindness and caring, peace and rest. And He has our place ready for us to reach it. Just not there yet. And so, while we'll likely find very little in the way of love or laughter or kindness or caring or peace or rest or any other decent thing along this path following the Way in a place that won't, we know those good things are waiting for us.

And while we might not experience much of them now, one day we'll enjoy them forever. And though it might not seem like it at times up ahead, forever is a whole lot longer than this part.

The world may not get why we do what we do or why we refuse to back down from it when doing so would gain us a far easier ride in this life. This place doesn't understand righteousness, and they very clearly have in interest in learning about it. And sadly, humanity simply hates that which it doesn't understand. So we will be hated because of the righteousness and the truth and the bold stance we take upon both by a world that stands for nothing.

But that's okay, because this isn't the kingdom we're looking to call home. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness. Blessed are those who are hated because they speak the truth. Blessed are those who are rejected, refused, rebuked and ridiculed because they live their lives adamantly holding to the Gospel and the salvation found within.

Because theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

And friends, Heaven is worth going through hell to get there. So hold fast, armor up and hunker down. We're in for a ride and it's sure to be one interesting show. But we know where it leads, where it lands. And because of that promise we can and should face whatever lies in our way knowing that all the hatred and hardship only mean we're heading the right direction.

In the end, we know that Heaven isn’t the finish line of an easy life. It’s the reward promised to those who won’t surrender their hope in that home despite enormous pressures to do so. And though those pressures may only increase and possibly even spill over into violence and suffering, the harder this part is will only make the next part all the more rewarding.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold