Day 2989 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Luke 6:22 NIV

Because of the Son of Man.

There’s a common misconception running wild through the hearts and minds of many that has them absolutely convinced that a life spent following Christ is somehow nothing but ease, tranquility, peace and prosperity. Maybe it’s simply managed to elude me all this time, but I’ve yet to find the part of the Bible, of the Gospel of Christ where it says that just because we call on His Name that nothing bad or undeserved will ever happen to us.

In fact, the Gospel itself testifies to the contrary. The One we claim to follow, the One by whose Name we identify, the One we claim to seek and serve clearly wasn’t offered that path. So, where did this idea come from that tells us that He exists to shield us from all hardship and hatred when His life down here was filled with plenty of both? That idea, my friends, came only from our entitled arrogance that constantly seeks to satisfy our personal preferences. Because the reality of this path we’ve chosen is much different than the sunshine and fluffy bunny nonsense that so many want it to be.

Following His footprints leads us not only to His Heavenly home, but also into the crosshairs of those who reject His Name.

So much is made of the peace offered by and within Christ, and for very good reason. It's this impossible gift given unto all who have the humility that allows them to believe in the impossible. It’s the hopeful promise that we’ve been told will only get better and better and deeper and deeper the further we venture down this path away from the world toward the place He’s prepared for us. It’s the joyous reward of a life spent scorning the shame that is pressed upon us by those who think us fools.

Why does the world hate our faith so viciously? Because salvation, to many, is unneeded. People have held to either this delusion that tells them there is no sin, no God, no eternity, or they’ve accepted this weakened and watered down version of the Gospel that has them thinking that God is too kind, too nice, too soft to actually punish wickedness. And within either of those arrogant mindsets there flourishes the idea that Christ and all He endured on our behalf is also unnecessary, so unnecessary that many feel no need to consider it. And that opinion spawns a kind of loathing only possible in a fallen human heart.

So, as for all the peace that's been promised, we must understand that it's not necessarily promised here and now.

But all too often we see a church expecting otherwise. There's this enormously popular movement among the faithful in which they assume simply speaking the Name of Jesus immediately brings to completion all the joyous expectations we've so selfishly chosen to demand in exchange for our willingness to believe. It's like folks are expecting God to barter with them and reward them for their obliging His request to hold Him in high regard and live praising His Name.

When did we get it in our minds that God owes us more than has already been given?

If we can look at the cross and come anywhere close to understanding what was done on our behalf upon that device of demented torture, then how could we have the audacity to ask God to do more for us? How could we expect Him to send His Son to do all that and still request that He give us peace throughout the remainder of our stay? How can we kneel before God and ask Him to kneel before our expectations of a peaceful life?

Do we honestly think that a righteous God who sent Christ to endure the wrath deserved by all the unrighteousness in this world would simply let us off the hook, allow us an easier ride than His own Son, agree that we shouldn’t have to put up with people being mean to us? Are we really able to be that deluded?

To say that we should be ashamed of ourselves is a gross understatement. All of these messages diluting God into a mere vending machine of divine intervention are entirely disgusting. He does not exist to ensure our peace in a life lived in a world that does not want peace. He does not exist to ensure we avoid all hardship and pain. He does not exist to fulfill our every request, our every demand, our every expectation that we so often feel so entitled to receive.

He exists to be God, and, if we truly hold to the truths of the Gospel, we should exist to honor Him above all, ourselves included.

But sadly, that seems a request too difficult for us to bear at times. Instead, we balk. We pull back. We whine and gripe and complain whenever the skies are a bit cloudier than we like. We throw fits and shake our fists at Heaven whenever faced with something uncomfortable or uncertain or in any other way unfitting our selfish expectations. We send up prayers asking why He doesn't give us what we want, completely failing to remember all He's already given that we still so fully do not deserve.

This sense of entitlement that's been allowed for by the church is not only incredibly sickening, but it's also incredibly problematic. It's setting people up to not only stumble but to fall with a kind of crash that may very well decimate their faith. All because there are those who are teaching that Christianity is nothing but a way of life that leads us to only everything we desire and absolutely nothing that we may find unenjoyable.

Instead of focusing on what we feel He owes us for our faith, perhaps we should concern ourselves with all that we owe Him for that faith. In case we’ve forgotten, and it seems some have, faith is a gift, not merely a choice. Sure, we choose it. We choose to pray, to read Scripture, to try and not act a fool quite so often. But for us to even be able to have that as a choice is a gift we shouldn't be able to have. And the only reason we have that gift of that choice is because of His great mercy.

Truth is that we should all be eternally bound to the mistakes and sinful indiscretions we've made in our lives. But because of the cross, we've the chance at eternal peace instead.

But just because we have that promise doesn't mean we should expect nothing but peace on this side of Heaven.

Just yesterday I was messaged by an individual through one of the social media platforms through which I share these daily Bible posts. And it was much in line with the handful of others who've messaged me seeking to disprove my faith and make me look a fool for believing in such an impossibility. And every time this sort of thing happens, I'm just reminded of the many messages strewn throughout Scripture teaching us that we'll be hated, mocked, belittled, looked down upon and cast aside as fools who many, if not most, think should be locked away in a padded room with a fancy white coat that fastens in the back.

The problem is that the world we're in doesn't understand love, truth, reality, compassion, faith. They don't have the courage to believe in something that runs violently against all form of human logic. They don't have the willingness to tread into the unknowns keeping their eyes fixed upon a horizon they can't yet see. They don't have the audacity to die to self, because self is all they've ever known to live for.

And when our faith and the truth upon which it's built comes along and teaches a message that confronts all human arrogance and complacency, hatred and rejection are the only possible responses from a world disconnected from their Maker.

As evidenced perfectly clear in the story of the Gospel of Christ.

The clear issue arises in that, as Christians, we are called to go into all this world and speak this Gospel to all creation. The same creation that despises their Creator. The same people who deny both their Savior and their obvious need of salvation. The same world that killed our King so that they could finally stop His attacks on their consciences. And because they so clearly failed to rid themselves of His Word, because we still speak it, they hold to that same hate that allowed them to butcher the Author of love.

Where do we find this expectation that our lives as Christians in a place that hates Christianity are to be easy, safe, comfortable, peaceful? Did we miss the part where those in control fashioned the cross, twisted the crown, drove the nails, spat, sneered, beat, and walked away smiling?

The world around us may have advanced in the millennia since Christ ascended, but humility and compassion are not among the things which have advanced. If anything, we're in a place just as warped and wicked, if not even more so. All because the bud He tried so clearly to nip before it blossomed has indeed blossomed into the rampant arrogance and vanity and moral decay that we see growing ever deeper and more prevalent.

He came to save us from who we'd become, and sadly, only a select few had the willingness to look at the reality of their fallen condition and accept the chance to change it. The rest, well, they doubled down and went even harder to prove that their way, their opinion, their belief, their truth was correct all along.

And when arrogance is the fuel driving society, the only way to slow it down is for it to crash. And friends, I think we're starting to see that wall get a little closer.

What we need to understand is that as we do step closer to the end of this horrid age, the hatred and anger will only swell. Those against our faith will only increase in number. Those who feel the need to disprove our beliefs will step up their wicked game so that they themselves find a few more moments of avoiding reality. Those who choose to deny, reject, ridicule and reprimand any and all who proclaim the Name so many still hate so fervently will only do so with an increased vigor.

Not much about that seems to speak to this endless peace so many expect to come in a life lived following Christ.

As we discussed yesterday, Jesus was clearly a man of suffering. He faced and felt things that you and I will thankfully never endure. He came to save the world because He loves us all more than we love ourselves, and in return, the world responded as He knew they would. Love was met with hatred. Compassion countered with contempt. Mercy offered only malice. And the offer of eternal life opposed with a death so violent our minds can only begin to imagine it.

And if we choose to follow Christ to the promises He's given, so too will we follow through the misery that He Himself experienced along the way. It's all in my friends. We don't get a pass just because we know some verses of Scripture. We don't get to avoid all hardship just because God is a God of incredible love. We do not get to slide through life without ever feeling any pain or misery or misfortune or malice or hatred.

Because that's simply not the path He walked.

And friends, we shouldn't ask Him to do something we ourselves wouldn't do, not because He wouldn't because He already has. But simply because that's not what He deserves. He's already died our death, asking Him for more just so we have to do less, feel less, endure less only speaks to our opinion that His sacrifice wasn't sufficient. And that's simply unacceptable.

There's nothing the Bible that points to an easy life. Nothing. That foolish belief is only a product of our human arrogance and entitlement. The fact is that we've been promised eternal life, and that eternal life will be filled with peace. It's that promise we look to when this life is far from that kind of peace or comfort or rest. We don't need this journey to be easier, because we wouldn't grow stronger in our faith if it were.

We need the fire, the fury, the fervent hatred. Not because it's fun, but because it helps us see the beauty awaiting us up ahead. And it helps us see Him a little more clearly as we share in a small taste of what He went through. Don't ask Him to take away the things that teach us more about what He's done for us. Embrace them. Appreciate the hatred, because it shows that we're walking against the grain of a world hurtling toward all the hell they so clearly already enjoy.

Our outlook should be one of unshakable willingness to face anything that may come our way as we know that He is with us, and that it will push us closer to Him. Don't trade that for a shallow expectation of a peaceful life. We don't deserve that. We shouldn't want that. We should want what makes us more like Jesus. And friends, being hated by a very wicked world is very much like what He experienced.

Appreciate the hard parts of this journey because it's those hardships that show us just how real our faith is, and just how rare we are to be among those few who refuse to give up. Christ didn't, we shouldn't either.

We will very much become enemies of the world. And it’s going to hurt. It’s going to be hard. It will usher us into a life more barren and bare than we’d ever imagine. We will lose thing, lose friends, lose family, lose acceptance, lose everything. This world will take from us all that it can in order to try to break us apart and finally make us give up our faith and walk away from the One who walked out of our grave. We will lose this world, but the joke is on them for thinking we care.

We gave up the expectation of comfort or success or popularity long ago. So the world can take it all, we’ve already walked away from it. Not because it’s easy, but because we found a new perspective hidden deep within the promises our faith has in store. When all is lost, all is left to gain. The more of this world we lose, the more of Him we can store up. The more we’re hated, the more we realize how real this is. The hatred isn’t a bad thing friends. Just shows we don’t belong, because this world loves all who fall in line and do as they’re told.

And since we won’t, well, I guess it’s the plank for us! But that’s more than fine, because we couldn’t be more excited to dive into the fullness we know Him to be.

Again, just don’t hold to this expectation of a temporary life filled with a fleeting peace. Our reward comes next, don’t trade it for a short-lived replica.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold