It has been some time since I last recorded a more “traditional” episode of my Cephas Hour podcast, the show devoted to highlighting the best in Christian rock and pop from both past and present — with a particular affection for the past — along with a bit of commentary. I hope this new installment helps make up for the wait.
Over the past several weeks, I have been gradually reconnecting with my faith. I would not say I ever walked away from it entirely, but I had certainly drifted from my first love. I am deeply grateful to our gracious Father and to His loving Son, Jesus, for not giving up on me, even during the moments when I was beginning to fear that might be exactly what had happened. Jesus remains faithful, merciful and forgiving. For that, words of thanks feel entirely inadequate.
The podcast is available to stream on demand through its website (you can find the link there), or through most podcast platforms — with the exception of Spotify, which still does not seem to get it. Thanks for listening.
The book of Hebrews includes this quotation from Proverbs:
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
As someone who has been enduring the proverbial “it” for many months — and who, in many ways, still is — I have often wrestled with whether the source of it all is simply the fallout from my own sin coming back around, or whether something else is at work. That is not an attempt to excuse myself; I know full well that I am a sinner, and more than capable of proving it. But I am beginning to understand that this may also be something deeper: God doing what He has needed to do, and continues to do, to get my attention and restore things to their proper order with Him.
It takes a level of faith surpassing the humanly-musterable norm to praise God in the storm; to sing “it is well with my soul” when the world is crashing down around you. It is not escapism to find refuge and solace in Christ when everything is going wrong. It is an admittance of our utter reliance on Jesus to get us through this mess we call life, reminding us that He remains in control regardless of appearances. This world can, and indeed will, fail you. Relationships falter. Employers will cut you off at the knees regardless of your value to them. Disease and injury will befall you. Those you love will take their leave from this mortal coil. But the love of God remains. It may seem distant. But it’s not. He remains faithful and patient in His wait for us to fall on our knees before the blood-stained Cross that for 2,000 years has stood as a reminder of the ultimate reality. And He will never reject His own.
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In the Gospel of Luke, we find Jesus saying:
“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.”
We live in a world populated by those who emulate the unjust judge Jesus mentioned in a parable also found in Luke, people who neither fear God nor respect man, whom God has created in His image. We usually call them politicians.
There are many reasons to fear in this world. Fear of rejection by those we love. Fear of financial calamity. Fear of natural calamity. Yet we can find a reason not to fear, a reason rooted in the knowledge that this life we know is not all there is. We can take comfort in this.
In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we find:
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
Later in the same chapter, he says this:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
It’s good to know we have reason to hope.
