I shall return!

In 1914, Ernest Shackleton, the Anglo-Irish explorer from the early 20th century, led an expedition to sail to Antarctica, and then walk to the South Pole. The expedition was going according to plan until the ice trapped their ship, the Endurance, and eventually crushed its hull. The expedition team set up camp on an unstable ice-floe, and then rowed lifeboats until they reached the comparative safety of Cape Wild, on the coast of Elephant Island.

However, they were still far from safe! They needed help, and they needed it quickly. Promising that he would return for the rest of the team, Shackleton announced that he would take one of the lifeboats and, with a crew of eight, and only a sextant to guide them, set off on the 800 mile voyage to the island of South Georgia, in the South Atlantic. Amazingly - some might even say, miraculously! - they succeeded and, having clambered over the island's ice-capped mountains, reached a whaling station, and the help they so desperately needed. A ship was despatched and, four-and-a-half months after having arrived at Cape Wild, the stranded crew of Endurance were rescued, with not one life having been lost. Their leader had kept his word.

That makes me think of a somewhat similar situation! As the Lord Jesus was preparing to leave His disciples, He promised to return. He sai: "If I go and prepare a place for you,I will come again, and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you will be also." (Jn.14:3). Then, after enduring the horrors of His passion and crucifixion - beside which, even the ordeal of Shackleton and his men pales into insignificance - He rose from the dead to provide eternal life for all who place their trust in Him, and in Him alone, as their Saviour. He lives with them, today, by God the Holy Spirit, Who indwells each one but, one day, He will return and gather them into His presence. Paul writes to the disciples of Jesus in Thessalonica: "For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord." (I Thess.4:15-17).

I find myself wondering if those who had been left behind by Ernest Shackleton were constantly looking to see if their was any sign of their leader. I suspect that they were, and that they would have noticed some sign - perhaps the top of a mast - before he actually arrived to rescue them.

Many disciples of Jesus are certainly looking for His return - and we are living at a time when signs of that imminent return are all around us! He is even more true to His word than was Shackleton to his. The rapture of the genuine disciples of Jesus is certain - because He has said so. 

Are you looking? Are you listening for the sound of the shofar? If you are His, He is coming for you. If you have not yet come to Him, in faith, and received the salvation that is available by the grace of the Father, then I urge you to think carefully about such matters. The time is now short, and it is only those who are truly His who will rise to meet with Him in the air. Will you be one of them?!

The testing of faith.

James writes : "Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." (James 1:2-4; NLT); and someone, somewhere, has suggested that "a faith untested is no faith at all"!

Such thoughts have been very much in my mind since yesterday when, having travelled through to Audincourt - where our Vectra is sitting in the compound of the Opel dealership - I was informed that, due to a combination of uncertainty as to whether or not the warranty will cover the required work, and the forthcoming holiday period when, apparently, the garage closes down, the car won't even be looked at until about Sept.1st! The upshot of all of that is that my dear wife is flying home on August 8th and I am remaining in L'Isle-sur-le-Doubs until the car is ready, and I can bring both it and the caravan home! This will be, by far, the longest single period of time for which we have been seperated in our married life - and means that we won't even be together for our Ruby anniversary on Sept. 4th! :-(

So the 'natural' question, for a believer, is "Why, Lord?" The first answer might well be that it's to teach me a lesson about procrastination! Part of our problem is that I kept putting off renewing the European breakdown cover for the car! Well, it was only 19 months old - what could possibly go wrong?! The words "Once bitten, twice shy" are also much in my mind!

But perhaps it's also to do with those words of James. Perhaps it's to do with something that the Lord wants to teach one, or both, of us. It would, of course, be easy to just decide that because our prayers that the situation would be fully sorted out, quickly and easily, haven't received a positive answer, that there isn't much point in continuing this Christian faith stuff! But why should we assume that our faith is always going to be easy? Why should only those in other parts of the world be persecuted, and imprisoned, and tortured, and even killed for the sake of the Lord Jesus?

On July 15, Pastor Artur Suleimanov was shot to death by a gunman as he was leaving the Hosanna House of Prayer in Makhachkala, Dagestan, according to VOM Canada and Barnabas Fund. Dagestan is a federal republic of Russia in the North Caucasus region. Pastor Suleimanov was known as a dynamic leader of one of the largest Protestant churches in Russia. "Pastor Suleimanov was a wonderful Christian brother, and his shocking death is a devastating loss for the Dagestan church," a co-ordinator with Barnabas Fund said. "He and the Hosanna House of Prayer church were very active in ministry and outreach in particular. We see his murder as an attempt to put further pressure on Christian converts in Dagestan." Pastor Suleimanov is survived by his wife and five children.

We pray for Pastor Suleimanov's family, and congregation, as they grieve over his death. We pray that God will touch the heart of Pastor Suleimanov's murderer. We pray that Christians in Russia will be emboldened to spread the gospel despite opposition.

And we remember those other words of Scripture: "Consider Him Who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? - 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by Him. For the Lord disciplines him whom He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives'." (Heb 12:3-6; RSV).

Yes, our faith may be being tested - but even the test is easy compared to what others experience. May our faith stand up as well to our little test, as does the faith of brothers and sisters in Christ, in so many other parts of the world, in testing that we can't even begin to imagine.