I Have Decided.
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“Once I get baptized do you think I will stop having nightmares?”
“I don’t know, but we can pray that even when you do have nightmares that you will know God is with you.”
“Do you think God will take Grandma’s cancer away?”
“I don’t know that either. We will keep praying for that because we know He can, but even if He doesn’t, we know He will comfort Grandma and be with her.”
Kids ask hard questions.
Right now, the questions I’m asking the Lord are just as difficult.
“How much more, Lord? How much more can the people of Haiti take? Why do you allow these natural disasters when they are already suffering so greatly?”
“Father, what about the women and children in Afghanistan? What about your church, God?! Why are you allowing this immense persecution?”
Acts 14:21-22 says “When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
Through. Many. Tribulations.
The last time Paul had been in Lystra, he was left for dead after being stoned. He knew tribulations. But he and Barnabas returned, to strengthen the souls of those who believed in the risen Christ, and to encourage them to persevere in the faith, even as the trials and tribulations came.
When Jesus called you, did you realize He was calling you to walk through many tribulations to enter His kingdom? Would you still have followed Him if you had known?
In the middle of the 19th century, a man named Nokseng and his family who were from a tribe in Assam, India, heard and believed the gospel as a result of American missionary efforts.
“This man’s faith proved contagious and many villagers began to accept Christianity.
Angry, the village chief summoned all the villagers. He then called the family who had first converted to renounce their faith in public or face execution.
Moved by the Holy Spirit, the man said: “I have decided to follow Jesus.”
Enraged at the refusal of the man, the chief ordered his archers to arrow down the two children. As both boys lay twitching on the floor, the chief asked, “Will you deny your faith? You have lost both your children. You will lose your wife too.”
But the man replied: “Though no one joins me, still I will follow.”
The chief was beside himself with fury and ordered his wife to be arrowed down. In a moment she joined her two children in death. Now he asked for the last time, “I will give you one more opportunity to deny your faith and live.”
In the face of death the man said the final memorable lines: “The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back.”
He was shot dead like the rest of his family.
But with their deaths, a miracle took place.
The chief who had ordered the killings was moved by the faith of the man. He wondered, “Why should this man, his wife and two children die for a Man who lived in a far-away land on another continent some 2,000 years ago? There must be some remarkable power behind the family’s faith, and I too want to taste that faith.”
In a spontaneous confession of faith, he declared, “I too belong to Jesus Christ!” When the crowd heard this from the mouth of their chief, the whole village accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour.”
I have decided to follow Jesus.
No turning back.
No turning back.
Whose soul needs strengthened today? Who needs the encouragement to persevere? Who is enduring tribulation? May the God of all comfort bring His people comfort in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction… knowing as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
God give us the strength to follow you all our days.
Natalie
The story of Nokseng taken from https://renewaljournal.com/2017/11/29/the-true-story-behind-the-song-i-have-decided-to-follow-jesus/