Exloring Life Eternal

Here is a summary of my response the the question of whether or not it is better for a saint to live & be called crazy or to die & be forgotten, editted slightly.

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I minister mostly among the "mentally ill" & the "disabled" & the poor. With a clear conscience, I can say that often God is most glorified among the weaker brethren. Paul the apostle wrote to the saints in Corinth, "Not many of you were strong, not many of you were wise ... yet God has chosen the weak of this world to confound the proud, the things which are not to confound the things which are."

Do not belittle the little! Remember where you yourself have come from! If Abdul's life continues, he has time to share the love of Jesus in word & deed, whereever he may be. Governments come & go. The public standards of sanity change. But love & life & light endure.

I have seen those who were poor far outgive the rich!
I have seen the faith of children accomplish far more than the learned!
I have seen the weak & infirm glorify God far more than the strong &
healthy!
I have seen the kindness & love of "sinners" far exceed the love of the pious!

I write that to my own shame: for in each of those instances, I was "the rich, the learned, the healthy, & the pious."

Even the mouths of pagans are shut when they see that the saints love the least & the little as well as the lost. But if the insane are living rationally & kindly with their neighbors, then what remains for the "sane" who kill each other? The mouth of the lion will be shut & the lyin' will one day cease altogether. When God's people are called "wretched" by the world, yet live holy by the power of the Lord then the Spirit vindicates Himself.

The argument about the "mentally ill & retarded" being the only ones who believe in the Truth is the same argument that people in Secular Academia use against the gospel & that Marxism uses. But why do we need to pretend that we are all powerful or all wise? God is far more glorified through the weak than the strong! Don't despise the day of small beginnings! Jesus did not come to break a bruised reed or put out a smoldering wick, but to strengthen & to fan into flame.

In one country where the good news is now going forward with power though there are & were _few_ Christians of any sort from the west, one of the key markers that indicated a harvest was about to come:

A young man was put out of his home because he was apostate. He had
been very badly mistreated. In time, a measure of reconciliation came. He would visit his family from time to time & stayed at his parent's house as long as possible. Finally, his father was annoyed & asked why he lingered there when he knew he was no longer a part of the family. The son then told about the young men at the house who had taken him in. They would pair off each night & tried to get him to do the same. The son did not believe this was right in God's sight nor his father's, but if he had to leave his father's house again that night, he would. His father could no longer hold back his compassion, he told his son to bring back home all his possessions. He could stay at the family home.

The worker who shared the story said, "While Chistians may not be as "good" as ordinary citizens, they are not as "bad" as homosexuals. So, that is progress."

Even in the Philipines, the end of Marcos' regime of terror came when elderly nuns, priests, and the lame & infirm were put in the first row against the line of tanks. The tanks could have plowed over them. The people were not strong and were not armed. Very different from the Greco-Roman hoplite phalanx. They were weak & dependent & retarded & disabled. But God used them to take back the Philipines. And that is merely a modern secular revolution, but it was a change of government that happened _peacefully_, unlike anything the world had known. The talking heads on radio & TV still don't understand the power of the Gospel. (Church planting & evangelism was & is going forward there & beyond.)

Yet, if you read the _minor_ prophets, you will remember that the Lord said that the lame & infirm would go up on Mount Zion. (Micah 4:1-7; Zephaniah 3:16-20). Mephibosheth (who had both a weak body & a shameful name) was welcomed at the table of David. This is like God's love.

Let the nations mock us.
Let the Lord vindicate.
We will honor the Lord,
& He will honor us.

With Christ as King,
Mert Hershberger

Serving with: International Fools for Christ
Proverbs 17:24; Zechariah 4:20; 2 Chronicles 16:8-10