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

Below you will read a story that may sound bizzarre to some & offend others, but to be honest, one must face the reality that in the West people are treated as mentally deficient if they practice their faith in the Lord Jesus as outlined in the New Testament.

Even today, the cross of Christ is an offense. Suffering is unwanted, but those who are faithful to Jesus will suffer because sin is so rampant in the world. If you are reading this, you have not yet resisted sin to the point of losing your life (i.e. the shedding of blood). => Do not lose heart. Press on & look to Jesus who suffered. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

If you do suffer, it is okay. Better to suffer for what is right from the world today, than to suffer for what is wrong on the last day.

In Christ,
Mert Hershberger


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VIETNAM: PASTOR FREED FROM MENTAL HOSPITAL
from: Compass Direct (http://www.compassdirect.org)
September 19, 2005

Committed to a Vietnamese mental hospital for nearly a year after being diagnosed as “delusional” for believing in God, the Rev. Than Van Truong was released to his family on Saturday, September 17.

Regular updates about his situation, including details about his treatment, made it possible to launch a wide advocacy campaign by Western governments and human rights advocacy groups. This campaign frustrated and angered Vietnamese authorities. The Dong Nai Province prosecuting authorities and Bien Hoa hospital officials began to blame each other, and neither would take responsibility. For months Rev. Truong was stuck in the middle - prosecutors could find no criminal charges to lay against him, and a doctor at the hospital told his wife that he showed no signs of any mental disorder.

Rev. Truong wrote exceptionally lucid reports about his own mistreatment and deplorable conditions in the mental hospital.

In recent weeks no drugs had been administered to him, and his health improved. He resumed his evangelistic activity and even baptized some fellow patients. Some of them also were mentally sound but had committed violent crimes. They used personal connections to get placed into the mental hospital rather than be executed or imprisoned.

Full story with picture here (http://www.compassdirect.org/en/newslongen.php?idelement=3984).

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an update on our July 6 News Brief: VIETNAM
- Sane Pastor Held Captive in Mental Hospital (http://www.calebproject.org/main.php/world
news briefs).

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Missions Catalyst Newsbriefs: WORLD NEWS BRIEFS -- Wed Oct 5, 2005 -- Edited by Pat Noble <newsbriefs@missionscatalyst.org>

Published by Caleb Project -- Equipping the Church to Reach the Nations -- http://www.calebproject.org