Greetings All,
This week I offer you one simple 'thought.' It's actually our family motto. In fact, until a couple years back, I thought I had come up with it myself! Then I went into a shop and saw it inscribed on a plague on the wall with the original author's name written below it!
They were words originally spoken by Winston Churchill, in his radio broadcasts to the British people during WWII when their country was being besieged by nightly Nazi bombing raids on London and other cities. These raids aimed at breaking the British spirit and bringing Britain to its knees. Had the Nazi's actually accomplished that purpose and taken those islands, who knows what the outcome of WWII would have been like.
Yet these simple words, spoken with unwavering conviction and heartfelt earnestness to a people struggling to fend off the powerful German war machine, helped sustain them through a very, very difficult time.
They are now written on a plague that hangs in my kitchen and on a small wall poster in my office. I preach them regularly to myself, use them occasionally with those I counsel, and often with my twin girls when we go mountain climbing, do something physically exhausting, or are confronted by things which at the moment seem to them to be insurmountable. Memorize them and preach them to yourself. They have kept me going on numerous occasions!
They are now written on a plague that hangs in my kitchen and on a small wall poster in my office. I preach them regularly to myself, use them occasionally with those I counsel, and often with my twin girls when we go mountain climbing, do something physically exhausting, or are confronted by things which at the moment seem to them to be insurmountable. Memorize them and preach them to yourself. They have kept me going on numerous occasions!
They are so simplistic, and the quote so short, that I wrestled with even sending it out. Yet I sensed that I should -- today -- maybe because one of you is at such a place in your life right now, and you need to hear them. If so, I offer them to you with the same earnest, heartfelt encouragement Churchill mustered up when he spoke them to the struggling English people:
"NEVER, NEVER, NEVER Give Up!"
The author of Hebrews (10:32-36) essentially told the struggling Christian saints (most likely in Palestine) the same thing. They had suffered intensely for their faith in Jesus (v. 32) and been publicly exposed to insult and persecution (most likely dragged in front of the gathered citizens of their village at the town square -- v. 33). Some were put in prison (v. 34a), while others "joyfully" accepted the confiscation of their homes and property because they knew they had, "better and lasting possessions" (v. 34b).
"NEVER, NEVER, NEVER Give Up!"
The author of Hebrews (10:32-36) essentially told the struggling Christian saints (most likely in Palestine) the same thing. They had suffered intensely for their faith in Jesus (v. 32) and been publicly exposed to insult and persecution (most likely dragged in front of the gathered citizens of their village at the town square -- v. 33). Some were put in prison (v. 34a), while others "joyfully" accepted the confiscation of their homes and property because they knew they had, "better and lasting possessions" (v. 34b).
