I have recently been thinking about three powerful words in the Christian life and faith: “in spite of.” They seem to be in the center of our story as Christians and people of faith:
- In spite of our constant waywardness, sinfulness, and running, God continues to pursue us, for "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."
- In spite of knowing the pain that he was to bear, Jesus didn’t tell ten thousand angels to set him free in the Garden when he was arrested and went to the cross for our sins.
- In spite of all of our individualism, disagreeableness, selfishness and pride, God still uses us as His instruments of peace and love as we "go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that He has commanded us."
- In spite of being attacked, thrown in a pit and sold into slavery, in spite of being falsely imprisoned and forgotten, Joseph allowed himself to be used by God and ended up saving Egypt and his nation.
- In spite of Pharoah’s army behind him, a fear-filled Hebrew people around him and the Red Sea in front of him, Moses remained faithful and faith-filled and allowed the Lord to use him for the deliverance of his people.
- In spite of a history of murder, adultery and forgetfulness about the leading of the Lord, David became a great king of Israel and known as a "man after God’s own heart."
- In spite of daily death threats on him and his family, a bomb that blew up his house and constant pressure to slow down or end his fight, Martin Luther King Jr. led the Civil Rights movement and changed this country for the better.
- In spite of 27 bouts of jungle fever, an attack from a lion that rendered one arm useless, and conflict with authorities and slave traders, missionary David Livingstone held true to a promise on the mission field, that "Lo, I am with you always, even until the ends of the world."
- In spite of the death of his children and wife on the mission field, twenty-one months of imprisonment, no converts for the first six years of his ministry, Adoniram Judson translated the scriptures into the Burmese language for the first time and brought the Gospel to a country that had never heard it before.
- In spite of severe persecution from the government, the church is growing at an incredible rate in the country of China.
Pastor Tim,
Updated June 3, 2007.
