Surprised by the Light

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” –Habakkuk 3:17-18

In March 1843, in the village of Dundee just off the River Tay in Scotland, the 29 year old Scottish minister Robert Murray M’Cheyne lay dying of Typhus fever. In his very brief life, the Lord used M’Cheyne mightily in what has been called the Dundee Revival.

M’Cheyne’s friend and biographer Andrew Bonar detailed M’Cheyne’s final moments which were spent in prayer and singing a line from William Cowper’s hymn, Joy and Peace in Believing: “Sometimes the light surprises the Christian as he sings.”

Cowper (pronounced Cooper) wrote this hymn during his depression, drawing inspiration from these verses in Habakkuk. We sing to the Lord even as pains come, and as his hymn expresses, “Sometimes the light surprises the Christian as he sings.” Surprises. Cowper’s hymn continues on:

 

“It is the Lord who rises

With healing on His wings;

When comforts are declining,

He grants the soul again

A season of clear shining,

To cheer it after rain.”

There is much pain in life. Much darkness. Much “rain.” A hymn of hope like this sung on a deathbed adds even more weight to the idea of “surprises.” Think upon this as we meditate on these lines from Habakkuk 3 together.

The prophet Habakkuk details the total failure of crops, flocks, and herds with the anxieties of God’s people as the Babylonian armies approach threatening complete destruction. Jerusalem was about to be destroyed and much of the people marched off into exile. There was no earthly comforts, no earthly hope. There is no earthly joy, nothing earthly to rejoice in.

Have you been to such a dark place, friend? Have you had sorrows and despairs amount exhausting all earthly comforts? It could be depression, the death of a loved one, or the fear facing our own death in the face. It’s the place the clichés invented from this dark, hopeless world dies. “Time heals all wounds” and “this too shall pass” assumes there will always be something good tomorrow. “Keep calm and carry on” speaks to inner anxieties and strengths, but is useless when inwardly we have nothing left.

When we have nothing left inside of us, and no joys or hopes outside of us, we are invited to submit to God’s sovereign plan along with trusting His promises. It’s in Habakkuk’s word, “yet.” The prophet sings joyfully because he takes joy in the God of his salvation. There is a joy that cannot be taken away by griefs, pains, or death, and that joy is in our unchanging God who promises salvation. 

We are not to have our faith in earthly blessings. When threatened with total destruction of everything that sustains life, the Christian is surprised by joy. To have a strength from God who arises with healing in His wings is a joy the world does not know. Peace. Jesus said, “My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).

We live today knowing we have eternal life ahead of us. We face trials of impossible earthly odds knowing nothing in earth can take this hope, peace, and joy from us. We can step into our graves trusting Jesus who rose from the dead will give us the victory. Jesus has given us these mercies. Only Jesus has the power to take what He has given away. And He refuses to take these away, and no power of earth or angel can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39).

I do not pretend to know the depths of what darkness pursues you, reader. I will not assume to know your griefs and pains. I may have not yet experienced what troubles you right now. But this I know: “Sometimes the light surprises the Christian as he sings.” Divine comfort to the weary soul of His children is a hope our troubles cannot block and a joy in the God of our salvation even death cannot take away.

Heavenly Father, in dark places and hard seasons remind us it is You who brings us there, that even in the darkest places You can be seen. Your light surprises us while we sing. A broken and contrite heart You heal, and we find joy in the God of our salvation. Where we are weak, Lord strengthen. Where we have faith in earthly things that can be taken away, Lord remind us of Your promises in Christ that nothing can take away. We rejoice in Your mercies and in Your wise instructions we best learn not in our comforts, but in those low places of trials where You prove You are reliable. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Preaching Faith Seeking Understanding in the Age of A.I.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” – Proverbs 9:10

Wisdom and understanding starts with fear and knowledge of the Lord. We don’t start with our own thoughts and abilities to think or meditate. We must start with an encounter with the living God. A healthy fear, a wonderment of God’s eternal, holy character and great power, invites us to embark on this journey to wisdom.

Something like the 11^th Century Archbishop of Canterbury Anselm said, "I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order that I may understand." An encounter with the living God fills our hearts with awe, and with a mind renewed by Scripture and a heart desiring the wise knowledge of God and His ways, we Christians study and so we teach.

This is where my mind goes when I’m asked about the advent of the use of Artificial Intelligence by pastors and Bible teachers. All someone has to do is ask AI to write out entire sermons and lessons, sometimes in the likeness or “voice” of a famous preacher. Thus, the programming of AI pulls what other preachers and teachers have said, bypassing the hard work of study and sermon preparation, all along with the included plagiarism.

My view isn’t to fear the tool. AI isn’t the threat. The threat is the human heart. A preacher’s heart that desires performance and praise rather than to feed and nourish the hearts of the congregation is my concern. I could ask AI and then tell you the elevation of Pinnacle Mountain in Kentucky, the names of the features you can see from the top, and AI could even tell you the best time to see the sunset from the summit. But to hike the mountain, to smell the fragrance of the flowers, to experience the summit and all the overwhelming sights is a description from a personal encounter.

Paul told young pastor Timothy to guard both his life AND doctrine (I Timothy 4:16). Teachers are to obey and teach. They are not simply to preach pure doctrinal sermons, but teach truth from a life which truly encountered God. A real encounter stirs in us to hike that summit rather than simply ask AI for a fine description for us. In other words, I don’t want to describe to my flock another man’s encounter with the Lord, but to teach truth from a life as a man following Him. The people of God are fed on the Word of God who is a Spirit-filled man of God preaching in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (I Corinthians 2:4).

The danger in the advent of AI is to treat the Bible and the religion of Christ as purely about precise information and the performance rather than a heart and life devoted to God and to glorify Him.

We aren’t to just KNOW truth about Christ, but have our minds CAPTIVATED by our knowledge of Christ. And the church is to enjoy what our spiritual forefathers had in Acts 2: devoted to the teaching of Scripture and to the fellowship (the “one anothers”), and “awe came upon every soul” (Acts 2:43). That’s teachers teaching from a real encounter with the Lord.

Pastors and teachers who simply outsource the hard work of preparing to preach out to AI teach their hearers to simply acknowledge right information while their hearts are distant from God. My desire is for my hearers to encounter God and love Him, to have an awe of God which embarks on that journey to wisdom and understanding. Not just to enjoy the sermon or applaud the words, but to come to know the Lord.

If you are a preacher or Bible teacher, I encourage you to get to know Martyn Lloyd-Jones who likened preaching to “logic on fire” which aims to bring men and women into a face-to-face encounter with the living God and to manifest His glory. For the doctor, such preaching “is theology coming through a man who is on fire" (Preaching and Preachers, page 110).

Do not bypass the hard work of study or the challenge of an encounter with the living God who confronts your sins, preacher, and stirs in you a joy for His grace in the crucified and resurrected Savior. For He aims to confront the souls of your hearers through your sermons. Draw near to the Lord, do the hard work, be nourished, and feed His lambs.

Heavenly Father, You know my heart. I deeply long to see souls saved, Christians and churches healthy, glorifying Your great name. My prayer is first for those who preach and teach to do the hard work and feed Your people Your nourishing Word. I pray for those who sit under preaching to have a discerning ear, to have a concern for their own spiritual health as well as those around them. And may we rejoice when we are fed by those whom You have called to nourish Your people. Bless us, O Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

God Owns the Mountains

“In God’s hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.” Psalm95:4-5

Greetings once again from the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Kentucky! Our annual family trip is both welcomed and needed while our hearts still think about our friends back at home. To gaze upon grand mountains, to see the carving power of a creek after a storm, and even explore a cave, it is easy to think deeply about just how small we are.

Consider looking up at such a mountain and just how many thousands of trees and perhaps millions of leaves there are. From a distance, the scenery is a paint stroke of green. No attention is given to a leaf slightly greener or a tree just a bit taller than the rest.

Now consider Who put each tree and leaf and rock together to form that mountain. This Psalm is about gathering God’s worshipers to sing praises to God while also remembering the failures of generations past, particularly their grumbling in the wilderness (verse 8). It is good to remember our weaknesses before God, and consider He is Creator and mighty King over all His earth and His people.

God owns that mountain. It is in His hand! Contrast this with the Psalmist’s thought that the deepest depths, the caves and caverns, are also in His hands. God’s dominion comprises all from mountain heights to lowest depths of the earth. For our eyes which God created for His glory to gaze upon His mountains, we are struck with awe and invited to worship Him. Not in mere heartless ritual, but to sing loudly to the God who makes beautiful things.

And in a vast paint stroke of this tiny rock we label “earth”, God looks down and He knows me and my story (Psalm 139:1-4). I, like the many trees on a mountain, have nothing to boast to gain the attention of my God, and yet, He knows me and He loves me. What a stirring thought that leaps from my heart to my mouth, both of which He formed, to sing His praises.

God truly is great. Standing here, looking up at these mountain heights, I stand in wonder that the God who made these mighty mountains is my help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1). Greater than this mountain, God is immovable, unchanging, mightier, and more breath-taking in majesty. The God who is mightier than this mountain I am looking at promises to be with me forever.

It is in this humbling yet peaceful place before God my anxieties seem silly and lose their power over my heart. Troubles, very real troubles, are in the hand of my God who holds the depths of the earth and the towering mountains in the same hand. I am in His hand. No one and nothing can pluck me from His mighty hand (John 10:28-30).

Friend, trust in God. Yesterday’s failures, today’s troubles, and tomorrow’s uncertainties seem anxious in our feeble hands. Trust in the mighty hands who holds the mountains. He holds you tenderly as His child. Now, rejoice in the God who shows such mercies to us! That the power of the wrath of the Mountain-Holder was placed on Christ at the cross, and by grace the power and promise of the hand of the Burden-Lifter now extends to us.

Heavenly Father, create in us a deep longing for You far above the unsatisfying and temporary pleasures of this world. Give us restless hearts that we may find satisfaction in You. Give us pauses in our days to consider the beauty of Your creation, the power of Your hand, and rejoice in the truth that our God is rich in mercy and knows us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Truth of God and the Wrath of God

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” – Romans 1:18

I do not like listening to someone slander a friend of mine. I am bothered because such false information about my friend’s character just isn’t true, but it is deeper. To intentionally misrepresent a friend of mine and conjure false facts about them is an attempt to attack and hurt them.

Reader, I am certain you are familiar with slander. Either a friend of yours or you yourself have been a victim. Now think about God’s reaction to being misrepresented by His creatures with the intention to injure His reputation and to assault His character. Humans actively suppress the truth of God in their active and willful rejection of Him.

To claim morality is relative is to claim God’s character as shifty, to accuse God of not revealing Himself enough while hating what God has revealed of Himself, then marginalizing God as simply a religious icon while pursuing your own pleasures and defining your own life’s purposes while simultaneously rejecting your Creator’s purposes for creating your life.

Yet, God’s wrath is not simply an unbridled emotion, but His perfect, holy character responds to our sin and unrighteousness in such a way. It is an injustice to allow creatures to reject His purpose for them while the minds He created are used to deny Him and the mouths He created to praise Him are used to chatter untruths about Him.

The wrath of God may very well be a rare doctrine to write about or even think about, as the idea haunts us as fallen creatures. Yet, everything about God is lovely and beautiful. In Exodus, Moses received the two tablets written by God’s hands only to discover at the base of Mount Sinai the people worshiped a golden calf. Moses broke the tablets in anger. The people had already committed idolatry. Yet, Moses received new tablets from God, and Moses said of God’s character, He is merciful and gracious, faithful, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving, and “slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6).

God is no hot head, but He is perfectly good and just. He must punish sin. When Israel worshiped the golden calf, God told Moses all about it on top of that mountain. He said, “Let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them” (Exodus 32:10). The wrath of God burns and consumes idolatry. Yet, Moses stepped in. Why does Your wrath burn? Turn from Your burning anger. Remember Your covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants. And God relented from destroying the people (Exodus 32:11-14).

God has every right to burn with anger over your sin. Sin of marginalizing Him to religious indifference while passionate about your own pursuits. Sin of thinking about and speaking about something of God that isn’t true. Sin to thinking your life belongs to you as if you do not have a Creator or He is not good enough to rule over you as a good and gracious King abounding in steadfast love.

Jesus Christ is a greater Moses. Though we have broken God’s laws and provoked Him to burn with an anger that consumes, Jesus stepped in. Jesus took on flesh and became the curse of a lawbreaker for us (Galatians 3:13). As Isaiah prophesied, Jesus was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; “upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). All this as we hid our faces and esteemed Him not (Isaiah 53:3). Jesus took the wrath of God and satisfied His burning anger as our propitiation (I John 2:2).

God who has every right to burn with anger against me a sinful rebel has forgiven me in Jesus Christ and has justified me by faith alone in Jesus alone. You are invited to turn away from suppressing the truth of God in your unrighteousness, from living a life ruled by rejection of God’s character and rebellion to what God says is good, and turn toward our God who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6).

Look only to Jesus, friend, and find the truth of who God is, and believe Him.

Heavenly Father, my prayer is to stir in the hearts of these readers. Stir a sorrow over sin and over using our minds and mouths in wicked ways, chattering untruths about You. Stir a joy that our Creator is merciful and gracious, though burning with wrath against sin, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Stir in us an unceasing rejoicing that Jesus Christ died to save sinners from Your burning wrath, inviting us to delight in You now and forever. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Your Need for Face-to-Face Church

“When Paul saw [the brothers from Rome], he was encouraged and gave thanks to God.” –Acts 28:15

The Apostle Paul was bound, a prisoner en route to Rome as promised by Jesus to preach the gospel in Rome (Acts 23:11). His initial commission upon encounter Jesus on the road to Damascus was to be persecuted for Jesus’ name sake (Acts9:16). Having survived storms and a shipwreck, the prisoner Paul need to take strength to complete his mission.

What did the Lord Jesus Christ use to strengthen His servant? The local church. Some of the Christians belonging to the church in Rome made the more than 30 mile trek just to encourage Paul. Something Paul had written a few years before to this very church in Romans 1:12, how he longed to meet with them face-to-face “that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.”

Paul wrote to the local church in Thessalonica how intensely he longed to see them face-to-face (I Thessalonians 2:17). The author of Hebrews reminds Christians to not neglect the Christian gathering (Hebrews 10:25). Why should we regularly attend church gatherings? The Scripture says, to encourage one another as the day of Jesus’ return draws near.

The Apostle Paul needed encouragement and Jesus sent the church to gather and give him encouragement. The early church faced many trials and persecution, yet called to gather regularly for encouragement.

Yet, many modern Christians do not believe they need Jesus’ encouragement He only provides through His church. Paul reminds the local church in Ephesus that Jesus loves the church “and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27).

The word translated “church” is ekklésia, meaning to call out a people to gather. To be a Christian is to be gathered regularly to worship the Lord Jesus Christ who loves His people and transforms us by His Word. The “one another” commands of Jesus, the very commands the church is commanded to teach disciples to observe in the Great Commission, are not commands that can be obeyed in isolation. There is a required presence togetherness, to hear Jesus’ call out His people to gather, to ekklésia.

To walk the Christian life is dangerous alone. Even Paul needed the mercies Christ blesses Christians with through the local church. Hear the call to come. To gather. Be blessed by He who loved you and gave Himself for you by being face-to-face in the gathering of the local church. Do not fall prey to the danger of thinking you do not need church, but worship Jesus in your own way. Worship Him in His way. The blessing of regularly gathering with the saints.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the bright lamps of local churches throughout this dark world. Grant Your people a passionate eagerness to gather, to serve and love one another, to display Your glory and mercy to all. Grant us humility and fill our hearts with Your love. Bless us that Jesus would be glorified in and through the local church. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

If Jesus Were Around Today...

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.” –Acts 3:19

Peter and John were just going to the temple when a lame beggar asked them for money. Instead, but a miracle of God, they healed the man in Jesus’ name. And the once lame beggar walking and jumping around in the temple drew some attention. Peter preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and called for his audience to respond by faith and repentance.

The author Luke wrote his Gospel then the second volume Acts, which he begins saying what Jesus began to do and to teach He now continues to do and to teach through His church whom He fills with His Holy Spirit.

I see a lot of articles and social media posts which begin with, “If Jesus were around today, He would be with _____.” Christians know a glorious truth. Jesus is alive. He is around today. And He is very active. Jesus is still calling sinners to repent and believe. Jesus is still calling the weary to come and find rest in Him.

Yes, our Lord rose from the dead and ascended. Yet, it was for the church’s benefit for Jesus ascended and sent us the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). Jesus is active right now on earth in His Spirit-filled church. If someone would like to see Jesus and be with Him, you would see Him in His Spirit-filled church.

I think this is where our post-Christian world is hostile to our Lord Jesus. They reject the church and want to redefine Jesus to be more acceptable to the world than His church.

I find it interesting that so many in safe social media posts or interviews or podcasts suggest that if Jesus’ earthly ministry were today He would be accepted. Yet, Jesus is alive. I preach His living Word inviting sinners to know Jesus who is alive right now. Jesus is still widely rejected by many in this world, for they reject His Spirit-filled church whom He loves as His bride (Ephesians 5:25).

The world does not want to attend church because Christ’s living and active Word pierces their hearts in the church’s faithful preaching. Instead, the world seeks to reinvent a more palatable Jesus. Dear reader, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). His unchanging, eternal character is reflected in His Word which, unlike withering grass and fading flowers, endures forever (Isaiah 40:8).

Jesus is not okay with your sin. Jesus did not dine with tax collectors and sinners from a motivation that such people are better hangs than crusty religious types. I see many so-called churches mock God’s eternal Word and redefine Jesus by forming a Christianity which does not call sinners to faith and repentance.

Jesus did tell the Pharisees He did not come to call the righteous. Yet, He did tell us His mission. He came to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). Yes, the Pharisees were blinded to their own sinfulness shrouded under a heavy veil of self-righteousness. However, sinners need to change their ways. And Jesus gives the power to repent. And our Lord is still calling sinners to respond to His good news with faith and repentance in the preaching of His unchanging Word from His Spirit-filled church.

Is Jesus still dining with sinners today? Yes, in His church. And He still talks with sinners.

If we respond like the Pharisees claiming to have no sin, then we are liars (IJohn 1:8). If we confess our sins to our God we offended, He forgives us and cleanses us (I John 1:9). Here is where the hostility in our world truly lies. The worldly do not think sin offends God, nor do the worldly believe they need cleansing.

So, the worldly hate Jesus by hating His Spirit-filled church who proclaims the gospel and calls sinners to faith and repentance. The Spirit-filled church belonging to Jesus is hated by this world for refusing to conform to its ways and continue the hard road of being conformed to Jesus.

We are encouraged by our Lord Jesus whom the world hated first (John 15:18-19). But the world’s hatred of Jesus does not discourage us from the mission of Jesus to save sinners. We still dine with sinners. We serve and love even our enemies, unlike the world who hates and cancels their enemies. For we display to the world Christ and our continued conformity to Him, even in the face of the world’s hatred and hostility. We must proclaim His gospel and call sinners to faith and repentance. We must for the love of Christ compels us.

Perhaps you read this and realize your hatred for Jesus and His church. Good news. Jesus died to save sinners. Come to Him and find rest and peace, dear sinner with a hostile heart. Come confess your sin. He promises to forgive, to cleanse, and to transform you. And like the Apostle Paul, you will find you were once an enemy to God’s people, now by grace you are welcomed and belong to God through Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, I pray now that all who read this repent and believe upon Jesus who died and rose again, finding safety in Your presence, salvation from Your holy wrath, and joy and peace in Your eternal kingdom. I pray for Christians who read this to be encouraged in the preaching of the gospel and living a life obedient to the Lord Jesus even in a hostile world filled with hatred. We praise You for Your goodness and kindness toward us. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God and long for all the new heavens and the new earth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

 

Suffer Not in Vain

“Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?” –Galatians 3:4

Suffering eases for the Christian as we know suffering is temporary. Scripture tells us any trouble the Christian suffers here cannot compare to the glory that will be revealed to us (Romans 8:18), encouraging the church to pray for any Christian sufferer (James 5:13). The Christian is encouraged to know our suffering has a divine purpose for us to rejoice in the Lord, producing endurance, character, and hope (Romans 5:3-5).

Suffering is worth all the loss to know the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ (Philippians3:8). And we are warned beforehand we as Christians are to suffer (I Thessalonians 3:3-4). And for the sake of the gospel of Christ, to know that by faith alone in Christ alone we are forgiven, cleansed, and promised everlasting life to delight in the Lord forever, our suffering in this life is not in vain.

Yet, this suggests that there is a suffering that is in vain. The suffering which does not lead to dependence on the Lord is a wasted suffering. The suffering which is alone, separate from Christ’s people in a local church is a wasted suffering. To be comforted by the Father of mercies and God of all comforts is in turn to be used to comfort others within the local church (II Corinthians1:3-4).

But, faithfulness in suffering can be counted “in all joy” when we lack nothing (James 1:2-4), or as Paul puts it, learn the secret to contentment (Philippians 4:11-13). That is, satisfaction in Christ whether we have plenty or nothing, free or imprisoned, brought low or abounding.

So, a few lessons I’ve learned in studying Scripture and the experience of suffering. We Christians suffer to know real joy is in the Lord and not in this world. Paul says in II Corinthians 4:17, “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Notice, Paul calls suffering both light and momentary. It’s brief, as this life is short. Eternity delighting in the Lord is far greater joy than any happiness here.

We suffer for other people’s sake. Part of the teaching one another and serving one another commands is being active in a healthy local church where you may learn the lessons of those faithfully enduring suffering and grief and in turn teaching others through Scripture God’s faithfulness and goodness in your own experiences.

Also, we suffer to be like Jesus. We suffer with Jesus in order that we may also be glorified with Him (Romans 8:17). Our sufferings are not randomly placed, but has divine purpose to rely on God who raises the dead, following Jesus who is leading us heavenward.

God designs suffering for our good, yet He promises to comfort us in our affliction. God “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). God who never changes promises to never forsake His own (Hebrews 13:5).

The Christian sees God’s purpose in suffering, and suffering is never wasted. Never “in vain.” The worldly person suffers without hope, without resurrection hope. The worldly person suffers without comfort in God’s very present help and without hope of eternal life delighting in Him.

Friend, if you are reading this despairing, you can have this Christian hope even now. Turn from your ways and turn your mind to Jesus. Jesus suffered willingly, though sinless He became sin receiving the punishment sinners deserve. This is a depth of divine love to reconcile hopeless sinners to delight in God forever. Trust in Him, even right now as you read this. And I pray even now your eyes are opened to the glories of God’s promise of everlasting life for all who believe upon Jesus, seeing God’s design and purpose to suffering in this vapor-like life.

Heavenly Father, I pray that you open the eyes of each reader to see Your glory in Jesus Christ who suffered, died, and rose again to make sinners clean and promise life to those perishing by forgiving sinners and justifying sinners through Jesus Christ the Righteous One. Help us understand Your holy purposes in our pains with the hope of everlasting life with You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.