Chris' Christian Blog

January 5, 2021

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What assurances can we get from this passage? What will the righteous escape?

Christians escape the wrath of God. Prior to being saved we face eternal death and are subject to judgment. Once we are saved, however, we escape judgment and eternal death. All too often Christians think that being saved should save us from suffering. This simply is not the case. Suffering happens to everybody because we live in a fallen world. As dwellers in a fallen world, we are subjected to the world's laws. Even Jesus was subject to the world's laws. Jesus is the very begotten Son of God. Begotten does not mean that Jesus was ever born or that He came into existence by the will of God at some point in time. Begotten means that Jesus has always poured through the essence of God and existed as part of the essence of God. He is co-eternal with the Father and exists as the essence of the Father. In spite of this the Father made Jesus subject to the suffering of the world, even subject to the cruelest death the world has ever known...death by crucifixion and separation from the Father. God knows what death feels like because He suffered death through Jesus. God is not unaware of the suffering mankind goes through. This passage in Proverbs in no way says that we will not be subjected to suffering. It says we will escape judgment.

In 2016 I lost my wife suddenly and unexpectedly. Within the next eighteen months I lost both my mother and my father. I moved out of the home I was buying and moved to another city where I became lonely, depressed, and lethargic. A worker at the VA Medical Center in that town suggested that I move to the West Virginia Veterans Home, where I now live. I had been here at the WVVH for about one month when I became a soldier in the Salvation Army Huntington Corps and was commissioned the Community Care Ministries Secretary for the corps. A Community Care Ministries Secretary is a chaplain. I became the chaplain of the West Virginia Veterans Home. A year after I became chaplain of the WVVH God's plan became clear to me. COVID-19 hit with a vengeance and the home was shut off from all outside visitors. Prior to my becoming chaplain all the ministers coming in were visitors. There was no staff chaplain. God used me to fulfill the role of chaplain. If my wife and mother were still living I would still be in the house I owned prior to my wife's death. My wife wanted the house and my mother encouraged me to stay in it no matter what. I would have been there and the WVVH right now would have no chapel services. As it is Chapel is going well at the WVVH. We expand our programming all the time and our membership is starting to grow. God knew what He was doing. He used my suffering to shape me and mold me into the chaplain I am today.

"Prompt: I was cruising the galaxy with Buck Rogers and found this planet:

Fast Food Heaven  (E) A poem about fast food restaurants. #1977138 by Tim Chiu

How do you feel about fast food?

I love fast food but it doesn't like me. It makes me fat and it usually messes with my acid reflux disease. I eat a lot of it though. Some of the food they cook here at the West Virginia Veterans Home is fast food. For example, on Lord's Day evening's we often have chicken nuggets and French fries. So I can't say that I don't eat my share of fast food. My favorite fast food restaurant is Subway. I love a fresh deli sandwich. My favorite two sandwiches at Subway are Black Forest Ham and Grilled Chicken on nine-grain or wheat foot-long. I top them off with tomatoes, lettuce, black olives, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, pickles, a little salt, and either light mayo or chipotle sauce (or both) and get a Sprite or Mello-Yello. I'm in hog heaven.

"Prompt: Use these words in your blog post: epiphany, sunshine, snow, chocolate, chicken, spring."

I had an epiphany last night. It came to me in the blinding snow. Why do I put up with the cold? The south enjoys sunshine most of the time. I could raise a chicken or turkey and drink hot chocolate in the land of eternal spring.

"Prompt: Ursula Le Guin says, “Begin your story with a voice. With a voice in the ear. That first page I wrote, which the novel progressed from, is simply Lavinia speaking to us — including me, apparently.”
Have you ever heard your main character’s voice in your mind’s ear, so to speak? What was it like?"

I can't say I ever experienced that.