Christian Faith - Faithful Christian Living In Difficult Times

We’ve all heard the term “happy warrior” to describe people who fight for their causes in a upbeat way. These are people who don’t seem to get down about defeats or setbacks. It’s a good label, but “happy” isn’t a term I would want to use because happiness is based on circumstances. The Lord calls us to something higher and better.

As Christians, we are called to be joyful as we advance the Kingdom. It would be far more accurate to say we are called to be “joyful warriors” each day.

This has been important for me to reflect on because over the past couple of weeks I’ve been overwhelmed at times by the depths of evil we are facing as it has become steadily exposed. (I don’t think most people fully fathom it yet, to be perfectly honest.) I had a long post mostly written I was going to publish last week and I felt compelled to set it aside. If you follow my forums, you know that my posting there has dropped off quite a bit the past few weeks. I probably have 100+ things bookmarked to add. But I haven’t because it is all so overwhelming. I’ve kept my Telegram feed updated and that’s about it for sharing current events.

I asked a few people this weekend where my responsibility begins and ends in terms of trying to spread the truth and share what I perceive. I do what I do because I care about people. I care about every person who reads my blog or is led here for some reason. I don’t get everything right and I certainly miss some things. I’m human. But I have also been encouraged by many other Christians over the years that this is a gift I have and so I feel a need to use it for the good of the Body of Christ. Lately I haven’t been certain where to draw the line between being a truthful warrior and being a joyful warrior. Sorting out the truth is exhausting. It doesn’t leave me un-joyful, but it definitely leaves me emotionally worn out.

I believe that in the weeks ahead a great deal of evil is going to become obvious to anyone who is remotely paying attention. In fact, I think it will be unavoidable. Only those living in denial or who are unwilling to face the truth will not see it.

I shared news sources a few weeks ago in a post called Finding Better News and Information Sources. That post includes a variety of places to look for what is happening. Do those sources always get it right? Of course not. They are human, too. But they will provide you with much more real-time information than you will get from any MSM source. When Facebook, Instagram, etc. went down last week, I was fully up-to-date on what was happening. I’ve already sourced other places for news. Gab and Telegram were flooded with new users. Gab didn’t slow at all even though traffic skyrocketed. Telegram slowed a tad as it added 70 million new users that day. I am profoundly thankful for the freedom to have access to other platforms filled with joyful warriors who seek the truth.

I am also thankful I ditched Facebook long before all this accelerated. I cannot imagine going through these events depending on platforms that systematically censor, distort, and otherwise hide the truth. When you are active on uncensored platforms, you realize how widespread and insidious the censorship is on Big Tech. It is mind boggling the important information they have deliberately kept from people. When people finally realize the truth, I believe we will see rage that we’ve never witnessed in our lifetimes. I think we will also see unbelievable levels of despair. I have to not think about it or it will make me weep.

In the end, I decided to focus on being a joyful warrior right now. I’ve been warning, admonishing, exhorting, and challenging folks here for a number of years. There isn’t much else I can say at this point. Either someone has taken to heart what I’ve said or she hasn’t. There aren’t any more posts I can write that will convince someone to make changes or learn the truth. I’ve done my best to convey the truth as best as I understand it. That’s all I can do. I leave the results to the Lord.

Now it’s time to focus on being a joyful warrior in the midst of what is going to unfold. We are going to need joy and our loved ones are going to need us to lead by example in showing the joy that can only come from Christ.

A joyful warrior needs her armor each day. I know from personal experience that being in the Word and in prayer makes a huge difference. If that is the case in normal times, it is even more imperative in these extraordinary times in which we are currently living.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed, and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:10-17

If you missed some of the other recent posts I wrote, you might want to read them as you consider what it means to be a joyful warrior in the midst of evil.

• Living A Life Of Faithfulness Before God
• Shining Your Light in a Dark World
• Bucking Up For The Sake Of Your Loved Ones
• Choosing Joy in the Midst of Change You Can’t Control
• Finding Refuge Under His Wings – Psalm 91

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This was a long week for everyone for various reasons. It was a long week at the end of a long month in the midst of a long year. Giving up, throwing up our hands, or giving into depression isn’t an option. As women, we set the tone in the home more than anyone.

I’m writing this today to encourage each one of us to buck up for the sake of our loved ones. More than encourage you, I’m here to give us all a kick in the rear end. We might feel tired, overwhelmed, discouraged. or fearful. So much doesn’t make sense. But we cannot control any of that. We can only control what happens in our homes and our response to life around us. In the midst of these difficult times, we’re responsible for walking with Christ, praying, and loving those God has entrusted to our care.

Giving up isn’t an option. Giving into our fears isn’t an option. Allowing our emotions to spill over and harm our loved ones isn’t an option. I don’t know who needs to hear these things today, but someone does. I had no plan to write this post today, but here we are.

We’re not the first people to go through difficult times. We’re not the first people to face war, pestilence, or failed leaders. We’re not the first people to witness apostasy in the church. We’re not the first people to witness betrayal, lies, and treason. We’re here today because our ancestors survived some of the worst things that have happened on the earth.

If you want a sobering read, consider this from Black Death and Abrupt Earth Changes in the 14th century. I found this article while doing research about Grand Solar Minimum.

Death toll of the 1300-1350 crisis

In 1969, Philip Ziegler accepted an average plague death toll in Europe of about 33 percent, or between 20,000,000 and 25,000,000,

The period from 1300-1350 saw the death of at least 50% of the population of Europe. In China, where the Black Death is said to have originated, a loss around half of the population is attributed just to the Black Death alone (going from around 123 million to around 65 million). In the early 2000s, Benedictow presented an overall European population of around 80,000,000 and plague death toll of about 60 percent overall in Europe, which is a total of about 48,000,000 dead. [21]

We note, that the ultimate death toll is still controversial, most historians agree that the Great Famine of 1315 already claimed at least 30% of Europe’s population and then the Great Plague from 1347 onward, claimed at least another 30%. Assuming that the population couldn’t recover in just 35 years after the famine, the second event of mass casualties would take then 30% of the remaining 70%, amounting to a death toll of at least 51%; if we use Benedictow numbers, we arrive at 72% within just 35 years. In Southern Europe, specially along the coastlines, the situation was even worse. Speaking only of the 4 years of the Black Death, some scholars believe that  “In Mediterranean Europe, where the plague ran for about four years consecutively, it was probably between 70 and 75% of the total population”.[22] In England, the death rate was estimated at between 45- 60%.[23]

A musician at the papal Court in Avignon, Louis Heylingen (sanctus) of Beeringen, writes about an even greater mortality in Avignon and the neighboring parts:

“(…) for at Marseilles all the gates of the city, with the exception of two small ones, are now closed, for there, four- fifths of the inhabitants are dead.” [24]

We’ll examine below what the proximity to the sea and the various accounts of foul odors emitted from the sea have to do with this distribution pattern. Also in Palestine, (costal) Gaza seams to have been hardest hit, Ibu Battuta, Abu Abdullah (1304-1368) reports he found Gaza “depopulated due to the prior outbreak there(…) only 60 to 80 notaries remained alive.”[25]

To put these numbers into perspective: WW II caused the greatest loss of human life in recent history. According to conservative estimates, about 60 million people were killed in World War II, which was about 3% of the 1940 world population (of about 2.3 billion). The German population suffered the greatest loss of people in proportion to population, the death toll is disputed to be between 4.2 million[26] and 7.3 million[27] civilians and military death, amounting to 6 – 10% of the German population.

So, proportionally, the Great Famine of 1315- 1320 alone killed 3 to 10 times as many people of the European population as did all of WW II. We may ask ourselves how the enormous death toll of the 1315 Famine is usually only marginally taken into account in the discussion of the Black Death period.

Somehow, by the grace of God, our ancestors survived all that.

All of it.

You and I are here today despite all the pestilence, famine, and war. We owe it to those who struggled before us and those who will come after us to buck up and press on.

Things may get darker before they get better. Be a light to the world starting in your own home. Laugh. Laugh a lot. Cook good food, Read good books. Talk in positive terms. Shelter your children from the worst of it. Shelter yourself from the worst of it. Make prudent choices for your home.

Pray. Be in God’s Word multiple times a day. Leave your Bible open on the table, the desk, the counter, or wherever you spend most of your time. Read it multiple times a day, even 60 seconds at a time if that is all you can do.

Turn off the demonic television. Yes, that’s what I said. Turn off the profanity, fornication, violence, perversion, and every other thing that causes you to focus on sin and the flesh rather than the light of Christ. Stop giving yourself, your money, and your time to a culture that hates and despises everything you believe in.

If you need a mental break and need to escape a bit, make it uplifting and beautiful. There is nothing wrong with watching a good movie or reading a good book to give your mind a break while living in difficult times. But choose wisely. Choose something beautiful. Add light to your life, not more demonic garbage.

Make one hard choice. I don’t care what it is. Choose to do something hard today. Then choose to do something hard the next day. I can’t tell you what it is in your particular situation. What is hard for you might not be hard for me and vice versa. But do something. Make a hard choice. Train yourself to give up garbage that doesn’t have any meaning. Speak the truth where it isn’t popular. I’m not even going to make suggestions because I don’t want to influence anyone. Ask God. Your conscience probably already spoke to you when I encouraged you to do this. Start making hard choices so making hard choices becomes easier. It may be very helpful in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

We are all weary in one way or another. We’re tired of being lied to. We’re tired of tyrants at every level. We’re tired of people hurting our children. We’re tired of division. We’re tired of apostate church leaders and churches. We’re tired of evil people getting away with their crimes. We’re all so weary of it all. But we simply must pray fervently, rest in Christ, and push beyond it. Our loved ones need us to do so.

In My Shop

Every day last week I opened up the browser tab to write my weekly newsletter to you all. Then I sat and stared at it. I wanted to write, but all I could come up with was a torrent of angry words. Over the years of blogging I’ve learned that I don’t want to write when I’m angry and so every day I closed up the tab and didn’t write anything.

The past two weeks I’ve vacillated between righteous anger and an overwhelming sense of something akin to despair. I say akin to despair because as a Christian who believes in God’s goodness and God’s sovereignty, I have no personal reason to despair. But the evil that has clearly manifested itself in every part of the world right now including churches, government, schools, etc. reached a point where I found it overwhelming.

Overwhelming because I see sheep being led to slaughter. I see people completely unaware of what is going on around them. I hear people parroting words that are blatantly false, but they don’t know they are false because the truth is systematically and ruthlessly hidden from them. It is enough to drive someone who understands what is going on and sees it for what it is, completely mad. To see the lies spread everywhere. To see the truth censored and deleted.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Psalm 42:5 ESV

As I was struggling with what to do as the new week approached, someone shared this on Gab.

As you examine yourself before you go to bed, you do not just ask yourself if you have committed murder or adultery; or whether you have been guilty of this or that, and if you have not, thank God that all is well. No. You ask yourself rather, ‘Has God been supreme in my life today? Have I lived to the glory and the honor of God? Do I know Him better? Have I a zeal for His honor and glory? Has there been anything in me that has been unlike Christ–thoughts, imaginations, desires, impulses?’ That is the way. In other words, you examine yourself in the light of a living Person and not merely in terms of a mechanical code of rules and regulations.

Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

It was the reminder I needed yesterday of who I serve and who I answer to. Yes, I already knew it. But I had become so concerned about offending people, turning people off, etc. that I was afraid to speak the truth. I had become more concerned with “not giving people what they want” when they come here, that I wasn’t considering that God might call me to write hard words here sometimes. Righteous anger might be what God is asking me to write and, if so, I have to write it. I don’t just have to write it. I want to write it. I’m called to be faithful with this opportunity to write online.

We each live our lives to an audience of one. The only approval we need to seek is the approval of our Lord.

Have I lived my life today in a way that pleases Him? Have I shared the truth with those who need to hear it? Do I speak of my Lord?

When I go to bed at night, it doesn’t matter if anyone liked what I wrote. It only matters that I wrote what I believe God led me to write. It doesn’t matter if my subscriber numbers dwindle because people don’t want to hear difficult words. It only matters if the difficult words were true and life-giving.

I would rather write to my audience of One and share it with 20 others who are eagerly seeking the same Lord in all circumstances than cautiously write and pander to thousands. That has always been my view and I was reminded of it again during the events of the past few weeks.

So you, too, live your life to an audience of One. Your daily choices should be what pleases Him.

God doesn’t call us to be faithful in order to please man. He doesn’t call us to do, speak, and write that which will most soothe and please the masses who don’t want to think about the call of God on their lives. God calls us to be faithful to Him and His Word. We leave the results to Him. It is far better to be faithful with the widow’s mite and receive our reward in the life to come than anything else we could do.

As we continue through the climax of this Fourth Turning, the foundations of our culture will continue to be shaken. Every institution is being scrutinized and the evil is being dismantled from it. This includes the church.

One of the greatest gifts of the past two years has been the steady unmasking of all who are fake Christian leaders. We can see more clearly every day those who love God, follow Jesus, and love His sheep. The wolves and false teachers are being exposed every week and my soul rejoices that this is true. I have been speaking out about some of these charlatans for years and I rejoice that people are finally seeing them for who they truly are. They are a subversive enemy who follows man, not Jesus. They have purposefully infiltrated the church to lie, deceive, and destroy. I rejoice that their empires are crumbling and God’s children are seeing the truth.

Yes, it is overwhelming to see these stories day after day. I have a folder called “Add to forum” that is filled with links to share about the church, the coronavirus, government, etc. They have piled up because I have felt an overwhelming sense of grief over the lies and lives destroyed by these evil men and women who serve only their own interests and the interests of their true lord who is not Jesus Christ.

The folder is also filled with stories of the truth about everything going on around us in the country and the world. Honestly, one of the only things keeping me sane in the midst of all this (beyond my faith) is the ability to access the truth on platforms like Gab and Telegram. When I see examples of the important information that Facebook and Twitter shut down on a daily basis, it is appalling.

More than that, it’s evil. It’s calculated evil, designed to deny people access to vital information they have a right to know.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Psalm 42:11 ESV

God is on His throne. I ask Him to protect His sheep who are being led to slaughter. I ask Him to be gracious and defend those who are defenseless, partially due to the evil that makes them defenseless and partially because they have no idea how the enemies of their soul are arrayed against them.

If you’ve read this far, good for you. You understand. Now go live your life today for the audience of One. When you go to sleep tonight, reflect on whether or not you’ve lived your life for Him today. Did you speak for Him? Did you give to others in His name? Were you changed today because you walked in His light? Ask yourself these questions from Dr. Lloyd-Jones:

• Has God been supreme in my life today?
• Have I lived to the glory and the honor of God?
• Do I know Him better?
• Have I a zeal for His honor and glory?

If the answer is yes and continues to be yes, then you have done what God has asked. Give thanks and rest well.