CAN IT BECOME HARDER TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE?

Fellow Christian, I have heard it said that things are becoming harder for the church today. How can that be? It can never become easier or harder to accomplish impossible things. The God-given objectives of the church are impossible. We have been tasked with nothing less than to make dead people alive (Ephesians 2:1-10, 2 Corinthians 5:11-21). There was never a time when that was easy and there will never come a day when it is more difficult. It will only, ever, always be impossible according to the limits of human strength. So the belief, so often expressed in these days, that things are becoming harder for the church reveals the smallness of our goals (Comfort? Approval? Security?) and an inflated view of what men can accomplish in their own power under the right circumstances. 

THE MOUND OF SILENT DAYS

For friends long-separated, life has a way of piling up like snow, and it is only when you sit down to write a letter or place a phone call that you become suddenly surprised at just how much has accumulated since you last caught up. It can be hard work to keep the paths between homes cleared. Although letters and phone calls make a poor shovel, shovel we sometimes must because that silent mound of days can become a serious impediment to an easy  back-and-forth. That is sometimes the fate of friendships in this fallen, winter world, but Jesus is bringing the springtime when all that chill and silence will melt, and all those separated by distance, death, deceit and disappointment, yet still bound and tethered by Christ will pull chairs up to the fire and enjoy a more perfect friendship in the warmth and light of his eternal presence.