Susan Lafferty“To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Paul’s words help us stay the course. In life. And death.
October 2000. The phone rang at our home in Virginia.
A friend living in Karachi was calling.
“Ed is in very serious condition. Please pray.”
The one who speaks truth finds himself walled in. Weighed down. Worn out.
No hope. Only the crooked path. And a deep pit. Face in the gravel.
Affliction. With no end in sight.
This. When he’s fearlessly made known God’s ways. And wept over the judgment of a disobedient people.
Jeremiah laments.
In days of distress and disgrace, a written message arrives. From the enemy.
Dire threats. Mocking words. Blasphemy.
And Hezekiah goes to the temple. Spreading out the letter of his adversary before the Lord.
This king’s response informs my praying. For the persecuted. Those suffering greatly today. In the face of opposition to the gospel.
