Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
It's Chuck, and thanks for joining me on the weekday podcast. Have you ever wondered if your faith actually matters? I mean, like, really, really matters? I mean, like in places where believing in Jesus and being public about it is just.
Well, maybe you feel awkward or maybe you feel ostracized, or maybe you're frightened.
What about a place where you might actually get killed because of it?
That's Faith Unravel again. I'm Chuck Allen, and thanks for joining me on today's weekday podcast.
Hey, y' all, I'm back. And again, thanks so much for joining us. What if the very act of believing in God seems, well, completely insane?
That's the question at the heart of a book I read a few years ago called the Insanity of God.
It's this raw, gut wrenching journey that starts when the author, Nick, and his family moved to Somalia in the early 1990s, right in the middle of civil war, starvation and violence that. That most of us, honest to goodness, we just can't even begin to comprehend. And here's the thing. Everything fell apart for them there. Everything. Their work, their hopes, their dreams, even the life of their child.
And Nick, the author, found himself asking the question we're all afraid to voice sometimes.
Is this work? And is Jesus worth it?
That's a lot of it.
See the message translation puts it like this in Matthew, chapter 5, verses 11 and 12. Count yourself blessed. Every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me.
What it means is that the truth is so close for comfort.
I.
I just want to stop here for a minute.
I don't want to blow through this. I'm trying to get my thoughts together. And what keeps hitting me is that the truth can be too close for comfort.
And folks can be really uncomfortable with the story of Jesus.
I mean, you can be glad that happens. Give a cheer even for though they don't like it.
I do. And all heaven applauds.
That's what the text says.
Do you want me to read it again? Well, of course you do. Count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens. Give a cheer even for though they like it. I do. And the heavens applaud.
But what does that really look like? I mean, like in this earth, because we don't get to experience the applause of heaven. Right. What does it mean to Cheer when everything in my whole life and my faith system is falling apart.
Well, after Somalia, Nick spent 16 years traveling over 70 countries interviewing believers living under persecution. And what he discovered was pretty awesome.
It was pretty surprising, actually. When I read the book, I thought, oh, my.
These followers of Jesus weren't asking for the persecution to stop.
They weren't picketing.
They weren't boycotting. They weren't asking for easier lives. They were asking for courage to keep going.
In places like China, a house leader told Nick, don't pray for the persecution to end. The persecution is how the church grows.
In the former Soviet Union, a pastor who'd spent 17 years in prison said that imprisonment was his seminary training.
In the Middle east, believers gather secretly, knowing that discovery means death.
The message puts Romans 8:18 like this. That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times.
And here's the insanity of it all.
I mean, truly, the places where faith costs the most are often the places where faith spreads the fastest. I mean, that is totally tweetable or exable or whatever it is. The places where faith costs the most are often the places where faith spreads the fastest.
The places where being a Jesus follower seems completely irrational are precisely where people are encountering Jesus most powerfully.
What the author Ripken discovered is that resurrection isn't just something that happened 2,000 years ago.
Resurrection, my friend, is happening now.
It's happening in North Korea and in Somalia and in China and in prisons and underground churches and secret baptisms.
Let's pray that it happens in Washington and in Atlanta and in your hometown and in our houses, in our homes and our families.
The message translates. Second Corinthians, chapter four, beginning of verse eight. This way. Paul writes, we've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized.
We're not sure what to do. But we know that God knows what to do. We've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side. We've been thrown down, but we haven't broken.
What they did to Jesus, they do to us. Trial and torture, mockery and murder. What Jesus did among them, he does in us. He lives. Come on. He lives.
So maybe the real insanity isn't believing in God in the face of persecution. Maybe the real insanity is our comfortable Western Christianity that costs us nothing.
Maybe the real insanity is thinking we can follow a crucified Savior without carrying a cross ourselves.
Oh, friend, I want to leave you with this question. What if the parts of your faith that seem completely irrational to the world around you?
And are they actually the most sane parts of your faith?
What if the insanity of God is wiser than our human wisdom could ever be?
If you're experiencing any type of persecution or fear, you're probably living on the edge of a beautiful faith. And if you're not experiencing any of that, you're probably not chasing after Jesus.
This is Chuck, and until tomorrow or the next day, go in peace. Thanks for joining me on today's weekday podcast.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: What an amazing God we serve. And what a fresh thought. Living the insanity of God through human eyes. As you walk with Jesus today, please share today's weekday podcast on your social media platforms. Until next time, go in peace.
