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Editor's Letter & The Best Is Yet To Be
THE EDITOR’S LETTER.
Dear Friends,
Thank you to those who have sent letters of encouragement, please use the new address at the front of this magazine or email us at overcomerliterature@gmail.com.
Our hope and trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ, because He died for us at Calvary and rose again for our justification. The gift of eternal life was imparted to us by the Holy Spirt when we believed by faith that He cleansed us from all unrighteousness by becoming sin for us. Truly we can call ourselves blessed by the eternal blessings given to us because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s finished work on the Cross and the miracle of the new birth. The benefits and blessings of the Christian life are the theme of this issue.
In Christ,
Mark
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THE BEST IS YET TO BE.
By Rev Mark Weeden
A preacher once said, “there has to be another life, to be able to explain this one.”
This world is so full of pain, problems, injustices and evil, that it is a struggle, if not a stumbling block for many. Most people, Christian and non-Christian alike, have a sense of fairness and justice, even though there may be a great deal of variation in their specific views. This sense of justice, and injustice, is deeply embedded in an individual’s conscience, and although fallen, is God-given.
Much of Western Christendom now focuses on the individual believer, and the “blessings” he or she receives in this world. However, that is not the perspective of Christians in persecuted countries, nor was it in the early Church, and certainly not in the Bible.
Jesus Christ spoke of the reality of a life to come for all human beings, either in the presence of God, in heaven, or separated from Him forever, in hell. Whilst many Western believers undoubtedly have a worldly focus, some have clearly purposed in their hearts to follow Jesus, whatever the cost. And they have paid a cost, suffering injustices, losing out on the breaks of life, financially, socially and even in their family situations. In their hearts, they have been like Abraham, of whom it was written in the Book of Hebrews, that he desired a better country, that is, a heavenly one, and like Moses, who considered the reproach of Christ greater value than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
The apostle Paul suffered great opposition in the cause of Christ, such as beatings, stoning, imprisonment, shipwreck and more, yet he knew that the “things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2 v9). We believe this because we have come to know the character of Almighty God, that He is faithful, and cannot lie. As Jesus said of the place He is preparing for us, “if it were not so, I would have told you” (John 14 v2).
Eternal blessings will undoubtedly be the portion and reward of the faithful believer, and yet, something of that future is given to us here below. Paul wrote of the Holy Spirit being given as a pledge, or earnest, deposit or down payment, of what is to come (Ephesians 1 v14). And adding to the promise written to the Corinthians, above, he said that “God revealed these things by His Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2 v10). Many a faithful believer, particularly at times of great distress, has had supernatural encouragement with the foretaste of things to come, of the presence, peace and amazing love of God fill their hearts.
As persevering saints of a previous generation were apt to say,“The best is yet to be”, whatever they were going through at the time. We are a people born anew for eternity. Hallelujah!