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Think About This
Weeping May Endure for a Night
By Mark Roth on February 26, 2009 at 3:57 pm
From a battered and neglected childhood, walk with the author as he wanders — often penniless — through the hippie drug culture and into the deceptiveness of the surface religion so prevalent today.
See how Christ can break through all these barriers to give deep healing and peace.
Excerpt:
I pursued pain. Painful writing and music. Painful drugs. Painful relationships. Painful memories. I found security in pain. I created my image around pain. I kicked and abused my mind and emotions — constantly demanding more this time than the time before — till my mind, emotions, and personality were stretched, bent, and twisted beyond normal human limits.
I emulated poets and musicians who used their pain and rage to gain them recognition. I was the King of Pain, and could out-pain practically everyone I met. I didn’t know how to get people to love me, so I used my pain to manipulate them into relationships. But these intensely painful relationships soon burned out, leaving me feeling rejected once again, adding another layer to my intense pain.
I called myself a hippie. But I was so intense that even the hippies thought I was too wild for them. So I ran and ran and ran.
I ran faster and faster, trying to outrun the pain that was waiting for me wherever I went.
Where was I running? I didn’t know. I was searching for something. What, I didn’t know. But I knew I had to find it.
Or die searching!
Between 1970 and 1974, I drifted aimlessly from New York to California, from Florida to Oregon. Often homeless and penniless, I spent sleepless nights walking the streets, talking to myself, trying to find purpose in life. I would silently cry into the empty darkness, Where is God? Is there a God? What is life? Is there any such thing as love?
171 pages. Harbor Lights. Phillip Cohen.
Published in 1998.
For more details as well as the option to buy: Weeping May Endure for a Night
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Moses … [Chose] to Suffer
By Mark Roth on February 24, 2009 at 5:50 pm
“Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season: Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward” (Hebrews 11:25, 26).
Moses had to make hard choices. The differences between his options were vast and far-reaching. The distance between the two possible courses before him would grow greater over the years and culminate in contrasting destinies. Only eyes of faith could weight the future advantages against the present allurements. To choose present suffering over present pleasure tested the genuineness of his faith.
Moses’ break with Egypt was not a calculated move or a brave statement of position. We do not know how long he had been contemplating the choice, but he showed his loyalties when he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew— “one of his [Moses’] brethren.” Moses slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day when he tried to separate two Hebrews fighting, the one in the wrong challenged him with the Egyptian’s death. Moses was shocked. “He supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by His hand would deliver them: but they understood not” (Acts 7:25).
Moses now knew that his slaying of the Egyptian was no secret. As he feared, Pharaoh found out about it and wanted to kill Moses. So Moses fled.
But something had happened earlier. Evidently Moses had come to view the Hebrews as his people. This unusual situation exposed his growing faith. Moses had seen his brethren suffer. He knew that more suffering lay ahead. But he believed that they were God’s people. Since he wanted to be a part of them, he was ready to bear the suffering. Maybe this was God’s way of shaking Moses loose from Egypt.
Faith enabled Moses to see the difference between the two options before him. One side offered ease and luxury—the best now. He knew that all those pleasures were fleeting. He had the insight to know that those pleasures were hollow and unsatisfying. On the other hand, God’s people had it hard now. But he knew blessings lay ahead, and he wanted to be included.
Moses also had to choose between riches and reproach. Egypt was rich and powerful. From a human perspective, the Hebrews had no identity, no land, and no apparent future. They were only slaves. Again, Moses saw beyond to a future reward for the Hebrews. That was what he wanted. The suffering and the reproach were but steppingstones to what his faith had grasped.
A verse in Hebrews 11 sums up how the whole picture looked to Moses when he made his choice. “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.” Regardless of how it came about, Moses left Egypt in faith.
Does the world offer you its pleasure and treasures? Are you tempted to view its sports and entertainment, its looseness and immorality, its “easy credit” and plush lifestyle as an advantageous investment? Believe it not! Reject its offers! “Look not at the things which are see, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).
Excepted from: The Great Cloud of Witnesses
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Tsunami!
By Mark Roth on February 19, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Purnama had barely gone a quarter of a mile before he saw a sight that burned itself in his memory. Coming down the street toward him was a crowd of people. A wall of waterborne debris, as high as the two-story buildings, was chasing the fleeing crowd. He stopped the cycle, and for a moment was frozen immobile at the incomprehensible sight.
Water? He heard the screams of the crowd. It did not look like water, but like a solid wave of cars, tin, and timbers being forced toward him with enormous pressure. A solid wave, yet strangely liquid. Spouts of water gushed out through the wave of debris.
Purnama tried to turn his cycle, but the wave was too swift. He had barely begun to speed away when the water reached him.
With a wild leap, Purnama left his drowning cycle and clasped his arms around a coconut palm. He tried to climb up the pole-like trunk as dirty water swirled around his legs…
In the true stores of this book, experience — in a small degree — a few of the horrors the people of Banda Aceh faced. The stores are mostly about Christians. Find out what believing in Christ really does for people who face a disaster. Some tell their stories with sorrow and heartbreak, others with joy and hope.
141 pages. TGS International (Christian Aid Ministries). Harvey Yoder.
Published in 2006.
For more details as well as the option to buy: Tsunami!
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