What If We Are Martyred?

God is good!

All the time!

And all the time…

God is good!

We all come from a long heritage of congregations, of congregational prayer, congregational praise, congregational worship and yes, congregational declarations. We declare God’s goodness in the great assembly. We declare God’s goodness in the land of the living. We declare and we decree victory and Victorious Living by the grace and mercy of God for all His saints in the land of the living by the power and love which are ours in Christ Jesus our LORD and Savior to the glory of God.

And so when we say: God is good! All the people say: All the time! And when we respond: And all the time! All the people say: God is good! Hallelujah! Thank You, JESUS!

We are a congregational people with a congregational heritage. And this is an ancient heritage. In Christ, you yourselves are our reply. You yourselves are our Yes and Amen! When we say Yes, you say Amen and when we say Amen! You say Yes!

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭1:20‬

And so it is also that we have come to know about Homegoing Services. Among our people, we have come to experience these vibrant celebrations, similar to Celebration of Life services but with a whole lot more soul, a whole lot not congregational vibrancy, a whole lot more life and zeal, passion and fervency, joy mixed with tears of gratitude.

So, we ask again: what if we are martyred? We ask this reminiscent of so many others both those who did not know and those who knew.

We pray that we may live and serve here to a ripe old age, but unlike some who knew, we have no clear word or warning about this. Nevertheless, we do live in perilous times and perilous places.

Yet we declare the wonders of God and each one hears these same wonders of God declared, each in his own tongue! Whether in Hebraikos or in the Hebraidi dialekto, we share with so many, daily in the Lyceum, the plain, simple, clear and powerful good news gospel Injeel evangel of God unto salvation, that is Messiah Yeshua, Christos Iesous and Him crucified. A stumbling block to Jews and Muslims alike, but the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, first to the Jew and then to the English.

And so, who will recount all the amazing things which God has done? Who will even know all the amazing testimonies? Who will even know all the hundreds of gospel conversations, and the testimonies of God’s goodness, all the witnesses and declarations of salvation, of transformation, of metamorphosis, of new birth, of washing and healing, of regeneration, redemption and deliverance from addictions and fears, from bondages and destructive habits and behaviors, from lies and deceptions, of the surprising work of God in the conversion of many hundred souls, nefs, nephesh and of new pneuma life of ruh, ruach.

Who will declare all these wonders to our wives, to our children, to our families and friends? If all these things were written down, surely even the world wide web would not be able to contain all the writings. Indeed it cannot because the fullness of all the depths of all these wonders we have seen and heard and declared in part to you, the fullness is indeed recorded but for now the fullness is known only to God alone, written down in His scroll of remembrance in His presence and with all His holy ministering servants.

And so we continue to go forth daily declaring this powerful message, foolishness to those who are perishing but life and peace to those who are being saved.

And we all with unveiled faces also continue to declare the LORD’s Yes! and Amen! until He returns! Maranatha!