The images are shocking, and the videos are hard to watch. Violent hatred planted in an already sinful heart has given birth unspeakable tragedy as people made in the image of God assault, torture, and kill other image bearers.
We know this kind of evil isn’t new. It’s gone on since Genesis 3 and will continue until Revelation 19. However, seeing it so explicitly shocks our senses and awakens our conscience. Fear strikes our heart as we wonder what the future will hold and how this war will play out.
May we continue to pray for peace shine the light of the gospel into the darkest seasons of life. GCD continues a series on the goodness and beauty of the local church. May God’s people truly be a light on a hill proclaiming hope and good news to a broken, weary world.
In Christ,
James Williams serves as associate pastor at FBC Atlanta, TX. James and his wife, Jenny, are blessed with four children and are actively involved in foster care. He is passionate about beholding the beauty of our Lord and helping others do the same. He enjoys writing, running, and gardening. You can follow James Twitter or his blog where he writes regularly.
Recent Articles at GCDiscipleship.com
God’s Church is the Lifeline We Need in Times of Trouble
by Grace Strijbis
“God’s church is knitted together in such an intimate way as to be like a body, and when one part feels pain the whole body feels it too. It’s too easy for us to stay on the fringes of church life, feeling like no one wants or needs us. Especially in seasons of suffering or neediness, it’s easy to wonder what the point of belonging is. If this is you, dear friend, let me remind you the whole body suffers when you do, and the whole body suffers when you are not there.”
How the Wonder and Weirdness of a Bus Reminds Me of the Local Church
by Melinda Wallace
“While God is perfect, his church is not. The local church is a family, and every family has its ups and downs. The ride got so bumpy during this leg of our journey that many of us were bruised and battered. Reflecting on this time, I have grown to recognize many ways that I responded wrongly. Thankfully, God used this season to begin shaping my character in ways that would prove excruciatingly painful to my oversized ego.”
Out of the Realm of Ceaseless Cognition
by John Andrew Bryant
“I see now what I did not see then. There in a gown, walking gently on shoeless feet, and mumbling under the fluorescent lights of the local psych ward, was the life I had made out of thinking more, and thinking better. This was my life in the Realm of Ceaseless Cognition. This is what you become when you only live there.”
“My heart sings as I read Bob’s words. In this book he takes us beyond facile or formulaic articulations of the Christian life in which our performance always seems to slip in as the key ingredient to calm and joy. Instead Bob plunges our hearts into the deep and wondrous truths of the biblical gospel where Jesus and his grace for ongoing sinners is so real that our cynicism and hardness and discouragement don’t stand a chance! Thank you for helping me to repent, believe, and fight, Bob!”
Dane Ortlund, author of Gentle and Lowly and Pastor of Naperville Presbyterian Church
The Gospel Waltz is an unapologetic treatise on grace, not shying away from theological truth but processing it through the lens of a simple and highly memorable tool for a life lived abiding in Christ. Through the accessible paradigm of repent, believe, and fight, the Waltz offers a framework to take hold of the gospel in everyday life and appreciate the transformational and refreshing power of unrelenting grace.