ambassadors for the risen Christ ministries

by Shawn Brasseaux

As I write this, I do not feel well. As you read this, we have other Christian brethren in the world suffering from various circumstances. A believer somewhere is coping with the loss of a loved one, and another Christian is fighting a life-threatening disease. We have Christians struggling financially, going through bitter divorces, and missionaries risking their lives to give people a copy of God’s Word! Surely, I can endure my sickness, and all those other Christians can keep doing the Lord’s work too, because we Christians serve “the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

The Lord Jesus Christ is living—alive and well, after dying for me—I am not serving a dead pagan god! He has never stopped caring for me, He will never leave me, and He even knew me before the foundation of the world. His Holy Spirit indwells me and seals me (Ephesians 4:30); His love for me constrains me (2 Corinthians 5:14). There is too much at stake to crouch in a corner and let the adversary intimidate me or silence me. We should not let intimidation or discouragement beat us down. We have lost friends and family members who need to be reached with the glorious light of the gospel of Christ! After the rapture, we will no longer have the opportunity to reach them, so please take advantage of what little time with which we have been blessed!

In 1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV, Paul explains that all people are suffering the same afflictions: the curse (sickness, pain, and misery), the inherited sin nature, and ultimately death: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

However, we, as believers in Christ, have resurrection power behind us: the same power that created the universe resurrected our Savior, empowers us today, and it is that same power that will resurrect us into glory one day. Upon the rapture, every member of the Church the Body of Christ will be transformed into a glorious body, being forever healed of the curse, the sin nature, and our nasty world. We cannot let these “light afflictions” hinder us—we must go onward!!!! “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18 KJV). And 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 KJV:

“16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, 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.”

Our world is becoming more and more anti-Christian, so we must grow stronger in the Lord and in His Word the King James Bible. We need to keep studying His Word daily. Otherwise, we will be deceived and we will be swept away by the widespread false teaching (Ephesians 4:14). Even if we have to face a martyr’s death in the coming years, we Christians already have victory through Jesus Christ!

We believers in Christ Jesus have the rapture as our “blessed hope,” and according to Titus 2:13, we need to be looking for it everyday! Our Lord Jesus Christ could come at any time, so we need to be giving it our all. Please do not sit in a pew and do nothing like most professing Christians. We have a suffering and spiritually dead world to which we are driven to minister, to proclaim to them grace and salvation! No one else can do it but us—no one else is willing but us! Let us all be working for the Lord when He will “catch us up” one day. Let us redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16; Colossians 4:5).

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58 KJV).

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” (Titus 2:13 KJV).