The Hard Road of a Simple Gospel

By Kimm Reid

The gospel of Jesus is easy-love God, love others.

The road on which the Believer journeys through this enigma called life is hard. We face opposition, distraction, fear, torment, loneliness, brokenness, rejection, sickness, and even death, but these things should not be a surprise. The Master, Jesus, warned of such circ

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ahelia Publishing LLC
• Release date: Mar 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781988001463

Book preview

ONE

for such a time

… Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Esther 4:13-14

wHEN WE THINK OF THE PHRASE, FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS, OUR minds rush to Esther. Similar to what her thoughts must often have been, I’ve wondered why the Lord has put me here, in the time and place He did; why He allowed me more pain, rejection, and difficulty than others I know. In such personal wonderings, my mind ponders Esther. What was asked of her was exponentially difficult—it could cost her life—but she knew this one thing was the reason she had been brought to where she found herself. The hard road which took her to the palace to be the wife of the king was one none of us would choose. This was no ordinary life. Esther would not have chosen such a road if given an option. Nevertheless, her life had led to one moment in time—a moment that would impact history—a moment that would change the future.

But what if our minds jumped to another character? Noah? Joseph? Daniel? Jesus? The roads on which their feet traveled were also long and hard all in preparation for a short blink in time which would impact both history and future, exponentially. Their entire lives were fashioned for one purpose. Noah would not have chosen to be ridiculed and mocked or have his sons and wife experience similar treatment. Surely he’d rather have plowed the fields and had an ordinary life. But his life was not ordinary. His life was earmarked to build an ark and be a remnant to salvage humanity by starting it over. Noah’s entire life was for the one moment the rain started to fall. If Noah had decided to choose an ordinary life, God would have used another as that remnant.

What about Joseph? He did not have a long ministry tagged by fame or fortune. His life was marked by rejection, isolation, false accusation, humiliation, human trafficking, and imprisonment. Yet when his road led from the prison to the palace, he ended up saving a nation from starvation. Those hard things on a narrow road not of his making, cultivated the way for Joseph to do what he was put here to do. I am sure Joseph would have preferred an ordinary life of ease as the favored son in his father’s household to the hard road, as he had no understanding of where it was leading nor what would be found along the way.

Jesus’ life was anything but ordinary; His life was for the sake of death that He might rescue humankind from an eternal hell. All the hardship, mocking, hatred, ridicule, rejection, and difficulties were to prepare Him to surrender to the cross. Three days. Three days of Jesus’ surrender would change the course of both history and future.

I used to cry, I want an ordinary life! But I was not born for ordinary and neither were you. You know what I am talking about. We don’t fit in—we’re not supposed to. It’s a hard road and few can walk it, but you and I can because our roads were created for us, to fashion us for a specific and divine moment in time. Matthew 22:14 says that many are called but few are chosen. Christ earmarked each of us for a purpose, yet because of the hardness of the road, few keep their feet fastened to it; most give up somewhere between the cross and the crown.

Those who give up do so because they are unprepared for the pain; they’ve not been warned of how hard the journey will be and so they hold fast to ordinary, wanting a regular earthly life more than the hard road of the gospel. What if all the pain, rejection, assaults, and whatever else you have experienced, are for three days rather than for a long, lucrative life of ministry? Would you still go? What if those three days were going to impact history but cost you everything? Would you still walk it? What if they were going to impact only one? Would you go, even still?

What if you are to see no fruit from choosing the hard road until Heaven? Would you go? Would you still take the hard road, understanding that it may be nearly unbearable? That it might, in fact, break you a thousand times over? Christ does not show His power to the strong, but to the weak. He does not raise up on eagles’ wings those who hurry on ahead, wanting success on their terms and in their timeframe. Jesus raises on eagles’ wings those who wait patiently for Him to open doors, and who, through heavy, burdensome tears, whisper a faithful thank you, when long hoped-for doors remain closed.

Will you lay down your desire for the ordinary life you long for which appeases all earthly appetites and choose instead to walk the lonely road for such a time as this? For the moment in history where you make a difference? For the blink in time for which you were created?

Will you go? The cost to go must be considered carefully—and chosen mindfully. It is a daily consideration and a moment-by-moment choice. Choose today, whom you will serve, and serve Him with all you have, no matter the cost. He is all you require. He is the reward. Seek the Kingdom and He will add whatever you need in order to keep your feet fastened to the road—the only road—which leads to Him.

Perhaps this is the moment for which you have been created.

TWO

fixed vision

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Colossians 3:2

bELIEVERS HAVE BECOME TOO COMFORTABLE HERE ON EARTH, settling in and making it home. It is not home; we are aliens and foreigners passing through. In settling for a place we don’t belong, we have made the mistake of interpreting Scripture to be of an earthy application rather than a heavenly one. By doing so, we misunderstand much of God’s Word, believing it to refer to our lives here and now rather than the one to come. This mistake causes much grief, tsunamis of doubt, and sometimes debilitating frustration. Many lose their way and leave the hard road, exchanging it for the easier ways of this earth which will eventually pass away and leave those whose hope has been in its comforts, entirely without hope.

Children of God, we were not meant to get comfortable here, assimilating to the ways of the land, yet we have done just that; living the exact opposite of what was instructed. Minds have become so set on things of this world that we have lost sight of what is to come. Believer, have you put down roots and stepped onto the wheel of the rat, running the same circles as those of the world? Have you begun to take responsibility for your own care and well-being, making your own way, forging your own path, and longing more for comforts of the flesh than for eternal rewards?

The hard road requires our minds to be firmly set on things not of this world. It is the things of this world that so easily ensnare—not necessarily the sin or flesh as those things are easy to notice and understand as weights holding us back. Rather, it is the things the world sees as enchanting or reasonable or desirable which so ensnares the soul. It is such things as earning more money or seeking recognition or position or a name, that so easily entangle and are difficult to shake off. After all, according to the world, it is common sense to seek hard after these things; to pour one’s life into gaining. But it is these very things that the Lord desires to be given responsibility for in our