Resources/Articles
Tough Times
Viewing the days of our lives, we would admit immorality, violence, deception, and false pretense abound daily. No one has to look too far nor too long to hear it and see it. It is disturbing, even frightening. People do not want to go out at night. A pleasant walk through the mall parking lot during the day can be terrifying. Letting your child go to a football game with friends scares some parents. What are the solutions? Does anyone care to find out? If these conditions worsen, how will the next generation fair?
Times are tough. Therefore, something needs to be tougher to overcome it. We may think it takes a committee to decide. Will we need another law? Some think “tough talk” will calm the problem. What if we hire an “investigator” or “research group” or protest and hold up signs saying, “We have had enough!”?
Notice this profound truth in Acts 24:25: “Now as [Paul] reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, ‘Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.’” Three of the most important subjects in the world addressed not only the problems of Felix the governor, they are the solution to the “tough times” around us today.
Paul spoke the truth, and it disturbed Felix. It shook him. It made him tremble. It made him wait for another time to address the matter. The truth was too tough in tough times to take. Although people would admit the tough times need something tougher, no one suspects the truth would save, heal, or recover anything. All truth appears to do is make it tougher for people to deal with tough times, because they do not want to deal with the truth.
Truth reveals man’s rebellion against what God wants man to be. We can never talk about the love, kindness, or goodness of God unless we first come to realize truth. The truth is we are in sin. The present tough times we experience are truthfully described as sin (1 John 3:4). The toughness of the truth not only reveals the sin, it offers good news of a remedy, a pardon.
The only way the truth about a remedy is good news is when we accept the fact we need it. This good news declares a forgiveness of our sins (Acts 26:18). Nothing tougher has been found to extinguish such a stain as sin. Nothing is tougher in tough times. Instead of “going away” and being scared of this truth, turn toward God in repentance (Acts 17:30). Do not turn away waiting for another idea or suggestion or discuss it at a later date. Come to God in “godly sorrow” (2 Corinthians 7:10-11).
What should disturb us more is the price paid to “turn things around!” The blood of Christ for sin - my sin - should “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37). Not cut to the heart and run away, but cut to the heart wanting to know what to do. We need to be disturbed at what has been done by God to remove the pain we suffer in sin. Instead of accommodating the conditions in which we live and others who live in sin, let the truth tell the story - the story of redemption, the story of healing, and the story of holiness. Tell the truth. This will save a soul in the midst of tough times.
