My friend, Edith, was stricken with polio and paralyzed from chest down. She was approached by a member of her church who challenged her to get up out of her wheelchair by faith and walk. She couldn't and he berated her. She wiped away her tears and kept her faith and trust in Saviour of her soul. It wasn't in God's plan to heal her on earth but He gave her a sterling Christian testimony that defined her for years until God called her Home. We are encouraged by God to pray for healing; we do not have freedom to insist on healing by demand..

My mother's extended family watched her suffering all her life, but they remember most of all her unfailing faith. Her walk with God was not uneven; it was consistent. Her testimony was positioned there permanently as a standard against which rest of us measured our lives. Her "problem of pain" was no accident; it was not indifference by God to her anguish and travail. God used her pain for a reason: it was to refine her and to give her a lasting testimony to grace of God under pressure, tremendous pressure. Even in her tears and suffering, she knew she might not understand God's ways, but she could trust His loving heart.

When I was in college, our Old Testament professor, Rev. Harold Freligh, drew a large circle on blackboard. He placed a dot in center. Under it he wrote in large letters:

"In center of circle of will of God I stand. There can come no second causes, All must come through His dear hand."

Rev. Freligh did something else that has sustained me, especially now as I deal with my own pain. He drew a long horizontal line on blackboard and explained, "This represents a shelf. On it I place all my questions for which I have no answer. When I get to Heaven, God will patiently explain each one to my full and complete satisfaction."

And so it is with pain. I don't know why a dear six-year-old boy who loves Jesus is battling leukemia in an Illinois hospital today. I don't know why my younger Christian friend in Tennessee spends 22 out of 24 hours of every day in bed, weakened and ravaged by Multiple Sclerosis. I can't explain why my lovely friend in Arizona struggles with insidious and devastating pain of Sarcoidosis for which there is no adequate treatment and no medical cure.

I have placed each one of these friends on my "shelf," confident that their pain is not in vain, knowing that they haven't been forgotten by God or overlooked in His scheme of things. Each one is ministering every day of their lives to wonderful grace of Jesus, that eternal principle which makes their pain meaningful and their testimonies so enduring. Each one, I am confident, if they were able, would rise to full stature and sing:

Wonderful grace of Jesus, Greater than all my sin; How shall my tongue describe it, Where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden, Setting my spirit free, For wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Wonderful matchless grace of Jesus, Deeper than mighty rolling sea; Higher than mountain, sparkling like a fountain, All sufficient grace for even me; Broader than scope of my transgressions, Greater far than all my sin and shame; O magnify precious name of Jesus, Praise His name!

Mariane Holbrook is a retired teacher and author who lives in Kure Beach, NC. She is a member of Traphill Baptist Church, Traphill, NC.

I think you get idea. Hollywood can never make a good story right. And why do they always portray people of God as perverts and shallow who mock very purity of Jesus Christ? When Christ comes to live in heart of a man or woman, man or woman is changed. A true believer wants what Christ wants for him—a clean and willing vessel, redeemed by blood of Lamb to love God and his neighbor. Christians have their faults. We are human and hammered constantly by wicked one. We fall. But Christians don’t want to stay fallen. Christians do not want to live in darkness. We want to live in Light of God and bless others with love of Jesus Christ.

Hollywood makes films about lurid passions of men, knowing that many Americans have an appetite for such perversion. Mel Gibson made a film about Passion of Christ. Christ was center of his story, and men of all persuasions flocked to it. What made it work? This—it magnified very person that changed world. And that person, Jesus, is still drawing men and women from around world to receive his sacrificial love. Hollywood gave us “Saved!” and it bombed. Mel Gibson took a risk and displayed, graphically, suffering of Jesus. The film is still showing around world, and people are still coming to know Jesus as their Savior and Lord. The story of Jesus has always had an impact on world whether in word, testimony, sermon, or film. And story of Jesus will still be changing lives when Hollywood is nothing more then a fading memory.

That, my friend is power of Jesus’ name!

Keep faith. Stay course. Jesus is soon coming (imminent), and coming soon (at hand).

Pastor T.dash