Green Box
Albert Farley
As disciples of Jesus Christ, our work of living the Christian life and in teaching and preaching the gospel of Christ is both sweet and bitter – bitter and sweet. When the Lord’s prophet, Jeremiah, found the words of God, he ate them, and they were unto him “the joy of rejoicing of his heart.” Jeremiah 15:16. Yet, Jeremiah was the “weeping” prophet. He pleaded with God’s stubborn people to repent, but they would not. He cried rivers of tears over their sufferings and destruction.
When the Lord told Ezekiel to eat the roll of a book that was covered with words inside and out, he did so, and in his mouth it was as honey for sweetness. However, the roll contained the revelation of great lamentations, mournings, and woe! Ezekiel 2-3. Those to whom Ezekiel was sent were rebellious, impudent, and stiff hearted. He, like Jeremiah, suffered among them as among briers and thorns. Their sufferings were bitter, indeed. The apostle John was also given a little book. He ate it as he was commanded. It, too, was sweet as honey in his mouth, but, in his belly, it was bitter. Revelation 10:8-11.
Truly, the words, the statutes, and the judgments of the Lord are sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Psalm 19:10. However, the living, the teaching, and the preaching of them often bring bitter persecutions upon the faithful. Yet, we must not become rebellious as the wicked but are to rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is our reward in heaven. Matthew 5:10-12.
I pray we may see many of our subscribers and readers at the lectures in Martinsburg in October. –Albert.