After the Sufferin' (song)

 No matter who you are or your position in life, you're going to face hard things in life. Life is hard. We all go through our own sets of suffering at times. Whether you're a cashier at Ingles trying to eke out a living to provide for your family and dealing with unruly customers at the outset of a pandemic or you're Bert being constantly frustrated and annoyed by Ernie- the suffering still comes. The Lord sends His rain on the righteous and the wicked. 

Even when it's hump day and you are trying to make it through a tough week at work at a dinky little job, you can take hope in knowing there's a point to the suffering- and an eventual end to it. And God uses it to draw us closer to Him and make us more righteous. And we know that the glory coming will make these sufferings seem light. And while we're in the midst of trying times, we look forward to Christ's coming- and trust Him to help us move forward in this life while we wait for redemption of our bodies and the freedom from corruption coming after the suffering is done.

"After the Sufferin' "

(parody of "After The Lovin' " by Engelbert Humperdinck; copyright by Nathan Ludwick 5/16/2020)

(Hebrews 12:1-17, Romans 8:18-30)

Though sin clings oh so deep- cast it off 'cause of

Witness throng that is close- cast off weights

Run with hope and endure- Eye Founder

And Perfecter of our faith

Endured cross, despised shame all for joy set before Him

My own faith- it just seems to go dry

Haven't struggled so much with sin now to the point my veins bleed- Why?

Spankings chasten me (echo: Spankings chasten me)

As a son disciplined by Love (echo: Son disciplined by Love)

And spanking's telling me (echo: telling me) I'm viewed as God's son (echo: God's son)

Though it stings now we'll reap after the suffering

Oh a bushel of fruit- righteous lives (echo: Oooohh!)

Strengthen up, make paths straight and be healed

With God's grace, no one pass by

Make it so that garden isn't springing a bitter root (echo: Ooohhh!)

Oh, and as for this summary, it's all in 12 Hebrews (echo: Ooohhh!)

So I bring you to read chapter 8 Romans 

Can't brush off like hair these hard times (echo: chapter 8 Romans)

But the glory coming when revealed that it makes suffering light (echo: when revealed, it seems light)

And I know creation is still waiting to be renewed (echo: Ahhh!)

Oh, set free from corruption (echo: free from corruption)

Spirit's adoption too

Yes, bodies' redemption (echo: bodies' redemption)

We're groaning, God, for You

Mmm- after the suffering

I'm waiting, God, for You 

Season for the Reason: Free At Last (The Scriptures, Slavery and The Saviour)

       The Bible includes passages to govern a number of things that at first glance might seem weird and disconcerting to a modern sense of justice. One such scenario includes a number of Old Testament and New Testament verses where The Bible seems to endorse slavery. Read Exodus 21, Leviticus 25, Deuteronomy 15, 1 Corinthians 7 and others in The Bible and you will find a lot of verses that deal with this topic.  I admit that to a Western mode of thinking, specifically an American mode of thinking, some of those Bible verses might sound indeed like an endorsement of slavery. However, there are some things we should remember in reading those passages.

         First of all, there is this question to consider. Did God create slavery or did sin create slavery? In those verses and all the others in The Bible regarding slavery, I don't see any where God is commanding the institution of slavery as Americans know it from the very sad history of American colonialism and the Atlantic slave trade. However, The Lord God does lay out rules to the Israelites regulating how they must operate within the slavery system that already existed. Laying out rules to govern an institution is not the same as instituting it. (A good example for comparison here is when Israel decided they wanted to have a king like other nations, rather than the theocracy already in place with God as their King and Master. It was not God's desire to have this in place- He directly warned them what would happen with an earthly king, but they chose to do it anyway- and so He allowed them to have a king- and they got Saul. And then David and Solomon and then the kingdom split in two. [see 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel and 1 Kings and 2 Kings and 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles for the history on that.] God gave Saul instructions on what to do in his role as king, but this doesn't mean God initiated the kingship rule in Israel- He clearly gave that choice to the people.) Sin led the Israelites to reject God as their ultimate King and choose an earthly ruler instead just as sin led people to take others against their will into slavery.

        Secondly, there are Bible passages that condemn slavery. (see Exodus 21:16 and 1 Timothy 1:8-11 for some.) When we read The Bible, we must take the totality of Scripture into account. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, correcting and rebuking. How does the view of God allowing slavery and even encouraging it square up with all the rest of Scripture where God clearly condemns slave-trading in some verses as I just mentioned and makes clear that we are to "Do unto others as we would have done unto us"? (Jesus says this in Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31) Remember also that God repeatedly reminds Israel how He brought them out of slavery in Egypt. Surely Israelites of all people would know the misery and horrible injustice of unjustly forced servitude and would not look to inflict such pain on someone else. That would go against the command to love our neighbors as ourselves, both those who are of our family and those who are strangers, as Leviticus 19:18 and Leviticus 19:33-34 show.

          Thirdly, we must also consider that The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic and it was written primarily to Jews. Thus, it's important to read The Bible in that context and read it in the mindset of Jewish people from thousands of years back. We need to understand the history, geography and culture of the people the Bible books were written to in contemplating its meaning. And it's important in this case to consider the customs of surrounding pagan nations as well. Israel was a stark contrast to the prevailing ideas and customs of its day in that time. What exactly is meant by the word "slave" in The Bible? The Hebrew word used in the Old Testament passages mentioned at the start of this piece is "eved ivri", which had two categories- a robber paying off his crimes and someone selling himself into slavery out of desperation and destitution.

          The reasons for slavery were different than ones Americans might readily think of, in regards to forced servitude against one's will for reasons of pure cruelty and sin. (Something The Bible condemns in Exodus 21:16) It is also significant to note that there is a continual theme in The Bible, moving from the Old Testament to the New Testament, in pushing for freedom from slavery; however, such movements don't happen overnight, but rather over the course of time. (See Leviticus 25, which outlines The Lord's commands for the Year of Jubilee, when slaves were set free in the seventh year of servitude. For a beautiful spiritual comparison, see Romans 6, which talks about being freed from being slaves to sin and becoming slaves to righteousness- slaves to Christ- instead. And then see the book of Philemon where these two concepts- physical and spiritual- come together in the person of Onesimus and Paul's pleadings to Philemon to accept him as a brother in The Lord and no longer as a bondservant- so that he might be both free spiritually and physically. And of course, as Galatians 3:28 tells us, there is no slave or free [or Jew or Greek or male or female]- but we are all one in Christ.)

        This redemptive story of setting physical slaves free reflects the heart of the Gospel in setting spiritual slaves free. We are either slaves to Jesus or slaves to sin. Jesus Christ Himself became as a slave for us, as Philippians 2 says. Though He was God He made Himself nothing and became a slave and humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death- even death on a cross! (It's significant to note this because Deuteronomy 21:22-23 and Galatians 3 both say that a hanged man on a tree is cursed. Christ became the curse of sin for us- see also 2 Corinthians 5:21.) For this reason, God has highly exalted Him and given Him the Name above all names that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God raised Jesus back up from the dead, as Romans 10:9 says. And by our faith in His completed work of righteousness, He saves us from all our sins and will raise us up from the dead as well to be forever with Him in Heaven instead of hell as we deserve. Praise God for His love! His love reaches to all and desires to save all us slaves from the hopelessness of our own sins and set us all free instead to be forever in His presence in eternal joy in Heaven praising Him! And, as John 8:36 says, He who the Son sets free is free indeed! :-)

(See also these excellent articles that I drew some of the above points from for this writing. This article offers a Jewish perspective on the topic of slavery in The Old Testament. It's from the "Jewish Bible Quarterly" and authored by Dr. Shimon Bakon, Editor Emeritus of the magazine.

Here is also a Christian perspective on this question from Andrew Schmidt, a writer for "The Bearing", a leading Australian evangelical publication for over 20 years from Matthias Media.)

Christ is the Reason (for the Season) (song)

Here's a late Christmas present for you! (Of course, since scholars think Jesus was probably born closer to April than December, it still seems a fitting time.) Of course, any time is a good time to celebrate Christ's birth. And when it is that time of the season, there are lots of fun things to enjoy- Christmas carols, cookies, church services, presents and family time- but the greatest gift of all is the salvation God sent us through Jesus' death and Resurrection. He paid for all our sins so that when we were wandering through life like zombies- the living dead, as we were dead in our sins- we could have the chance to be truly alive with abundant life in the here and now and eternal life in Heaven instead of hell as we deserve. Just as Jesus came at the right time (as Galatians 4:4-5 say), in that sense Time adopted the Eternal One and Joseph adopted Mary's Son born of the Immaculate Conception through The Holy Spirit's work. (To be clear, I know the "Immaculate Conception" term is used in reference to Mary; while I don't agree with that doctrine, I am using the term here to refer to Jesus Christ being kept free from original sin by His virginal conception. ;-)) And in turn, Jesus redeemed those under the law so that He could adopt us as well! Praise God for His love! Merry Christmas! Happy Easter! God loves you! :-)

(And as a special bonus with this song, my brother Kevin and I have collaborated to provide for an audio file that you can stream or download for free, thanks to Karaoke Version and Tency Music, who provided the excellent karaoke tracks that we used! :-) Stream or download the song for free at Kevin Ludwick's Bandcamp page! And while you're there, check out some other collaborations Kevin and I have done (including original songs) and Kevin's collection of his own original songs.) You can also listen to it from this blog in the player below!

"Christ is the Reason (for the Season)"
(parody of "Time of the Season" by The Zombies; copyright by Nathan Ludwick 8/31/2016)
(Galatians 4:4-5, Romans 5:8, Matthew 1-2, Luke 1-2, Mark 1:1-3 and 14-15, John 1:1-29, 1 John 4:19)

(Ah!) (x4) (Repeated after first 4 lines and in-between verses)

It's the time of the season
When God sent Christ
Christmastime- sing and let's be jolly
The light still shines in darkened lands
To save you by The Son for Promised Land
Go 4:19 1 John
It says Christ is the reason for loving

(Ah!) (x4)

Jesus came (Jesus came)
Who's His Daddy? (Who's His Daddy?)
(He is rich) He's the richest King (the richest King)
(But He laid) But He laid it all aside (it all aside)
And though He was God, became servant
Saviour meek and lowly
Showed us how love really ought to go
When He died- that's His reason for coming!

(Ah!) (x4)

What a Name! (What a Name!)
Man of Sorrows! (Man of Sorrows!)
(Yet He's the King) Yet He's the King of Kings! (King of Kings!)
(In Galatians) In Galatians 4:4- Time (4:4- Time)
(And Joe) And Joseph adopted God's Kid

He and Mary obeyed
Christ adopts the redeemed from the law
Christmastime! Happy Easter- God loves us!
.....................................................................................................

released January 15, 2017
Singing, mixing/mastering: Kevin Ludwick
Lyrics: Nathan Ludwick
Music: Karaoke Version (www.karaoke-version.com) and Tency Music (www.tencymusic.com)