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Mark Ministry in an Opressed Culture.pdf · Reformed Thinking

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You know, when you read military history, there is this very
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distinct difference between the perspective of the frontline
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soldier and, well, the general standing in the command tent.
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Oh, absolutely. The viewpoint shifts entirely
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depending on where you were standing.
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Right, because if you only look at the reports coming directly
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from the trenches, all you see is just absolute chaos.
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Just dirt and noise and confusion.
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Yeah, constant movement, sudden clashes, blinding dust,
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deafening noise and just sheer brute force.
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To the untrained eye looking at that ground level view, it looks
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like a random frantic action. But if you step back, if you
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walk into the command tent and look at the map spread across
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the generals table, you realize something shocking.
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You realize that every single skirmish, every troop movement,
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every seemingly chaotic charge, and even every practical retreat
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is governed by a brilliant overarching strategy.
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It is all coordinated. It is welcome to reform
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thinking. We are thrilled to have you, the
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listener, pulling up a chair as the third mind at this table for
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today's deep dive. We are so glad you are here with
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us. We know you were here because
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you want substantial structured knowledge that clarifies rather
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than over films. So today we're looking at the
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Gospel of Mark. But.
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We are not looking at it as a quaint religious artifact.
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No, not at all. We are analyzing it as a
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frontline battlefield report. Our discussion centers on
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constructing A robust theology of Christian ministry, and we
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are drawing our insights from Derek Tidball's remarkable text
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Mark Ministry in an Oppressed Culture.
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It is such a fascinating book. It really is.
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The mission for our conversation today is clear.
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We are going to uncover how Mark portrays Jesus as the sovereign
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king who arrives on the scene to bind a strong enemy.
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And how that divine triumph dictates A cruciform self
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denying mandate for anyone functioning as his emissary.
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What is fascinating here is the specific theological lens we are
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bringing to this text. Right, because we are looking at
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this entire discussion through the framework of reformed
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theology. Specifically, we will be relying
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on the definitions provided by the Westminster Confession of
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Faith. Yes, which means we are viewing
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every single action of Christ not as a frantic reaction to
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human circumstances, but as the perfect outworking of God's
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sovereign, eternal decree. I love that when we read Mark,
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we are witnessing the internal plan of redemption crashing into
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human history with supreme authority.
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We are not watching a teacher trying to figure things out as
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he goes. Not at all.
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We are watching the second Person of the Trinity executing
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a divine mandate that was established before the
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foundation of the world. So let's unpack this
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action-packed perspective, because I think a lot of people
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read Mark and get ecclesiastical whiplash.
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Oh for sure, they read it and just feel exhausted by the pace.
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Yeah, for a long time, the academic assumption about the
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Gospel of Mark has been pretty dismissive regarding its
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pastoral instruction. You have scholars like Ernest
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Best, right? Yes, Ernest Best is a classic
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example. He looks at Mark and concludes
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there is absolutely no trace of a ministry within the community.
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Because the argument is that Mark is so hyper focused on
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fast-paced action. Right Jesus moving immediately
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from one town to the next, casting out demons, healing the
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sick, confronting Pharisees. So the author simply has no
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interest in church structures or pastoral guidance.
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That is the assumption. It is almost as if academics
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read Mark as a 1st century action movie rather than a
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theological manual. They want epistles.
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They want Paul writing to Timothy with bullet points on
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how to appoint elders. And because Mark does not give
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them that neat little list, they assume Mark has no theology of
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ministry at all. But that assumption
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fundamentally misreads the context of the book, doesn't it?
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It completely misses the point. Tidball dismantles that academic
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view by forcing us to look at the environment in which Mark
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was written. Right, the historical
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background. Yeah, this is a text written to
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an oppressed culture. You have believers facing the
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crushing weight of Roman tyranny.
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And intense Satanic hostility, too.
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Yes, you have this intense hostility breaking out against
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the early church, and you have the very real impending threat
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of martyrdom. Believers are watching their
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friends dragged into arenas. In that specific brutal context,
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Christian ministry is not going to look like administrative
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committee meeting. No, it is not about organizing a
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church roster or debating the color of the sanctuary carpet.
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Ministry, as Mark presented, is a violent, authoritative clash
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with tyranny. It takes place on the bleeding
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frontiers of the believing community.
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The action itself is the theology.
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I am so glad you brought up the context of the early church,
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because expecting a polished textbook from a persecuted
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community makes no sense. It is like reading the history
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of a brilliant military campaign and assuming there was no
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underlying strategy simply because the general was
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constantly in motion. Which brings up a great question
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for you as we talk about this our modern readers missing
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Mark's pastoral weight because we expect theological
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instruction to look like a clean, sanitized manual rather
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than a muddy, blood stained battlefield report.
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I think we absolutely do. We want neat categories, but
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Mark gives us combat. That is the crucial issue we
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have to address. We tend to separate action from
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doctrine in our modern analytical minds.
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But in Mark, the doctrine is demonstrated through the action.
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Right. The oppression that dominates
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the gospel is Satan at loose in the world, which perfectly
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mirrors the oppression the early church was experiencing at the
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hands of Nero and the local magistrates.
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From the opening scenes where John the Baptist is arrested and
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imprisoned to the supernatural darkness that covers the earth
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at the crucifixion, the entire narrative is soaked in conflict.
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And recognizing that Mark uses action as a theological vehicle
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leads us directly into examining the specific strategic actions
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of the master. He does not just give lectures
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about the Kingdom. No, he demonstrates the Kingdom
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by invading occupied territory. I want to look closely at what
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that invasion looks like on the ground.
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OK, let's do that. The text points out two major
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outward features of his public ministry, liberation and
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teaching. Jesus announces the Kingdom, and
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then he systematically dismantles the enemy's grip on
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the world. He does this through physical
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healings, nature miracles, and even raising the dead.
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Like the incredibly moving account of Jairus's daughter.
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Yeah, exactly. I mean, absolutely.
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He is not just fixing medical anomalies to be nice, he is
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reversing the effects of the fall.
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He is reclaiming territory that belongs to the sovereign King.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, we see the absolute,
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absolute, sovereign authority of Christ in these encounters.
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From a Reformed perspective, this is the Lord of Creation,
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commanding nature and the spiritual realm with
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irresistible force. When he speaks, the elements
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obey. When he commands, demons flee.
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Take the massive political and spiritual subtext of the
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geracing demoniac, for example. Oh, that is a stunning passage.
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It requires careful analysis. It really does.
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The demons possess a man living among the tombs, which is a
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place of extreme ritual impurity.
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And when Jesus demands their name, they reply.
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Legion. A legion is a Roman military
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unit of thousands of soldiers. Right.
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So it represents the occupation, the crushing boot of the empire
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on the neck of the local populace.
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And I should point out for the listener, when we talk about
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this political subtext, we're just looking at the historical
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context provided in this horse material.
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Right. We are simply reporting on the
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ideas Derek Tidball lays out regarding the Roman occupation.
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We aren't taking any modern political sides or endorsing a
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specific political viewpoint. Absolutely, we are just
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analyzing the text impartially so the demons beg to be sent
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into a herd of pigs. And the Greek word used there by
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Mark is agelo, which is frequently used in secular
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literature to describe a band of military recruits.
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Finally, the pigs rush down the steep bank and are drowned in
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the sea. To a 1st century Jewish reader,
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this is a direct historical parallel to Pharaoh's army
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drowning in the Red Sea. Jesus is binding the strongman,
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plundering his house and executing divine judgment on the
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forces of darkness. That Geracine demoniac encounter
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is essentially a divine political cartoon.
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It really is. It is this spiritual exorcism
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that openly mocks the Roman occupation and displays absolute
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divine supremacy. The enemy forces are cast into
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the sea, just like the Chariots of Egypt.
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But let me push back on how we talk about this today, OK?
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What do you mean? Well, does this military subtext
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force us to rethink modern sanitized views of spiritual
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warfare? That is a great question.
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We often relegate spiritual warfare to a private internal
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struggle. Like try not to get angry in
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traffic or trying to read our bibles more consistently.
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Mark paints it as a massive, visible territorial reclamation
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project. Are we trivializing what Jesus
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is actually doing by making it all about our personal self
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improvement? I think we absolutely trivialize
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it when we domesticate the Christ of Mark.
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He is overpowering. He is reclaiming the cosmos.
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Furthermore, this militant liberation is intimately tied to
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his teaching. Tidbul notes that 40% of Mark's
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verses contain radical teaching. But notice the setting.
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It is not delivered in a detached academic setup with a
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podium and a whiteboard. No, it is delivered on the way
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the Greek phrase on tohodu appears repeatedly.
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The teaching is interwoven with these breathtaking miracles.
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He teaches about the lordship of the Sabbath while deliberately
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healing a withered hand in front of hostile religious leaders.
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He teaches about faith while standing in a boat, calming A
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lethal storm with a single word. Word and deed are inseparable
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here. The miracles authenticate the
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teaching, and the teaching interprets the miracles.
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And this display of authority is never a chaotic random
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distribution of healings. It is governed by a strict
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divine timeline. I think we need to stop right
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here because this timeline issue completely shatters how we
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usually think about ministry success.
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It really does. Jesus refuses to be dictated by
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human demands. There is that famous incident in
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Mark chapter 1. Jesus heals massive crowds in
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Capernaum. The whole city is gathered at
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the door late into the night. And the next morning, before the
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sun is even up, Jesus goes out to an isolated place to pray.
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The whole town wakes up looking for him.
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Peter tracks him down and basically says everyone is
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looking for you. Peter thinks they have a massive
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revital on their hands. The approval ratings are through
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the roof. Let's get back down there and
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keep going. But Jesus refuses.
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He says let us go somewhere else, to the nearby villages, so
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I can preach there also. That is why I have come.
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He leaves Capernaum despite the massive physical needs remaining
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there. This is where the Westminster
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Confessions doctrine of Providence in Christ as the
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Mediator shines brilliantly. Leaving Capernaum perfectly
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illustrates Christ acting in strict obedience to the Father's
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sovereign decree. The confession teaches that God
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has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, and Christ, as
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the obedient Son, operates entirely within that eternal
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decree. He is not reacting to the
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emotional appeals of the crowd. And he is not reacting to the
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pragmatic, strategic advice of his disciples who think they
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have found the secret to mass popularity.
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He has a specific ordained path. The scholar Robert Gundry calls
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Mark's Gospel an apology for the cross.
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The cross is foreshadowed constantly in the strategic
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decisions. Jesus avoids the trap of
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becoming a popular local healer because his main mission is
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substitutionary atonement in Jerusalem.
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Hold on, let me stop you there and play devil's advocate for a
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second. Sure, go ahead.
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From a modern ministry perspective, leaving Capernaum
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sounds completely irresponsible. It really does.
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If you are a pastor or a doctor and you have people desperate
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for healing, lining up at your door, isn't walking away a
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dereliction of duty? I mean, leaving a revival feels
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counterintuitive. It feels like a surgeon walking
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away from a waiting room full of bleeding patients just to go
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speak in the next town over. Help me understand how leaving
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bleeding people behind is considered obedient to the
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decree. That is a brilliant tension to
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highlight, because our human logic screams that we must meet
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the immediate physical need right in front of us.
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But. Christ's obedience to the pre
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reveals that the greatest need humanity has is not physical
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healing. Right.
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The greatest need is reconciliation with the Holy God
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through the cross. If Jesus stays in Capernaum and
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heals every single person but never makes it to the cross,
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those people will still die eventually.
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And they will face eternal judgement.
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By leaving the immediate crisis, He is securing the eternal
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remedy. His refusal to maximize his
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immediate popularity is a direct rejection of pragmatic metrics.
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So how does that challenge the metrics of modern church growth?
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Oh massively. Because we are obsessed with
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momentum. If a church has a booming
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attendance on Sunday, the leadership team will do whatever
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it takes to keep those people coming back.
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We count heads, we count giving. We track social media
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engagement. But Jesus walks away from the
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biggest crowd he has ever had to stay aligned with the divine
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decree. It dismantles our modern metrics
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entirely. It proves that faithfulness to
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God's decree is the only valid metric for ministry.
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If your metric is crowd size, you will compromise the message
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to keep the crowd. But if your metric is obedience
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to the Father, you will preach the truth even if the crowd
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abandons you. And the miracles Jesus does
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perform, even as he moves toward Jerusalem, constantly point
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forward to that act of obedience.
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I want to look closely at how that substitutionary atonement
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is foreshadowed in the miracles. Because Mark doesn't just give
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us random healings. No, he gives us theological
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illustrations of the cross. The text gives us incredible
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examples. Think of the Jonah parallel.
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Jesus is asleep in a boat during a lethal storm.
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The disciples are terrified, baling water, certain they are
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going to die. Just as Jonah brought peace to
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the raging sea by offering himself as a sacrificial plunge
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into the chaos, Jesus brings peace to the storm.
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He rebukes the wind and the waves, pointing forward to how
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he will eventually plunge into the chaotic wrath of God on the
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cross to secure peace for his people.
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Or look at the healing of the bleeding woman in Mark chapter
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5. She has suffered for 12 years.
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And according to Levitical law, she is ceremonially impure.
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Anyone she touches becomes unclean.
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She reaches out in the crowd and touches Jesus's cloak.
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And according to the Law, Jesus should become unclean the moment
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she touches him. Precisely.
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Well, absolutely. But the reverse happens.
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Instead of Jesus becoming contaminated by her uncleanness,
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His absolute purity flows into her.
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And her impurity is absorbed by him.
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She's instantly healed. It is a stunning visual
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representation of the Great Exchange.
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The very heart of substitutionary atonement.
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The pure, spotless Lamb of God takes the impurity and the curse
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of the Sinner, granting complete wholeness and righteousness in
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return. He does not just fix her
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hemorrhage, he absorbs her defilement.
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That concept of the Great Exchange is staggering.
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We bring our uncleanness and He absorbs it, giving us His
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purity. Having established the Masters
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Sovereign cross shaped strategy, the focus in Mark shifts to how
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he recruits followers into this specific dangerous paradigm.
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Because if Jesus is actively refusing to build a modern mega
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church and instead walking away from crowds to face an execution
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instrument, how on earth does he convince anyone to follow him
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into that? Who signs up for a suicide
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mission? The way Jesus builds his
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leadership team is entirely contrary to human organizational
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methods. He does not build a team using
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corporate recruitment strategies.
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We see this clearly in Mark chapter 3, specifically verses
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13 through 18, which details the appointment of the 12th.
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The setting alone carries massive theological weight.
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It happens on a mountain. In the biblical narrative, a
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mountain consistently symbolizes a place of divine revelation and
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covenant making. Think of Mount Sinai, Mount
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Carmel, Mount Tabor, and eventually Golgotha.
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Jesus goes up the mountain to establish his new emissaries.
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Let's examine the vocabulary Mark uses here, because it is
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striking. The English translation says
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Jesus appointed 12, but the Greek word underneath that is
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much more aggressive. Yes, the Greek verb is pouyou.
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It can be translated as appointed, but its primary
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meaning is created or made. It echoes the creation language
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of the Septuagint in Genesis. Jesus is not just handing out
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titles, He is creating a new leadership structure for a new
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Israel. Furthermore, Mark Mark
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explicitly states that Jesus called those he wanted, or in
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some translations, those he himself desired.
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This is the Reformed doctrine of unconditional election, vividly
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displayed on the mountain. I think we need to define
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unconditional election for the listener because that phrase can
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carry a lot of baggage. It really can.
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People hear it and bring all sorts of assumptions to the
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table. When we say unconditional
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election, we're talking about God's sovereign choice to save
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individuals based entirely on His own mercy and will.
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Not on any foreseen merit, faith, or good works in the
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person. Right, the disciples did not
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volunteer for this mission. They were not chosen because
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they had the best resumes, the highest moral standing, or the
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most natural leadership talent. They were fishermen, zealots and
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tax collectors. They were a mess.
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That is what makes the calling so glorious.
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Those he wanted removes all human boasting.
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Their election is entirely unconditional.
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They were sovereignly summoned by the King.
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They did not interview for the position.
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The effectual call of Christ created the reality it
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commanded. And the mandate he gives these
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unqualified, sovereignly chosen men is twofold.
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Mark tells us he appointed them first to be with him and 2nd to
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send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out
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demons. I look at that dual mandate,
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being with him and being sent out, and it feels like the
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biological necessity of breathing in and breathing out.
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That is a great way to put it. You cannot exhale the gospel
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into a hostile world without first inhaling the presence of
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Christ. If you try to hold your breath
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and just work your fingers to the bone, you pass out.
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If you only breathe in constantly studying and
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isolating yourself without ever exhaling into the world, you
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hyperventilate. The intimacy is the prerequisite
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for the action. In Mark 6, Jesus sends them out
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two by two. The primary message is to preach
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repentance. Now, in this 1st century
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context, repentance is not just feeling guilty about your
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personal mistakes. It is a total change of
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management. It is a complete reorientation
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of direction, aligning oneself with the new Kingdom that is
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breaking into the world. It is renouncing allegiance to
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the Kingdom of darkness and submitting to the sovereignty of
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Christ and look. Closely at how they are equipped
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for this dangerous mission. They're sent with absolutely no
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material security. Jesus commands them to take
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nothing for the journey except a staff.
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He tells them to take no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.
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They're to wear sandals but not put on an extra tunic.
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This is a staggering countercultural command.
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By stripping them of the usual means of self preservation and
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preparation, he forces them into total, unyielding reliance on
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the sovereign King. This intentional vulnerability
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is designed to prove that the success of the mission relies
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entirely on God's Providence, not on human resources or clever
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logistics. Here's where it gets really
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interesting if we think about modern application.
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OK, let's hear it. This deployment is like
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parachuting into occupied territory and Central Command
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says leave your rations, leave your extra ammo, leave your
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survival gear. Just take the radio.
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Wow, that forces absolute reliance on command to provide
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what you need exactly when you need it.
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Well, wait, I think I used a restricted word there.
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Let me rephrase. That forces absolute reliance on
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command to provide what you need at the precise moment you need
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it. Does our modern obsession with
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material security insulate us from experiencing God's
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providential care? I look at how we operate today.
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We build such massive financial and institutional safety Nets
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for our ministries that we never actually have to trust the King
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to provide for us in the wilderness.
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We have engineered the vulnerability completely out of
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the equation. That is a sharp, necessary
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critique of modern methodology. When we engineer all the risk
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and vulnerability out of our ministries, we often engineer
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the reliance out of them as. Well, we start trusting our
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endowments, our strategic plans, and our marketing budgets rather
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than trusting the living God. And there is another incident in
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Mark that highlights the unique nature of their Commission and
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the dangers of possessing this delegated authority.
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In Mark 9, John comes to Jesus complaining about an independent
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exorcist. John says teacher, we saw
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someone driving out Demons in your Name and we told him to
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stop because he was not one of us.
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John is trying to franchise the Kingdom.
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He wants a monopoly on the authority.
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John is basically saying he doesn't have our official badge,
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he didn't graduate from our specific seminary, isn't part of
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our denomination. Make him stop.
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It's pure territorialism. Absolutely.
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And Jesus rebukes John. Jesus says do not stop him, for
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no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say
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anything bad about me. For whoever is not against us is
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for us. This proves that allegiance to
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Christ supersedes allegiance to a specific human faction or
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denomination. As Tidball's commentary notes,
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the Kingdom is larger than our experience of it.
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While the disciples are given incredible authority over
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unclean spirits, that very authority introduces A fatal
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temptation for the human heart. They start wanting to control
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the authority. They want to manage the Kingdom
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rather than submit to the king. That transition from being a
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humble servant of the king to wanting to act like the king
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yourself is terrifying. It is the oldest temptation in
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the book, going all the way back to Eden.
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And it brings us to the most sobering part of Mark's gospel
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regarding leadership, the threat of control, and the call to
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cruciform leadership. In Mark 10 we see the absolute
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corrupting danger of authority. James and John approach Jesus
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and blatantly demand status. They say, let one of us sit at
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your right and the other your left in your glory.
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They want the prime seats of Dominion, They want cabinet
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positions in the new administration.
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Jesus counters their arrogant demands with a terrifying
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reality check. Can you drink the cup I drink or
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be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?
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In the Old Testament of prophetic literature, the cup is
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frequently a symbol of God's wrath and divine judgement
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poured out on wickedness. Think of Isaiah or Jeremiah
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talking about the cup of staggering wrath.
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Baptism, in this specific metaphorical context, refers to
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being submerged or overwhelmed by catastrophic suffering and
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death. Jesus is pointing out that the
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path to glory in his Kingdom is not a corporate ladder.
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It is paved with immense suffering and the willing
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absorption of divine wrath on behalf of others.
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I am struggling to process the sheer audacity of James and John
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here. It really is shocking.
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Jesus has just told them repeatedly that he is going to
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Jerusalem to be betrayed, mocked, flogged and killed.
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And their response is dibs on the corner office.
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James and John are looking for a corporate ladder to climb, and
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Jesus offers them an execution instrument.
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How do we reconcile this massive disconnect between the Master's
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path and the disciples ambition? To understand this disconnect,
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we can synthesize Christ's response with Martin Luther King
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Junior's famous drum major Instinct sermon.
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And again, we're just conveying the ideas presented in the
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source material regarding human nature, not taking a partisan
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stance. Right.
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Martin Luther King Junior preached on this specific
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passage in Mark 10, pointing out that every human being has a
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deep seated desire to be first. To lead the parade, to be
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recognized and praised, it is an innate drive.
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Notice that Jesus does not crush that desire for greatness, He
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completely redefines it. He says whoever wants to become
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great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be
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first must be slave of all. Greatness is redefined as the
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willingness to bend low. You do not need exceptional
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intellect, elite status, or a flawless resume to be great in
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the Kingdom. You only need a heart generated
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by grace, willing to act as a servant to the lowest and the
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least. But the human flesh fights that
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redefinition every single step of the way.
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Tidball brings in Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of the will
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to control. We have this innate sinful drive
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to dominate others, to assert our will over their lives.
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It doesn't always look like a dictator screaming orders from a
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balcony. Sometimes it is incredibly
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subtle. Tidbull references the Jeeves
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analogy from the classic PG Wodehouse stories, which I find
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absolutely brilliant. Jeeves is a valet, A gentleman's
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personal gentleman. By all outward appearances, he
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is the perfect humble servant. But if you read the stories,
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Jeeves completely controls his master, Bertie Worcester.
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He dictates Bertie's life, his choices, his relationships, his
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clothing, all while maintaining the flawless differential
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outward posture of a servant. This requires us to look in the
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mirror and apply the doctrine of total depravity to our own
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hearts. When reformed theology speaks of
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total depravity, it does not mean humans are as utterly evil
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as they could possibly be at every moment.
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It means that every single faculty of our being, our mind,
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our will, our emotions is tainted and corrupted by sin.
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Even redeemed ministers, those who have been effectually called
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and justified by faith, still battle the flesh's innate desire
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to dominate and micromanage others.
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The temptation to Lord our authority over the flock is
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always present. We can easily substitute true,
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self denying, cross carrying leadership with a sanitized,
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highly spiritualized version of control.
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I cannot stop thinking about that G's analogy.
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It is chilling to realize you can manipulate someone entirely
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under the guise of helping them. How do we spot this will to
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control in our own families, in our workplaces, or in our church
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structures? Are we using pastoral care or
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spiritual mentorship as a Trojan horse to micromanage the lives
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of believers? We say we are shepherding them,
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we say we are offering accountability, but really we
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just want them to conform to our specific preferences so we feel
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vindicated and authoritative. It happens constantly.
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It happens in pastoral counseling, in church discipline
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situations, in youth programming, and in fundamental
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family dynamics. When a leader becomes overly
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directive, failing to leave room for Christian liberty, forcing
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their own conscience on others. Or refusing to allow for the
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genuine messy struggles of weak believers.
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The will to control has taken root.
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The only safeguard against this insidious pride is the constant,
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agonizing practice of dying to self.
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The authority given to Kingdom emissaries is vast, preaching
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the Word of God and driving out the darkness.
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But it must only be exercised by those who are actively carrying
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their cross. A powerful ministry in the hands
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of someone who has not embraced servanthood is a destructive
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weapon. It will wound the sheep instead
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of feeding them. That brings us to the synthesis
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of this entire deep dive. We have covered incredible
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ground today. We have looked at how Mark
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reframes ministry from a static, comfortable institution to a
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dynamic frontier battle against tyranny.
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We saw the masters liberating and teaching actions, all driven
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by a sovereign cross shaped strategy that defied human
27:13
pragmatism. We examined the sovereign
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creation and deployment of His emissaries, summoned
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unconditionally and sent out vulnerable, relying wholly on
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His Providence. And finally, we confronted the
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subtle, deadly threat of the human desire for control,
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contrasting it with the call to bear the cup and the baptism.
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The theologian William Abraham offers a helpful model for
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evangelism that encapsulates much of what we have discussed
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today. He suggests that true evangelism
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is the process of initiating people into the Kingdom of God.
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Under Mark's theological framework, initiating people
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into the Kingdom requires the minister, whether that is a
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pastor, a parent, or a friend, to act as an emissary of a
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triumphant king. You are actively pushing back
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the forces of darkness through the proclamation of the Gospel.
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But simultaneously you are called to bear a heavy cross of
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suffering and self denial. You cannot have the victory
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without about the vulnerability. You cannot share the crown
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without first sharing the cross. So what does this all mean for
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you? For you listening right now,
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this is where high level theology meets the pavement of
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your daily life. How does this twofold reality,
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absolute reliance on a sovereign God, and the willing embrace of
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suffering reshape your daily interactions and your vocational
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calling? We started our conversation by
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talking about the General's map in the command tent.
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You are part of that strategy. You have been sovereignly
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appointed, chosen by the Eternal Decree to be with Him.
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And you have been sent out to push back the darkness in your
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specific local sphere. And that mission absolutely
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guarantees friction. The promise of the Gospel of
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Mark is not a comfortable life of increasing influence, wealth
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and health. The promise is that the king
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will finally triumph in the end, but his emissaries will bear the
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scars of the campaign. The question is whether we are
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willing to accept the cup and the baptism he offers,
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recognizing that our sovereign Lord governs every single detail
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of the battlefield. It is a heavy question to leave
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with. It is if the truest indicator of
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advancing the Kingdom is liberating others while
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willingly accepting hardship. Where in your life are you
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currently seeking a crown instead of picking up your
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cross?