Punished for Doing What's Right

Ideally, life would be fair. Good people would be rewarded for doing good. Bad people would be punished for doing bad. All would be as it should be and that would be that. But … public service announcement!! … life ain't always fair.   489 years ago today, William Tyndale was executed for translating the Bible from Latin into English, which was seen by the religious hierarchy as a challenge to the authority of the church. He was strangled to death and then burned at the stake near Brussels in Belgium. Tyndale's last recorded words were a prayer: "Lord, open the King of England's eyes." It was a plea for Henry VIII to allow the Scriptures to be accessible to the common people in their native tongue. It's completely inconceivable that something like that should take place at the hands of the church, but there you have it. Good people are sometimes punished for doing good. Wind the clock back to the Apostle Paul in the 1st Century AD … who, having endured terrible persecution writes: Romans 8:35-37 Can anything separate us from Christ's love? Can trouble or problems or persecution separate us from his love? If we have no food or clothes or face danger or even death, will that separate us from his love? As the Scriptures say, "For you we are in danger of death all the time. People think we are worth no more than sheep to be killed." But in all these troubles we have complete victory through God, who has shown his love for us. Whatever injustice may befall you, however much it may cost you, know this: that nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Nothing! Because that's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.