Suffering – Pathway Journey

September 26, 2025September 26, 2025

Christian Martyrdom

Most of us have read accounts of religious martyrdom in historical books and the Bible. Few of us have witnessed it with our own eyes. Recently, we saw Charlie Kirk killed at one of his events. Some would argue that this was a political hit, not a religious one. Whether you loved or hated him, he was an adamant Christian who never minced his words.

The original Greek New Testament word for martyr is the word ‘martus’ pronounced [mar’-toos]. Its basic meaning is witness. A martyr is a person killed for his witness.

It is estimated that over 70 million Christians have been martyred since Jesus Christ himself was martyred on the cross. Most of those have been in the 1900s under fascist and communist rulers. Depending on the historian, some estimates say that since 2000 there has been an average of 100,000 per year. Martyrdom is not just in biblical times but also in relative modern times.

September 6, 2025September 29, 2025

Behind the Curtain

We live our lives in the sunshine of the day. Then as darkness comes upon the earth we sleep on the backside of locked doors. Some folks watch horror films, so their broken world seems more normal. Others watch sitcoms so the stupid suddenly looks silly and funny.

There is a reality that people want to ignore. It is the reality of another dimension that is sightless to our eyes and soundless to our ears. The result of it is obvious to the perceptive watcher. It is the reality of a spiritual realm that has a direct correlation in the visual world. It is a realm of warfare, deception, intrigue, and supernatural persuasion. It is more than a little spooky.

April 25, 2025April 24, 2025

Paul and Silas’ Response to Persecution

Join me in a little stroll through Acts chapter 16 as we journey with Paul and Silas.

We must minister to those God sends us and work with those God brings alongside us.
Paul on his second missionary journey was accompanied by Silas. Silas was not Paul’s first choice as a traveling partner. Barnabas was Paul’s first missionary partner on the first journey. While planning the second missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas had an argument about whether to take Mark who had abandoned them on the first trip. Paul did not want him to go, but Barnabas insisted. Unable to come to an agreement, they separated and went different ways.

August 21, 2024August 21, 2024

History-Long Hatred of Children: A Ploy of Satan

Children are the most vulnerable humans on the planet. They are very dependent upon adults for provision, shelter, protection, and education. Through the course of world history, children have been neglected and worse of all targeted for exploitation or even destruction. Why?

In our present age, we see children used as slave labor, sex slaves, so-called collateral damage in endless wars, starved by abject poverty, and easy fields for organ harvesting in less humane societies.

Then in our more so-called civilized cultures, we see children harmed in sex abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, objects of child pornography, sexual mutilation, destructive drug therapy, warped by dysfunctional families, and killed by abortion.

July 9, 2024July 8, 2024

Why the Rage?

There are a lot of angry people in the world. Some get caught up in a frenzy over things they do not understand. They simply share the rage of their colleagues with the same psychology as a mob. People do things in a mob that they would never do in a one-on-one encounter.

There is much Antisemitism rising to the surface in our country at the present time. This hatred was present before Israel’s military response after the Hamas attack in October 2023, but is more evident now. It is ironic that some of the people and groups in the United States who are pro-Hamas would only survive about five minutes on the streets of Gaza. They are caught up in a frenzy of hatred that defies logic.

But why such vile rage? What line do people cross from being an opponent to a vile enemy? How does an opposing opinion abscess into bloodshed and outright genocide? Hatred multiplies like dangerous bacteria in a petri dish.

May 27, 2024May 27, 2024

Blood, Sweat, and Tears (Memorial Day)

My father, T. V. Whitt was on Okinawa when the Japanese surrendered to end World War II in 1945. I heard him recount with tears that when he left the island headed for home, he looked at the graves of the fallen and thought, “I am headed home to my two little children, but these will not be going home to their little children.”

He came home and continued his family to add three more kids and live to within seven days of the age of ninety. The moment was not lost on him of the great sacrifice given by the dead soldiers, marines, and sailors.

The victories of life afforded our children are won by tears (pain and suffering), sweat (labor and toil), and blood (the sacrifice of injury and ultimately of life).

April 19, 2024April 18, 2024

Ordinary Days

I remember during a very busy season of my life hearing someone say, “I’m bored!” and wishing I had time to be bored. For the record, I hate being bored.

Many of us have a “first world problem” (as opposed to someone living in a third world country) of possibly despising a simple ordinary day with nothing special happening. We need to appreciate ordinary days. I love simple, ordinary days.

It is wonderful to wake in the morning and have a few minutes to thank God for another day, to give a phrase of worship to Him, pray for my family, and pray for a few folks who I know are not having an ordinary day. Then staggering down the hallway to the smell of fresh brewed coffee, savoring the slow, unhurried sipping of brown liquid gold.

March 28, 2024March 27, 2024

The Executioner’s Dream

A Story of the Executioner at Golgotha by Harry L. Whitt

After their scourging, we herded the three men through the jeering streets to Golgotha. The citizens of Jerusalem hate us only a bit less than we hate them. Being assigned to the occupation force of Judea is a good point for a possible promotion but today the city is set on edge. One of the three is a popular prophet to the common people but hated by the elites of their counsel.

Finally, we are out of the bustle of the city streets and bring the three miserable souls to the top of the hill, the place of the skull. The rock outcropping resembles a skull, and today it is the place of execution for all to see.

The schemer who devised the crucifixion is to be congratulated. Nothing puts the fear and dread in occupied people as the crucifixion. It is an agonizing death to endure and to witness. I have killed countless men in warfare with sword and spear, but this is the most gruesome of all.

February 28, 2024March 6, 2024

Spoiled Brats

Jeremiah asked God why the wicked prospered while the good folks suffered. It is an age-old question that God has been asked perhaps zillion of times. God answers Jeremiah beginning with this statement:

“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?” (Jeremiah 12:5 NKJV).

If you are lost in the imagery and the history of God’s answer, let me simplify it for you. Basically, if you have struggled in good times, how will you fare when it really gets tough.

If you freak out when you forget to get your favorite coffee K-cups, how will you cope if there is no coffee?

There are many people in the United States who are suffering through terrible difficulties. I have friends right now who are going through their own hell. This post is not about those with legitimate difficulties. Bear with me, while I make the comfortable, uncomfortable.

January 26, 2024March 1, 2024

Looking Into Their Eyes

I have seen some pitiful folks in my time. It is not the ragged clothes I see or their crippled limbs, but their eyes that give me a glimpse of their misery and hopelessness. I believe every person was granted to exist by God; this in itself makes me know that there is dignity in every life.

Many choose to take a path that is not God’s best, but some seem to have it thrust upon them by poverty, abuse, sickness, or where they were born. I have come to know with more awareness and certainty of the dignity of every human being. I know Christ loves them just as He loved the women He saved from a stoning, the demoniac He delivered from legions of demons, and even my wretched soul.