My dear friends, glory is our reward with the Lord. “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of the glory of God rests upon you.” We need to get our eyes off of this earth and off the temporary problems we have, and on the eternal reward day that is coming. The payday is coming. And God is no man’s debtor. whatever you have suffered, however, we have been faithful to him, that will all be brought up at the judgment seat of Christ. Again, eternal rewards are ours. Let us be faithful. 

So far, we have pondered on the reality of suffering in the world, and have seen from the Bible that suffering is to be expected for Christians, especially since we are engaged in spiritual warfare. Remember that we are not only to teach these truths faithfully, but also to model them in our own lives.
The third thing we need to continually teach our people about is the divine perspective on suffering. If you have your Bible, I do want you to see this yourself. I want you to open 2 Corinthians 4. Now, here’s a passage of Scripture, that I am not exaggerating when I say I’ve used it hundreds of times in my life, it could even be 1000! And I want you to use this when we face suffering and when we help other people, because we do not just deal with our own suffering, as shepherds. Along with that, we have to be faithful to help others through suffering. In fact, I think we spend more time helping other people through suffering than ourselves. And we need to know what Scripture text to go to.
I remember I was training this young man in our church about visitation, going to hospitals dealing with people’s problems. And I remember the first time we went out and an issue came up with the people we were talking to, and I took them to this passage. And this young man said to me later, when we left, “You know, I literally had no idea what Bible verse to open to?” He said, “I’m glad you showed me.” I said, “Well, that’s why I brought you along. So you know how to open your Bible and comfort people who are suffering and help yourself.” Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 4. Second Corinthians, is an amazing book. It is the most autobiographical of Paul’s books, and there is no other book in which we get these insights into Paul as a shepherd of the Lord’s people. And you see at one moment his severity and next moment, tenderness unlike anything else So in verse 16, he says, “For we do not lose heart.” Well, my friends, if anyone should lose heart and get depressed and discouraged, it was the Apostle Paul. He had more problems than all of you put together and multiplied. This man had every problem there is. I have never been whipped, I have never been left at sea, never been hungry. I mean, this man experienced everything. He sat in jail, he had people trying to stone him to death, whip him to death. “We do not lose heart!” Oh! I want to find out why he doesn’t lose heart, because I lose heart so easily.
“Though our outward self is wasting away.” Now if you’re over 55 you know what this means. The outer nature is wasted away. Well, you lose muscle, your skin sags, you have to have glasses, you go get hearing aids, some people get wigs (I look better this way!). And then we have knee replacements and hip replacements. Replacements seem to be nowhere near what they can repair in your body. The outward nature is wasting away, and well, it will end in your death. Now, this is my verse for my philosophy of aging. Are you ready? “Although the outward nature is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” If you’re over 50, you better know this verse. Although the outward nature is decaying (you can do some things to slow it down, but it is going to win), the inner man, the new man in Christ, in the Holy Spirit who lives within us, every day he is being renewed. Well, that is an amazing truth, isn’t it? Your inner man is being fed and he is growing, he is expanding, he is maturing. That should be your philosophy of life.
[In fact, I was going to speak to you about this whole thing: About being a growing leader, a maturing leader. Sadly, many stop growing when they get to be about the age of 40 and older. They do not read anymore, they do not go to conferences, they do not have a greater vision for the world. That is a very, very big problem. But this text says, the inner man is being renewed every day. He is growing. He is learning and expanding. That’s what I want to do as I age.]
Now I want you to get the balance hereof words very beautifully balanced. I wish I had a scale to show this but you can imagine a weighing scale. “For this light momentary affliction…”  or  suffering “is preparing for us…” Well, that’s good to know. “An eternal. weight of glory beyond all comparison.” In other words, these are not comparisons. This is what happens. It is an eternal weight of heavenly glory. Here on earth what we face is a light, momentary affliction. That’s the divine perspective. And he says it is not comparable. So in this life, you have many afflictions, sorrows, heartaches, setbacks, losses, and sometimes very severe, and they really can hurt. But the divine perspective says it is light and it is momentary, lasting a very short time. A whole life here on earth is a very short time. But it is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory.
Now, if you want to know a little bit more about this glory, you go down to Chapter 5 verses 1-10.
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Written by David T. Crum |
Monday, May 22, 2023
Eventually becoming a Presbyterian as an adult, Jackson held firmly to the Providential view of God, noting that nothing occurred in life without God’s blessing, guidance, and will. We can argue that Providence further shaped Jackson into the man he became. The Lord molded Stonewall Jackson from his early childhood years. Of course, the man experienced great sadness and heartache; however, perseverance, determination, morality, and discipline made him the general he was. His boyhood years set the stage for the legend himself.

Anyone familiar with Stonewall Jackson knows that the man experienced significant sorrow in his boyhood. Orphaned at age seven, Jackson lost his father and mother within a few short years. His older brother, Warren, whom he spent a significant amount of time with, died at the age of 20. Jackson, too young to remember his father, had several instrumental figures in his life who helped rear him into the man he became.
The memories of his mother, Julia, lay imprinted in his mind throughout his adult life. She was a kind, Christian woman who loved her children dearly. Jackson’s second wife, Anna, wrote of her impact on the young boy, “Such a mother could not but leave a deep impression upon the heart of such a son. To the latest hour of his life, he cherished her memory.”[i] Years after the death of Jackson’s father (Jonathan), Julia re-married a man named Blake B. Woodson. Unable to provide for the remaining Jackson children, the siblings separated, being sent to extended family. The separation devastated young Jackson and his mother:
Julia Woodson sobbed uncontrollably as she hugged her small son and tried to tell him goodbye. The child fought back tears while being placed on a horse. As the party of riders started away, the hysterical mother ran to her son and held him once more. Julia Woodson never recovered from that farewell. As for Jackson, his second wife observed many years later: That parting he never forgot; nor could he speak of it in future years but with the utmost tenderness.[ii]
A short time later, Julia gave birth to another boy (Wirt Woodson) and never recovered from a difficult childbirth. She died in December 1831. Though Jackson was a young boy, his memories of his mother never left his soul. On her deathbed, she prayed earnestly for the salvation of her children, knowing her time had ended.
Jackson’s older brother Warren played a vital role in his life, serving as another Christian example. Though the brothers spent several years apart in separate families, they united a number of times, even taking a nearly year-long journey together from Virginia to Ohio. Warren, by all accounts, was a mature young man who followed in his mother’s footsteps and relied on prayer in every aspect of life. As an adult, Jackson spoke fondly of Warren’s legacy, underscoring his Christian influence.
However, Jackson noted Uncle Cummins served as his life’s most significant role model. As a young adult, he wrote to his sister Laura, “Uncle had recently received a letter from our cousins in California and they say that Uncle Cummins is undoubtedly dead. This is news which goes to my heart, uncle was a father to me.”[iii]
Cummins, the half-brother of Jonathan (Jackson’s father), raised Jackson. He remained single his entire life, living on hundreds of acres. Here, Jackson roamed the land, learned how to ride horses, cut down lumber, and became the resilient and brave man the reader knows him as. Cummins, a laid-back uncle, let Jackson discover many of life’s questions independently. He did, however, instill discipline, bravery, and courage in the young boy. Anna later remarked that Cummins treated Jackson as if he were his own son. It was Cummins who shared the opportunity to attend West Point and urged his nephew to apply for the opening. The man was not perfect, and is said to have chased wealth to a disastrous level. Nevertheless, Cummins saw a gift in Jackson. The traits of resiliency, honor, and bravery grew exponentially in his young teenage years.
Before attending West Point, Jackson was a deputy constable, collecting debt. He gained this position around the age of 16 or 17, which was unusual. However, the local town’s officials knew of his reputation, honor, and strong moral character. The vocation was difficult; Jackson often collected judgments upon locals and even extended family. He disliked this position and longed for a change, which came with his invitation to study at West Point.
Outside of the family’s influence on Jackson, the Lord guided the boy into a man. Julia’s nurturing and prayers inarguably planted a seed of faith in the boy’s heart. By his latter teenage years, Jackson walked into town to attend church on his own. He sat alone in a pew at the back of the church. He borrowed Christian books from a friend’s library and contemplated morality. Biographer James I. Robertson Jr. supported Christianity’s influence in Jackson’s life, “At an impressionable period of Jackson’s life, religion entered his soul. He took it seriously. Sometime before 1841, he began praying nightly.”[iv]
Eventually becoming a Presbyterian as an adult, Jackson held firmly to the Providential view of God, noting that nothing occurred in life without God’s blessing, guidance, and will. We can argue that Providence further shaped Jackson into the man he became.
The Lord molded Stonewall Jackson from his early childhood years. Of course, the man experienced great sadness and heartache; however, perseverance, determination, morality, and discipline made him the general he was. His boyhood years set the stage for the legend himself.
David Crum holds a Ph.D. in Historical Theology. He serves as an Assistant Professor of History and Dissertation Chair. His research interests include the history of warfare and Christianity. He and his family attend Trinity Presbyterian Church (ARP) in Bedell, New Brunswick. 

[i] Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson, (1892; reprint, New York: Harper & Brothers, 2019), 21.
[ii] James I. Robertson, Jr., Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend, (New York: Macmillan, 1997), 9.
[iii] Thomas J. Jackson, “Letter. Stonewall Jackson to his sister Laura. July 7, 1850”, https://digitalcollections.vmi.edu/digital/collection/p15821coll4/id/121/rec/22 (accessed December 15, 2022).
[iv] Robertson, Jr., Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend, 19.
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The Bible God has given us, and commanded us to teach our kids, does not shy away from reality. God’s plan is not for us to try to preserve childhood innocence for as long as possible. Our children are not innocent, and innocence doesn’t prepare them for life in this world.

Last week Utah banned the Bible from primary schools on the grounds that it is violent and vulgar. How should we respond to this as Christians?
The Bible is without a doubt a book that is full of vulgarity and violence, together with graphic sexual details and imagery. If it were made into a film true to the visual imagery used it would be X-rated and many Christians would regard it as pornographic. It would be a video nasty attracting the ire of Mary Whitehouse for sure.
It is an interesting exercise to consider which stories are left out of children’s Bibles/story books. They are usually a sanitised cannon within a cannon. What is said plainly in Scripture is conveyed euphemistically. The worst stories are left out. Judgment is downplayed or rendered sentimental (I have never understood why Noah and the Flood are so popular when it involves mass death!). There is usually no place for the Song of Songs, the Epistles, Sodom and Gomorrah, Judah and Tamar etc. There is little of the law included (except the 10 Commandments with adultery sanitised) or the details of the law, much of which has to do with sexual behaviour.
The real question is whether God intends this to be kept from children. I suspect that we are shaped more by a romantic vision of childhood that owes more to Rousseau than Scripture, and Victorian notions of childhood innocence. In most of the world, and certainly, in Bible times, children were familiar with harsh reality and the simple ‘facts of life’ from a much earlier age. After all, families shared a single room and yet there were multiple children! Kids on farms know a lot about sex.
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