Hard and worthwhile is better than easy and pointless
One of my favorite stories in the Bible concerns the Apostles and Christians in the early church. In Acts 5, word of this new religion was starting to spread like wildfire across the city of Jerusalem, and the gospel was gaining more attention by the day. This caught the attention of the religious establishment. Feeling threatened by the growing power and influence of these “Jesus followers”, they decide to arrest a bunch of the church leaders in a show of force and throw them in jail as a way to intimidate and scare them. But not even one day into their imprisonment, an angel of God breaks them out and they are back in the temple courts, proclaiming the gospel right in the face of the very people who arrested them! Not knowing what else to do, the high priest’s people arrest them again, and this time put them on trial. They had the Apostles flogged and then released, warning them not to go around talking about this “Jesus” guy ever again. As they limped out of the court that day, bac