The idea of good vs. evil, a conflict that touches every life, is chilling. We all want to be immune from attacks by evil and darkness. We do not like the idea of cancer, stroke, heart attacks, or threats to our comfort and safety in any way, shape, or form. We all want to live in a safe place where we do not live under attack. We do not want to be attacked by terrorists. We do not want to be attacked by drug addicts looking for money. We do not want to be robbed, beaten, raped, or murdered. What is the reality? You know the reality. No one in the U.S. can deny the reality now. Before 9-11 many could deny the reality of life but not now. Most of us, even after 9-11 want to live in denial. We try to tell ourselves everything is fine. We try to tell ourselves everything is OK. However, no matter what we tell ourselves, the reality of life is such that we do not live in a safe world. Our lives are always under threat of death. People die every day from traffic accidents. We are always under the threat of death even if we do not want to see these threats or admit they are real.

We all want a safe world. However, we will have to wait until Jesus returns to actually have a safe world. If Jesus does not return before we die, we will have to die to inherit a safe world in Heaven. If anyone should have been immune from attack by evil, it should have been Christ. However, at the event of His birth, terrorism exploded into the slaughter of innocent babies. In His adulthood, Christ died a horrendous death on the Cross after being tortured nearly unto death. His death on the Cross was an act of evil perpetrated against Him although He was innocent of any sin.

Yes, we all want a comfy and cozy world. What is the reality? The reality is that our Christian faith is a faith that exists because martyrs went to their death because of our faith. As this is written, Muslim terrorists are targeting Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. In truth, all of us will die. A force that attacks us in the middle years of our life begins to age us. A few years later, if we are lucky to live into feeble old age, we die. I say, "if we are lucky," not meaning to be funny, but we usually consider death in a person's youth a greater tragedy than death in old age. Nevertheless, death at any age is still a tragedy. However, by His example, with Christ, what is a certain tragedy (death) can be turned into glory (eternal life).

In all this darkness, there is hope. In all this pain and suffering, there is a promise. In this world, we have trouble, but if we accept Christ, we can see over the horizon to a land of eternal peace, joy, and comfort…through Christ, we have overcome the world.

We may be afraid for our physical safety but we have no reason to be afraid for our souls because we have Christ. We have no reason to fear Christ for it is He who is the embodiment of all love and it is He who stands at the gates of Heaven with arms open wide ready to welcome us.

As a relatively new Christian, most people enter the Christian faith thinking the Christian faith and Christ's death on the Cross is about them. We call Christ our personal savior, which He is. As people grow in the faith and mature, they grow and learn that to be a Christian means we are to be selfless not selfish. The more selfless we become the less afraid we become. The more selfless we become the more willing we become to sacrifice our all, even our physical life, for Christ and the Christian cause on earth.

John 16:33"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (NIV)