Much of the Bible focuses on the reward for living in submission to the Lord. But a good deal of the Old Testament dealt with people avoiding obedience and the penalties of rebellion.

As a youngster, my dad gave me the assignment of reading the Bible through four times, for which task he and Mom would reward me with whatever prize I wanted. I chose a .22 rifle, which I had just discovered at camp that summer. I admired the machine work in the straight barrel, as well as the precision craftsmanship in the firing mechanism. As it turned out, the price of the rifle was beyond the budget of my poor parents, so they offered me an Argus C-3 camera, which was all the rage of Robert Capa, a war photographer who had died tragically in Vietnam. I was fascinated by creativity of images, so accepted the offer, and for the next fifty years, became more proficient and practiced the art of photography.

The very first time I read Psalm 1, I was astonished at the terse language of verse one! All kinds of visions of immoral people, angry people, alcoholic people assailed my imagination, from all the Tom Swift and Hardy Boys novels I'd found at our school library and at age twelve, barely knew about the mockery which would accompany the display of my faith later in school and adult work life. I was shocked that people in general did not want to know about and accept Christ as Savior! In fact, as I grew older, the news was becoming less tolerant of Christians who had fallen and made short work of leaders and laymen who left the "straight and narrow"!

But I found it very true, that on one hand, being mocked, bullied and threatened for my faith, there was in general a blessing which resulted from obedience that over time, strengthened our family, allowed us to save money, and most of all, gave us peace at night to sleep soundly! But the world around me, including my boss at one job, felt very threatened by my witness and openly bragged about his excesses! His supervisor too notice and I was offered a job to work on my own in another city, which I jumped at!

The daily existence of the individual Christian is hard when we live for our Lord, but He takes notice and with encouragement to work hard, does reward us for our submission, along with the persecution we endure! There are many examples of Christian martyrs throughout history, but there are also many examples of obedient Christians who prospered in both witness and person lives. Blessing is not just money in the bank, it is the peace of heart which comes from humility before God, even in the face of tempation to deviate from the Way.

Lord, help us to learn from Your word and follow Jesus obediently, to consistently live a witness and not walk in the way of mockery.