This is a repost of first letter in our Death Row Letters series.
Dear Everyone,
We’re all on death row.
The rich CEO in the modern high-rise. The homeless man huddled in a filthy blanket on the street. The young housewife in suburbia. The children on the school playground.
We’re all on death row.
I’m not saying this to be ghoulish or overly dramatic – it’s just the truth. The Grim Reaper comes for us all (with some exceptions, which I’ll explore at some point in future letters). It may not be by firing squad or Old Sparky the electric chair or lethal injection in some prison basement somewhere, but the result is the same for each of us (again, some exceptions).
The difference between the the vast majority of us and actual death row inmates is that we get to walk around as we please waiting for The Day, while they are sitting in their cells waiting for The Day. That’s a very big difference, isn’t it? Maybe, maybe not.
Because whether you’re on the ‘outside’ death row or the ‘inside’ death row the questions are the same: What are you doing with your remaining time and what is your state of mind during the wait?
We can waste our time wallowing in despair and self-pity, or we can face our circumstance with courage and hope. We can lead an empty, purposeless existence waiting for annihilation and nothingness, or we can believe in and find something more than the empty darkness we imagine.
There is something more frightening than death, and that is living a life without purpose or hope.
So, until my next letter comes your way, don’t be afraid, we’re all on death row together and there’s more to this than meets the eye.
Have you ever heard someone say, “God has a plan for your life”?
Well, He doesn’t.
The Bible doesn’t teach that God has a detailed personal plan and schedule for every decision in every life or that there is only one specific career, spouse, or path that God has predetermined for you.
Instead, God guides each of us as we choose our own paths and make our own decisions.
Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.
As we have already seen, God has an overall grand plan for His creation and His people, and you and I are invited to participate in His purposes. He is directing history to victory, and we make real choices and walk our own paths within God’s purposes.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
So, our heavenly Father doesn’t have a strict script for each of us to follow. He has a great purpose and asks us to walk and work together with Him in that purpose in a way that fits our own talents, personality, and dreams.
God Knows You
Even though God doesn’t plan every detail of your life, He still knows your heart, cares about even the smallest things in your life, and loves you more than you can imagine.
Sometimes in the Bible God calls specific people to do specific things, like Noah building an ark, but it’s always up to the person He calls whether or not to do what God asks. Free will is never taken away.
It could be that you are called to a specific purpose, but don’t make the mistake of sitting around and doing nothing while you wait for God to tell you what to do.
Plug into God’s grand plan by choosing a path and walking that path boldly, and as you do that, listen for His guidance.
Proverbs 3:5–6 Trust in the Lord… and he shall direct thy paths.
Four interesting quotes from about the Old Testament Book of Ezra:
Matthew Henry
“Ezra was a ready scribe in the law of God, and he used his knowledge not for himself, but for the reviving of true religion among the people.”
Charles Spurgeon
“Ezra was a man of the Book, and therefore a man of power. When God means to revive His people, He sets them first to the reading of His Word.”
F. F. Bruce
“Ezra stands as a model of faithful leadership, showing that true reform begins not with walls or institutions, but with the Word of God shaping the hearts of the people.”
Derek Kidner
“Ezra’s story reminds us that restoration is God’s work, yet He chooses to accomplish it through those who set their hearts to study, obey, and teach His Word.”
Christianity in Iran today is both difficult to measure and impossible to ignore. Estimates vary widely because many believers worship in secret, but most credible sources agree that the Christian population numbers in the hundreds of thousands, with some estimates reaching close to one million when including underground house churches. Iran officially recognizes certain historic Christian communities—primarily Armenian and Assyrian churches—but conversion from Islam to Christianity is not legally protected and can result in serious consequences. This makes accurate data challenging, as many converts do not publicly identify themselves.
Despite the risks, numerous observers describe Christianity in Iran as one of the fastest-growing expressions of the faith in the world. Much of this growth appears to be among Muslim-background converts, particularly younger Iranians who are searching spiritually or expressing quiet discontent with the religious-political establishment. Because registered churches are restricted and monitored, many believers gather in informal house churches, small groups, or private settings. These networks are decentralized and largely invisible, contributing to both their resilience and the uncertainty surrounding population estimates.
At the same time, the environment for Christian converts remains highly restrictive. International religious freedom reports and advocacy organizations document arrests, interrogations, church raids, and prison sentences under national security charges. While historic ethnic Christian communities are allowed limited public worship, converts often face harsher scrutiny. Reports in recent years indicate an increase in arrests and prison sentences tied to alleged “security” concerns related to religious activity. Pressure can come not only from authorities but also from families and local communities.
The overall picture is complex: Christianity in Iran exists in a space of both growth and hardship. Public recognition is limited, legal protections are narrow, and many believers practice their faith quietly. Yet multiple monitoring organizations note that the church continues to expand despite these constraints. Whether viewed through demographic surveys, ministry reports, or human rights documentation, the story of Christianity in Iran today is one of persistence—marked by both significant challenges and surprising resilience.
Culley’s family was in that strange in-between time where the old house didn’t feel like home anymore, but the new one wasn’t home yet either. Boxes lined the hallway like a cardboard parade. Everyone knew their job. Dad handled the heavy stuff and kept a checklist on the fridge. Mom sorted and labeled boxes. Culley’s sister wrapped dishes in newspaper and stacked them in the right bins. Even Culley had a role: he carried lighter boxes to the garage and taped the bottoms so they wouldn’t bust. Nobody had to guess what to do, because they weren’t just “cleaning up”—they were moving toward a new place, together.
Two days before moving day, Culley’s friend Tim stopped by after school. He stepped over a row of boxes and stared at the half-empty living room like it had been robbed. “What happened in here?” Tim asked, confused. Culley shrugged and kept taping.
Tim wandered from room to room, picking up a roll of tape, putting it down, then lifting a marker like it was a strange tool from another planet. “Do you want me to help?” he asked, but his voice sounded unsure—like he didn’t know what “help” even meant in a house that looked like it was coming apart. Culley pointed toward the garage and said, “We’re moving across town. This all makes sense if you know what it is we’re doing.” Tim blinked, and Culley saw it click—without the big picture, you don’t know your part. But once you see the purpose, even a little box in your hands suddenly matters.
“…without the big picture, you don’t know your part. But once you see the purpose, even a little box in your hands suddenly matters.”
Now that we understand God’s grand plan a little better, we’re going to start exploring how the things we do in our daily lives help plug us into that plan. Because what you do matters, and when you see how you fit into the big picture and discover your part, your life becomes an exciting, meaningful adventure.
Coming Attractions
So, moving ahead in our quest we’ll be exploring some of the ways you can plug into God’s grand plan and pursue your own dreams while doing it.
Here’s where we’re going:
Does God have a plan for your life? Hmmmmm…
How do you know what you’re “supposed” to be doing?
Does what you do now matter in God’s heaven on earth forever?
Some common sense tips and life recipes for living the dream!
And remember—moving day will be here before you know it.
Wells sat at the kitchen table while his mom stirred a pot of soup, watching the steam curl into the air. He had been thinking hard about something all afternoon. “Mom,” he finally asked, resting his chin in his hands, “what color is love?” His mother smiled at the question and turned off the stove, pulling out a chair beside him. She told him love wasn’t just one color—it was all kinds of colors depending on how you see it. “Love can be red when it’s strong and brave,” she said, “like when someone protects you. It can be warm gold like sunshine when someone makes you feel safe. It can be soft blue when someone listens to you, and gentle green when someone helps you grow.”
Wells thought about this quietly, imagining love as a bright painting made of many shades blending together. His mom brushed his hair back and added, “But if I had to choose one color, I’d say love looks like whatever color your heart needs most at the moment.” Wells looked at her, noticing the warmth in her eyes and the comfort of her smile, and decided that love, at least right then, looked like the warm amber glow of the kitchen light and the feeling of his mother’s hand holding his.
What does God look like?
Well first of all, God isn’t an old man with a white beard up in the sky tossing lightning bolts down on us.
John 4:24 a God is Spirit…
God is Spirit—not a body, not a face, and not a shape. You can’t take a picture of Him. But remember, “spirit” doesn’t mean ghost or wispy fog. It means a reality beyond what we can see with our eyes.
John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
We can’t see God with our eyes but Jesus shows us exactly what God is like, and we can see that with our hearts and with the Spirit that God has put inside us.
John 14:9 b …he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?
If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus in the Bible – not what he may have looked like physically, but what kind of person He was, and is — His love and compassion, His power and His mercy.
When God Comes To Live With Us
One day, God will once again live with us on earth. It’s possible that then we will be able to see more of His glory—more of what He “looks like.”
Revelation 21:1-5 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
Until then, we look at Jesus… and we see the heart of God.
Until then, we should be busy finding ways to plug into God’s grand plan right now, today. That means doing things and living our daily lives in ways that make our own dreams come true and God’s dream for us a reality.
During the brutal winter of 1777–1778, George Washington and the Continental Army were encamped at Valley Forge. His troops were freezing, starving, and discouraged. The American fight for freedom itself seemed close to failure. Washington faced a tough choice: continue the struggle despite the hardship, or quit and give up the fight.
Washington privately prayed, asking God for wisdom, strength, and guidance in the decision before him. He chose to stay and fight—trusting that God would sustain their efforts. The army endured the winter, came out stronger, and eventually won the victory in the American Revolutionary War.
No Robots, Please
God doesn’t want robots who are forced to obey Him – He wants a family, individuals who love Him freely. God doesn’t make us do the right thing or the wrong thing, He gives us the free will to choose
Washington freely chose a course of action, asked for God’s help, and acted in faith. His decision—made with God’s help—shaped history and shows how our choices and God’s guidance can work together.
But along with the freedom to make good choices comes the freedom to make terrible choices. It’s not really freedom if you don’t have the freedom to make the wrong choice.
And sometimes when people make terrible choices, other people get hurt and valuable things get destroyed. God allows people to do bad things, and that means sometimes those bad things happen to good people.
Three Things to Remember
First, you can’t blame God for the bad things people do—that’s on them, not God. The good will be rewarded and the bad will have to face consequences, now and/or in the time to come.
Second, God can and does shield His people, those who seek His divine protection from harm as they ask in faith. Everyone else is on their own, and if they live outside God’s promise of protection, it’s because they choose to be on their own.
There are times when people of faith will voluntarily go against human evil knowing that they may be harmed or even killed. Their reasons for doing that are between God and them.
There are also times when people of faith wander outside the King’s protection through disobedience, ignoring warnings, or plain old rebellion. Bad things can happen when that occurs.
Third, all suffering and evil will be redeemed by God in the future, so trust in the ultimate purpose and plan of God to make things right.
While it’s sometimes hard to understand why bad things happen and why good people suffer—whether by the evil things other people do or by natural disaster or disease—the things suffered now, no matter how long they last, will seem like a tiny mosquito bite compared to the marvelous eternity God has planned for us.
2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory…
More Than Conquerors
God doesn’t force anyone to do the right thing any more than he forces anyone to believe on Jesus Christ as Savior. We each have complete free-will and we all live with the benefits, and the consequences of that amazing freedom, now and forever.
Romans 8:35-37 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Let’s use our free will to do some good—to do some conquering—through our Lord, Jesus Christ.
So everything will be hunky dory after Jesus returns and we live together in heaven on earth forever. Great. But what about now?
Why does God allow death and disease, earthquakes, fires, and floods, and horrible things to happen?
Special Connection
When God first set up His creation He gave Adam and Eve the job of taking care of it and of ruling “over all the earth.” God gave them power and wisdom, through their special connection with Him by way of His Spirit, to have control over the world and nature.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
But there was one condition God set:
Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Well, they disobeyed God and broke the condition He set. Although they didn’t die physically, the special connection with God that gave them the wisdom and power to be good rulers over creation died and was broken.
And so the world was broken as well, and still is. Without the special connection of God’s Spirit to give people the wisdom and power to take authority over the forces of nature, nature can and will cause harm and death, by everything from earthquakes to microscopic diseases.
God put the fate of His creation into human hands, and because humans broke it would take human hands to repair it. That’s where Jesus comes in, but we’ll get to that a bit later.
Authority
When Adam and Eve gave up their special connection with the Creator by their own choice they also gave up their rulership of the world. So the one who talked them into disobeying God was the one who took over that rulership—the “serpent,” the Devil.
Luke 4:5-6 And the devil, taking him (Jesus) up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
The Devil is the ruler of this world. He is the one who causes evil, death, and bad things to happen. To put it in legal terms, God is perfectly fair, He gave Adam and Eve rulership over the world, it was theirs to do with as they wished and God honored that. In turn, Adam and Eve gave their rulership to the Serpent and because it was theirs to give, God must honor that as well.
But God has also planned a way to get the rulership of the world back into the right hands, and that is through Jesus Christ.
For believers in Christ, the Spirit, power, and wisdom of God have been given back to us and we can once again overcome the powers of evil through the name of Jesus Christ and by His work, because He has reclaimed what Adam lost.
Matthew 28:16 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
The Devil’s authority over the world is only for a short time, and soon it will be completely gone forever. For now, we claim what Jesus has won back for us and wait patiently for the final victory.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Next, we’ll talk about how human free will works and why that’s important in understanding why sometimes bad things happen to good people.
God promises that when Jesus returns, we will receive new, changed physical bodies. What will they be like? Scripture gives us some hints and clues.
First, our new bodies will be like Jesus in some ways.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Here are some examples of what Jesus’ new body was like after God raised him from the dead:
Jesus’ resurrected body was real, solid, and touchable—not a ghost or spirit‑form.
Luke 24:39 “Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”
Jesus could enter locked rooms, appear and disappear, and move effortlessly—yet still remain fully physical.
John 20:19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
In his resurrected body Jesus joined some of his followers and enjoyed a meal of real food with them.
Luke 24:42-43 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.
What About Us?
Our new bodies will be like Jesus’ new body in other ways as well.
We will be raised in a glorious new condition that can never break down, die, get tired or sick again. The frailty of our present bodies will be gone forever.
Philippians 3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Our new bodies will reflect, like a mirror, the brightness and radiance of Christ in His glory—“like unto his glorious body”—which is described in part in Revelation.
Revelation 1:16 …and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
Our new spiritual bodies will be powerful and strong, full of energy and able to do many, many things we can’t do in our current physical bodies. And remember, “Spiritual” does not mean non‑physical; it means fully Spirit‑powered, perfectly suited for the wonders God has in store for us in eternity because the life God promises us in the resurrection will never end.
