Watchman on the Wall

Southwest Radio Ministries: Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. God is still on the throne and prayer changes things. Today, Josh Davis continues his conversation with pastor and author Chad Roberts about how through troubles and trials, we can be sustained by an unwavering trust in God.

First, though, I want to invite you to visit our website swrc.com. There, you'll find the latest episode of our Prophecy in the News television program, as well as our daily Watchman on the Wall program. At swrc.com, you'll also find resources that will enrich your faith and encourage your walk. And remember, when you order a resource from swrc.com, you are supporting the ministry and outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries. Visit today: swrc.com. Now, here's today's host, Josh Davis.

Josh Davis: Yesterday, we began an important discussion on suffering with Pastor Chad Roberts. Pastor Chad became blind as a young father, young husband, a preacher of the Gospel, and a pastor of a local church. Now he's written a book to help Christians as they navigate suffering. How can we develop an unshakable confidence in the God who will never leave us nor forsake us? Pastor Chad, thank you so much for joining me. It's great to talk with you again.

Well, we're exploring a lot of very difficult questions about human suffering, and this is something that every single person on planet Earth has to struggle with and try to come to terms with why suffering. In your book, you point out Moses. He was no stranger to suffering. He was a man who had so much potential in those early 40 years. So much was invested into Moses. He had the best education that Egypt could offer. He was in leadership training, if you will, to become part of the leadership over the kingdom.

And then it all fell apart. He spent 40 years on the backside of the desert, as the Bible says, watching sheep. It seems like everything had come crashing down. But God had a plan. God had a perfect timing. So how did God use suffering in Moses' life, especially towards the end of his life?

Chad Roberts: Blindness may be unique to me, but as you're saying, suffering is common to every person. Everyone goes through something that is some type of loss or hurt or grief or wound or trauma, all kinds of things that we deal with.

Moses was no exception, a man that God used so much. Probably what stands out to me the most about Moses is that he was a man on the run. He was a man in hiding. Even when God told him to go back to Egypt, God reminded him the men that sought your life, they are dead.

You know what that tells me? Moses spent all those years looking over his shoulder. But doesn't God have a way of finding us when we think we've ran as far as we can run and we think we're hidden, we think we're obscure? No, God has a way, even if it's a bush in the backside of a desert. God has a way of getting our attention, and thank God he got Moses' attention the way that he did.

Josh Davis: Absolutely. Another chapter that you speak about involves the life of King Jehoshaphat. That's probably not at the top of a lot of people's list of their favorite Bible characters, although he had some wonderful traits about him. There was a season where he was facing intense suffering, and it carries a powerful example to show us how we can handle those situations when we just don't know what to do. Can you explain what did King Jehoshaphat do and how does that help us as we face the suffering that we walk through?

Chad Roberts: I think he prayed one of the greatest prayers of the entire Bible. He said, "We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you." There are so many principles that we learn. I think we called that chapter, Hold the Line, because that's what God told Israel to do. He said, "Stand still and hold the line."

That reminds me of what Paul says: Sometimes when you've done all you can do, stand. Sometimes that's all we need to do. Why? Because what this chapter in the Bible teaches us so clearly, the battle's not ours. The battle is the Lord's. When we really learn that, we're not going to waste our energy, we're not going to pursue the wrong thing, we're not going to fight the wrong battles. We're going to stand in our faith. We're going to trust God's goodness, we're going to trust his sovereignty, and we're going to see God do his work in our lives.

Josh Davis: And that's so powerful to think about. I know that the battle is still going for you, and there's questions about those kinds of things. Do you ever wonder, and again, I'm getting very personal, so forgive me, but I know you talk about this in the book, what if that healing doesn't come? What if that answer that you wanted, maybe to be healed from blindness, doesn't come? How have you learned that the battle is still the Lord's, even though he may not answer that prayer, especially in your situation?

Chad Roberts: Paul gave us a wonderful answer, and I know you and probably your listeners know it really well. Paul was given a thorn in the side. Prior to blindness, I don't think I could have ever used the word "given." I think I would have said I've been struck by, I've had calamity hit me.

Paul used the word "given" like it's a gift. A thorn in the flesh. And what did he say? God told him, "My grace is sufficient for you." Paul said he is willing to go through those things for what purpose? That the power of Christ might rest upon him.

The Lord asked me a few weeks ago, it was very odd the way I felt the Holy Spirit ask me this. The Lord said, "Chad, you wrote a book. You got this publishing thing. You're doing all these interviews, all this publicity for Blind Faith." The Lord said, "Is it worth being blind because it's a dream come true for me?" The Lord said, "Is blindness worth what you wanted?" I thought long and hard about it and I said, "Lord, no. It's not worth it. It's not worth a book deal, it's not worth interviews, it's not worth publicity."

The Lord said, "Then where are you on this?" I thought long and hard and I said, "Lord, what blindness is worth is it's worth glorifying you. If this is the way that you want me to glorify you, it's worth every single moment."

We all have those opportunities. It may not be a physical handicap like mine is. No matter what it is, we all have a cross that the Lord wants us to carry. Doing it, in my view, the Bible is what shapes our perspective, and we can do it with joy, we can do it with gladness, we can do it triumphantly because it's Christ who does it through us.

Josh Davis: And that's one of the things that I love about you, your attitude. I know our radio listeners can't see us in the studio, but you've got so much joy, a smile on your face constantly. What has given you that sense of joy and peace and delight in the Lord in spite of the suffering that you've endured?

Chad Roberts: As you know, John 15:5, Christ is the Vine. When we are connected to the Vine, everything that is in God flows into us, the branch. I have found love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, all those things that are in God can flow into me.

When Jesus says, "My joy I give you," that's not a feeling, that's not an emotion. If I had waited to feel joyful, that feeling would have never come in blindness. But it's a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "My peace I give to you." It doesn't source out of us and it doesn't source out of the circumstances of life. It's above it all because it comes out of God.

Josh Davis: Friends, we're visiting with Pastor Chad Roberts. You can tell the energy that he brings and the passion that he brings for the word of God and for the God of the word and how God has helped him to see through the darkness. That's the title of the book, Blind Faith: Seeing God Through Darkness. You can pick up a copy today. 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Or visit our website swrc.com.

Pastor Chad, I once had a seminary professor and he said that he prayed for patience once and he had three flat tires that day and he said, "I stopped praying for patience." But seriously, I know that God knows that growth never happens in a hurry. What is God doing when we face a season of waiting? I know you've written a chapter about that in your book as well.

Chad Roberts: I loved that chapter. We called it Delays are Not Denials. You know, God loves waiting, and I hate it. I can remember with eyesight, I got more speeding tickets. I got more warnings than I got tickets, but I got pulled over more than what I should have. I drove fast, I hated red lights, I hated stop signs, I loathe waiting rooms. I hate to wait.

In that chapter, I realized one day, Christians today, this culture that we live in, I call them Amazon Prime Christians. If I pray, then God's job is to answer my prayer in two to three shipping days. And if it doesn't come within that time, then God's not doing his job. That's how we act. We may not say that out loud, but that's how we think so often.

God is in the waiting. I found for me that the more I learn to wait on God, the more pleasure I find in God.

Josh Davis: What a powerful statement and thank you so much for that. We're coming up to something that we were talking about before we came on the air and that was what was one of your favorite chapters. I want to get to that one and you talk about the man that Jesus healed that had the withered hand. It's in Mark chapter 3. Jesus called him to reveal the part of his life that perhaps embarrassed him the most. Why would Christ call us to stretch forth our withered hands? What's the lesson that we can learn out of Mark chapter 3?

Chad Roberts: What I've learned is God cannot heal what we hide. Christians love to hide things. We get it from Adam and Eve, don't we? What did they do? They hid from God. We hide things, whether it's vulnerabilities, whether it's traumas, whether it's hurts, whether it's whatever.

We hide things, and I just think knowing that back then they wore long flowing robes, I think that man with the withered hand, I think he kept it tucked away. One of the things that surprised me the most when I went blind is how embarrassed I felt. It embarrassed me when people would walk up to me that I should have known them, but I didn't know who I was talking to.

It embarrassed me when I would spill a drink at a restaurant or bump into someone. There was so much embarrassment that I felt that I know in my heart when Jesus called that man forward, someone with disabilities, they don't want the spotlight. I think it mortified that man.

When Jesus said, "Stretch out your hand," that deformed hand, that withered hand, I think it teaches us that God, he wants to heal things in our life, but Satan does his best work when we keep things hidden. God does his best work when we expose it.

Josh Davis: So how can we do that? What was the process like for you and in scripture as well in Mark chapter 3, that exposure that you're speaking about?

Chad Roberts: For me, when I first did go blind, I didn't realize the trauma that it really was. I was trying to go Sunday to Sunday. I was trying to just learn how to preach without being able to read my Bible, memorizing everything. I didn't realize the real trauma it was causing.

I just pushed everything down and tried to go Sunday to Sunday. If I had realized back then the trauma it was, I would have put my entire family in Christian counseling. We've made it through and we've gotten on the other side, but not without counseling. I just didn't appreciate just how hard it was on my family.

Josh Davis: We can bring those things to the Lord. I know suffering really propels people to prayer, it propels people to think about what God is doing. When you feel that suffering as a Christian, your reflex ought to be prayer. But there's different kinds of prayer that you talk about in the book. You talk about the difference between praying in faith and praying in fear. I think this is connected with the man with the withered hand because there was so much fear that was holding him back and Jesus was calling him to step forward in faith. What's the difference in praying in faith and praying in fear?

Chad Roberts: Sometimes I call it panic praying. I can tell when I because I'm as human as anyone. I've got clay feet. I can tell when I pray about something and there's some panic in it, I'll feel the Holy Spirit say, "Chad, stop. You're not praying rightly."

What did the disciples say? They said, "Lord, teach us how to pray." I think that when we pray panic prayers, we have a sense that we have to figure it out, we have to take control, we have to do it all. My wife says so often that doubt is not necessarily the opposite of faith; control is.

If we can't control something, we get panicked. That's opposite of what faith is. Faith says, "I trust God." Period. I don't trust the outcome. I trust God.

Josh Davis: That's so important and it's so crucial that as Christians that we learn that lesson, that we're not trusting the outcome, we're not looking for a blessing, we're looking for the one who is our Savior and we're following after him. Of course, speaking about our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ was no stranger to suffering. What is some of the suffering of Christ and all that he did for us? What lessons have you gleaned from that and the good purposes of God behind suffering? When you think about the Cross, that's what you think about is the good purpose of God that came through that intense season of suffering.

Chad Roberts: I loved that chapter. We called it Drinking from the Cup of Suffering. What I learned, probably my favorite principle I learned, Peter tells us that we are to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and that we are to learn from his example of suffering. In the Greek what that means is to trace. Picture a child learning to trace out its letters.

As I was going blind and writing some of this, my little boys were learning to read. Well, my boys have only known me blind. They've never known me with eyesight. So they would come up to me, you know, on my chest or my stomach or my arms, they would be like, "Dad, is this a B? Dad, what direction... which way does a D go?" And I would help them trace it out.

That's how we are to view our sufferings with Jesus. We are learning from him. Our brothers and sisters who have the wrong perspective who think that suffering is only judgment, they only need to look at the life of Christ. He was sinless, and yet he suffered, not just on the Cross, throughout his life. I think that chapter beautifully lays that out.

Josh Davis: Friends, we're visiting with Pastor Chad Roberts. We're talking about the book Blind Faith: Seeing God Through the Darkness. So many powerful lessons that you can learn. It's just been one great quote after another. If I was trying to take notes, I would just be writing furiously as many of the lines that you have thrown out, Pastor Chad, and I'm so grateful that we've been able to spend this time together.

We do have a couple minutes left, but I want to tell people how they can get a copy of the book. You can order it by giving us a call: 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Or visit our website swrc.com. The book again is called Blind Faith: Seeing God Through the Darkness by Pastor Chad Roberts.

I promised on the previous program that we would return to Paul's suffering and how that he could have an eternal perspective on his suffering. Let's elaborate on that a little bit more. How did the Apostle Paul maintain an eternal perspective that kept him focused through ministry, through the hardships that he endured? How can we have that same attitude today?

Chad Roberts: Paul taught us that our afflictions, when you compare them to eternity, they're light and they're momentary. It makes me think of First Peter 4:19, where Peter tells suffering Christians: "Let those who suffer according to the will of God..." I mean, how do you know if you're suffering according to God's will? Because there's a great deal of suffering that comes from sin and consequences from sinful choices.

Peter makes that distinction. But he says: How do you know you're suffering according to God's will? When we've entrusted our soul to a faithful creator. I've learned that when there's nothing I can do to change my circumstance, there's nothing, it's beyond, it's out of my control, that's when I'm suffering in God's will.

Then he said, the end of that verse: "...continue to do good." That's what Paul did. He never stopped in his sufferings. He suffered incredibly and it's chronicled in the Bible, but he never stopped. Why? Because he had an eternal view, an eternal perspective, and that's what Christians today, we need that same perspective and the Bible gives it to us.

Josh Davis: We just have about a minute or so left, and I just want you to be able to speak to our audience. Any message that you have on your heart that you would like to leave with our audience?

Chad Roberts: I would encourage believers always choose joy. Understand that joy is not a feeling, it's not an emotion, it's a choice. I would have vivid dreams when I first went blind. I would wake up from a vivid dream to pitch blackness, but I would sit on the edge of my bed and I would say, "This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice, I will be glad in it." And as I chose joy, the more I chose it, the more fruit the Holy Spirit increased and gave me. He'll do that for you as well.

Josh Davis: Pastor Chad Roberts, thank you so much for joining us for these two days of programming. Friends, I know this has been a blessing to you. It's been an encouragement to me. If you want to get a copy of the book, it's called Blind Faith: Seeing God Through Darkness. Again, you can order it by giving us a call: 1-800-652-1144. Or visit swrc.com. Pastor Chad, again, thank you so much for your time.

Southwest Radio Ministries: We are featuring Chad Roberts' brand new book Blind Faith in our resource spotlight today. In Blind Faith, Chad invites readers into a deeply personal and profoundly biblical journey through pain, loss, and an unwavering trust in God. At just 38 years old, Chad faced the rapid loss of his eyesight, an unexpected descent into physical darkness that mirrored the spiritual struggle so many endure.

Yet what emerges from that darkness is not despair, but clarity. With honesty and conviction, Chad explores what it means to suffer well, anchoring every step in the truth of scripture. From the trials of Joseph to the anguish of Job to the ultimate suffering and victory of Jesus Christ, this book connects the reader's pain to God's greater purpose.

Order your copy of Blind Faith today when you call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Or you can order online swrc.com. Blind Faith is more than a personal story. It's a guide for navigating life's darkest seasons with confidence in a God who never leaves and never fails. Whether you're facing loss, uncertainty, or deep disappointment, this book offers a steady reminder: even when life feels dark, God is still good. Blind Faith by Chad Roberts. 1-800-652-1144.

Many of the world's mythology tell of a chaos dragon that was defeated at the founding of the world. Genesis 1 is void of the mention of any such monster. But the Bible is not. Time to explore this chaos with author and Marginal Mysteries host, Micah Van Huss.

There is a consistent pattern across ancient cultures when they describe the beginning of the world. Civilizations separated by geography, language, and time often tell creation stories that begin in a similar way. These accounts typically describe a state of darkness, deep waters, and some form of chaotic or serpentine force that must be subdued before the world becomes ordered and livable.

In Babylonian tradition, the Enuma Elish describes Tiamat, a primordial sea figure associated with chaos, who is defeated by Marduk. In Vedic literature, the Rigveda presents Indra overcoming Vritra, a serpent that restrains the waters. Egyptian texts describe the ongoing conflict between Ra and Apep, a serpent representing disorder. In Canaanite tradition, Baal defeats Yamm and the serpent Lotan. Greek mythology preserves a similar structure in the defeat of Typhon by Zeus.

While these accounts differ in theology and detail, they share a recognizable framework. The world begins in a chaotic condition, often represented by water and a serpent or dragon. Order is then established through a decisive act, usually involving conflict. Whether these similarities reflect shared memory, cultural exchange, or recurring human interpretation, the pattern itself is difficult to ignore.

When the Bible presents the true account of creation, it begins with similar imagery but removes the idea of conflict entirely. Genesis 1 opens with the statement: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." The phrase "without form and void" comes from the Hebrew terms tohu and bohu, which describe a state of desolation or unformed emptiness. The "deep," translated from the Hebrew tehom, refers to the primordial waters.

These elements closely resemble the conditions described in other ancient traditions. However, the key difference is that in Genesis, the deep is not personified. It's not presented as a god, a rival, or an opposing force. Instead of conflict, the biblical account emphasizes divine authority expressed through speech. The next verse states, "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."

Creation proceeds through a series of commands, each one bringing structure and function to the previously unformed world. The waters are divided, boundaries are established, and the environment becomes suitable for life. The distinction is central to understanding the biblical perspective. Where other traditions describe a struggle between competing forces, Genesis presents a single, sovereign Creator who brings order without resistance. The deep does not oppose him; it responds to his command.

Later passages in scripture introduce language that is more consistent with the imagery found in ancient mythologies. Psalm 74, for example, states: "Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces." Here the text refers to "dragons" and "leviathan," a figure often associated with a sea serpent.

This raises the question of whether the Bible acknowledges the same type of chaos monster found in other traditions. The answer appears to be yes, but with an important qualification. In scripture, these figures are never presented as equals to God. They are created beings, subject to his authority. In the ancient world, where competing creation stories were common, this distinction would have been clear.

The message is straightforward: the world is not the result of conflict between gods; it is the result of command. The deep is not a threat; it's part of the created order. Chaos does not compete with God; it is defined and limited by him. This is the foundation the rest of scripture builds on, from the Psalms to the Prophets to Revelation.

In the brand new book, Blind Faith, Chad Roberts invites readers into a deeply personal and profoundly biblical journey through pain, loss, and unwavering trust in God. At just 38 years old, Chad faced the rapid loss of his eyesight, an unexpected descent into physical darkness that mirrored the spiritual struggle so many endure. Yet what emerges from that darkness is not despair, but clarity.

With honesty and conviction, Chad explores what it means to suffer well, anchoring every step in the truth of scripture. Order your copy of Blind Faith today when you call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. You can also order online: swrc.com.

Blind Faith is more than a personal story. It's a guide for navigating life's darkest seasons with confidence in a God who never leaves and never fails. Whether you're facing loss, uncertainty, or deep disappointment, this book offers a steady reminder: even when life feels dark, God is still good. Blind Faith. 1-800-652-1144.

Tomorrow, Josh Davis will have the latest headlines from the end times. So be sure to tune in. Watchman on the Wall is a production of Southwest Radio Ministries and is supported by faithful listeners just like you. To learn more, visit swrc.com.