how much more will your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him Mt7:11 St. Paul in Colossians 1:24 rejoices in his suffering for the believers filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake which is the church. It is evident to St. Paul that sharing in Christ's suffering is a good thing. In basketball there is a saying “no harm, no foul”. All of St. Paul's trials kept him close to the Lord, all his trials brought forth fruit meet for salvation, all his trials could not separate him from the love of God. When I came to Christ and had a divine vision I knew I would share in the suffering of Christ, in fact, it had been a desire of my heart to know something of Christ's pain so that I would know him fully, not only in the pleasant things but in the bleak. Just like St. Paul, not mental illness, not nervous breakdowns, not hunger and thirst, not nakedness or poverty could separate me from the love of God. When Jesus tells his disciples of his impending confrontation with evil, going to the cross, Peter rebukes Jesus saying “not to you Lord” and Jesus says “get behind me satan, thou art an offense to me, thou does not savor the things of God but the things of man Mt16:23 What the world views as repugnant, Jesus views as love and obedience. What the worldly church looks at as antithetical to God, Jesus, St. Paul, and the persecuted church looks at as fellow-shipping with the crucified Savior. If you are a born again, Spirit filled and Spirit led Christian, no evil, no trial, no pain can ever separate you from God. The pain becomes a point of contact with Christ. The suffering brings you into the depths, the heights, the width of Christ's love, to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge (Eph3:14-21) If God is asking something of you that you know may bring hardship and suffering, it is because he wants you to know Jesus better. Jesus learned obedience by the things he suffered and it pleased the Father to bruise him. The bruise ultimately did no harm. Jesus is at the right hand of God right now praying for you and me. He is a resurrected Christ. “no harm, no foul” In this season of lent, don't take the cross out of Christ: fellowship in the suffering of Christ. Let him draw you closer to him and he will draw you closer to the Father. It is the Father's answer to a fallen world. amen |