Why we Should Suffer- Part 2

Now, we have lived, in our formers lives, submitting to the desires of the flesh, and from this we reaped “lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.” – Now read the above sentence again and let in sink in for a minute…. Do you see the rewards of following the flesh? Is this the life we should be living, a life of unending partying and clubbing, a life of orgies and sexual immorality, a life of greed, envy and strife? Is it? Of course no, no way! That WAS our former way for life, but now we have a new one- a Kingdom life, a life so different from what the world expects or regards as normal such that the world will be “surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.” Now, when the abuse is heaped on us, then then we will feel the suffering I am speaking of here. Hehehe… I think we are now beginning to see why the apostle Paul said we should rejoice when we participate in the suffering of Christ. For more than sharing in the glory of Christ, we now know that we should accept this suffering, and this should make it easier… ok, more bearable.
“But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” Now there is a scary statement! Judgment is not a fable, it is real and it is coming. We will all have our day to answer for the type and kind of lives we have led, and each will be judged according to what he knows. So if you are reading this, you now know the truth, so there, your excuse of ignorance is out the window! The living God will ask us to account for all, each and everything, so if we do not have a good excuse, which I believe there is none, I suggest we quit pleasing this world and live the new life Jesus died to give us! About this, I will be blunt and say no more.

For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. There are many reasons, I believe the gospel is preached, and here we are told one of them. Now if you read my previous blog, I ended with a deep conviction on whether we decide to choose life or death because judgment is coming. Now in the same vein I will continue. While the judgment of God, the fear-worthy judgment of God is coming, we are already facing a much less but quite sorrowful judgment here on earth. This judgment is according to human standards and though I somehow feel inclined not to label it sorrowful, I will maintain that it is so in the sense that it is us human beings who judge each other and to me that is pathetic- maybe then I should label it a pathetic judgment- which is also guaranteed! People will judge you when we are not like them: they will call you pretender and a hypocrite if you decide to go to church on New Year’s Eve instead of going to the club like you used to; they will laugh at you and call you weak and a failure when you decide to quit smoking, drinking, fornication and clubbing; they will hate you because you do not gossip and use perverted language with them anymore; they will call you old and boring because your choice in movies, and music is no longer bordering on X-rated; I mean the world will judge you for just about anything that is not “normal” to them- by human standards. But remember, that we “live according to God in regard to the spirit.”- and this is why we live a different lifestyle. The lifestyle of the one, who lives for Christ, should be seen! Do not think salvation is a onetime process and once you receive it, it’s a done deal. No. Salvation, though free, needs to be worked at to be maintained. Paul in his letter to the Philippians urges them to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. So as we live, no, as we choose to live according to God, we are working out the salvation we received, because choosing this life, like we have previously seen, comes with a lot of suffering in this world. But is eternal life, joy and the glory of God so small a trifle in our esteem, as not to be worth a few fleshly sacrifices? Is eternal life so steep a purchase, as not to deserve the temporary renunciation of a few worldly pleasures? Surely it is.

The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Lastly, Peter exhorts us to pray after a warning about the end of things. Now let us take the statement “The end of all things” verbatim. Read it again. “All things”! not some things, not earthly things, not bad things, but “all things”. People, everything is coming to an end, things we see and do not see; things we have and long to have; things we love and those we hate; all things are going to perish. I believe this might be the reason Jesus said that we should not store things on earth, but in heaven. So when Peter tells us to have an alert and sober mind, it denotes that there is a possibility of losing focus and being confused by the things of this world, in this world, which will wash away anyway. You see, it is easy for us to become so wrapped up in our day to day activities and the material things in the world hoping that they will give us what we need in life. We get absorbed by our jobs, our families, our material possessions, our lax and worldly lifestyle that we are bound to forget that all these things will be gone one day and all we will have left will be the last account that we will give to God of what we did on this earth, to glorify Him- yes we were created for that reason. Friends, what will you tell God? How will you tell him that you chose the world and rejected him, yet all He had for you was love? Think on that, people. Think!

So as Peter lastly exhorts us, let us pray…

Let us pray that when we suffer in this world, we are always mindful of the sufferings of Jesus Christ and like him the spirit of the Lord will always grow in us the attitude to persevere the judgment of the world. Let us pray that we continue against all odds, to work out our salvation and live a life according to the will of God our father who created us to glorify his name among the people so that people may believe. Let us lastly pray, that we always consciously choose life, and the treasures of heaven and that we always keep a sober and watchful mind, a mind full of prayer, and a heart full of the word of God. In Jesus’ name.

Amen.

Why we should suffer- Part 1

“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because those who have suffered in their bodies are done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. 5But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 1 Peter 4: 1-7

I read this scripture last night and it got me thinking a lot about my life, the decisions I have made and why I am at this stage of my life. I read it the second time, and it hit me-most of the things that I have set my mind on in the past, have ended up eventually manifesting in my life, and this is the reason I am where I am today. All the good things I have thought about and cultivated in my life have produced good fruit and all the bad things have equally produced dead fruit. Then I read the scripture the third time, and I saw just how much truth and revelation was embedded therein; so I asked the Lord to give me words of wisdom and the grace so that I can share with you the truth that has just been revealed to me in the hopeful attempt that these words, in the least bit, just might be the turning point in someone’s life, just as they have been in mine. So I will expound on each verse with the wisdom that the Spirit has granted me so that I leave no truth assumed, but plainly understood.

But before I proceed, I am going to take it for granted that all who are reading this have, in the least bit, heard of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that whatever the religion they follow to practice their faith, they believe that there is one true God;

I am also going to take for it granted further that you believe that the word of God, which is the Bible, was written by the inspiration of the Spirit and is the eternal truth;

And lastly, I further take it for granted that you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the messiah and the savior of all mankind.

“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body” We all know, or should I say, we assume we know how our Lord Jesus suffered. The Bible says that he was tempted by the devil, arrested by his own people, called a thief, carried a heavy cross, whipped, insulted, spat on, crowned with thorns, crucified, speared, and many other dreadful things. However, Jesus knew that he was meant to suffer. Consider though, that all of Jesus’ sufferings were to his body. It was his body, his human body, to which all the above things were done. The human body that our lord inhabited, brought him tremendous suffering why? Because the body’s characteristic desire is to make man want to do, say, hear, and think things that are of the world, things that are against the will of God, and when we do not follow these desires, these ways of the flesh (read the world) we suffer, or more accurately, our body suffers. So Jesus did not obey his human desires. He did not obey the devil who was telling him to turn stones to bread or throw himself down; he did not choose his family over the rest of the people; he did not prove or boast that he was Messiah even when he was slapped and spat on; he did not even turn away from death yet he feared that the burden was too heavy to carry.

So how do we, as followers of Christ, suffer today? When our body is too tired and lazy to go to church and we force it to- it suffers; when our bodies covet another woman’s husband, or desire to have sex outside marriage, and we ran from it- it suffers; when our bodies desire to imbibe that glass of whisky, that cold Bell, that extra piece of black-forest cake, and we say no- it suffers; when we hold back on indulging in gossip, insulting that irritating taxi conductor, taking that bribe, lying to our friends, hating people, back-biting and being spiteful of our boss, jealousy, selfishness- all things that come naturally to our human body- the body suffers. Now the suffering I am speaking of here is not the I-need-more-money, i-long-for-a-husband, i-am-losing-my-house etc type kind of suffering. Not that that is not suffering, it is, but the type I am referring to here is the suffering we face because we deny our bodies the things it craves when we choose to follow the will of God.

Now to some of us, suffering is many things and happens in various ways. Not to belittle anybody’s kind of suffering, but I think whenever we are having a tough time, fighting off the temptations and issues of this world, it would help us a long way to remember Jesus’ suffering which was way, way more painful than what we go through, but most of all, it would help us to remember how he came out victorious at the end of it all. The important thing though, is to learn how Jesus persevered through his suffering. This was by having a different attitude, which Peter exhorts us to carry below:

“arm yourselves also with the same attitude”, Now the attitude being spoken of here is the attitude Jesus had when he was suffering. Throughout the times Jesus was suffering, he always, rested on the word of God, he always did what the will of God commanded that he should do, but I also think he wore humility above all else. When Jesus was tempted by the devil, he quoted the word of God, when Jesus was afraid of death, he prayed; when Jesus was insulted, mocked, speared and crucified, he forgave his condemners sins. Imagine that! Even as I write this, I am so totally humbled; and cringe at the thought of the complaining and grumbling I do mbu when I am suffering! We have not known suffering; none such as the one Jesus went through yet can you imagine how much we exhibit weakness, protest, misery and a complaining attitude because we want to have things our way? So, when the scripture says that we should have a similar attitude, this means that all the while we are suffering, (denying our fleshly desires) we should arm ourselves with the Word, wear humility and generally have a Christ-like attitude. Note that, suffering is not optional. The Bible says in many instances that we shall suffer, and should share in the sufferings of Christ so that we shall share in his glory as well. There is hope however, at the end of all this- “because those who have suffered in their bodies are done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.” Can you imagine what is like to be done with Sin? When sin, the devil and all his legions have no hold on you, and you are living a life, a life so high above the kind and type of this world, free from fleshly desires and all? Now that is living the Life! This is a promise, a promise written in black and white, that we can take to the Bank, as it were. The apostle Peter is telling us the rewards of suffering which is the great reward of freedom, and living the ultimate kingdom Life- a life that we as believers in Christ are born to live. Succumbing to the desires of the flesh is the worldly way of living, and since the evil one is the king of this world, do I really need to spell it out whom we will have chosen to serve if we choose to follow our bodily desires?

“For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.” This is so straight forward and obvious that I think I should not comment on it at all lest I water it down. I mean, we all know the kind of lives we lived before we received salvation. But I think I should comment on the use of the word “choose”. This word clearly denotes the presence of option. This means that, we do consciously decide to do the things that we do. So when suffering comes, the action we take at that moment, will either give us the kingdom life, or lead us to the grave, yes the grave- because the reward for sin is death! I guess I should remind you or probably press on you here that when I say suffering I am not merely speaking of emotional distress and/ or physical pain - I am speaking of all sorts of suffering that we as followers of Christ undergo when we choose, there is that word again, not to follow the ways of this world; even though emotional and physical pain are most usually the consequences of choosing the worldly life. In other words, what I am saying here is that, when we follow Christ, we are guaranteed to suffer- yes I think this comes out more clearly. We will suffer; and there are no two ways about it.

I do want you to digest all the above so I will stop here in an attempt to let you take this all in. However, if I should have one more thing to say it will be this- as long as we are alive in this world, life will always, always throw us a curve ball, and this is not the worst thing that can happen. There will always be times when this body we inhabit will try to get its way to make us obey it. When we choose to continuously follow these desires of the world and permanently kill the spirit of God that lives in us- then the worst thing has happened, for then we will die! And no matter how God loves us, and He loves all of us, we will not, even with this intense love, survive his wrath and the end of days if we “choose” not to obey his commands. As Mr. Dollar once said, if you do not obey His word, God loves you enough to lead you to the path of hell and even open the gates for you, while loving you all the way, because love is His nature. However, only you, you, you, can make the decision right now, to choose life, or death!

May the Lord watch and keep you always.

Break me, O' Lord

I fear to admit that I believe that I am self- righteous….. There it’s out!

…and I know it, seems like I have always known it. What is harder though is that I know people like me, are on the road to perdition. So now I have decided to take on the fight and bout this out. In total submission , I refuse to nourish this attitude any further and am beginning the battle to change, and consciously choose humility.

This attitude can creep up on you. I know that I do not choose to be like this, but I have come to the realization that sometimes, pride takes over, even for a tiny space of time, in my daily relations with people. Sometimes we boast of having a great memory; material possessions like cars, houses; physical attributes like great abs, beautiful hands; giving the needy money so that others can see; praying longer and louder than the rest; even that we believe more in God than others do… it does creep on you, I said.

Matt 6:1: "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them." When the Lord says, “Be careful,” he signals just how tempting it is to take earthly credit and boast about what one has done.

Admitting that we have these feelings, I have realized, is the key to gradually getting rid of them. Well you do not have to publicly do it, like I just have, but in the least bit, there has to be some sort of admission because by nature, as humans, we are inherently smug and self-righteous, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes...” So in my own self- righteousness I sometimes boast of my knowledge, my talents, my experiences, my continence, my abilities and my accomplishments, All of these, if we come to think of it, are credited to me by God. So how dare I, how dare I!

The degree of self-righteousness will vary from person to person, but all in all, I have realized that this self- righteousness is more deeply ingrained in me, first as a human and then as me, than I thought was so.

I have figured, that for me, the key is recognizing when such an attitude presents itself and consciously remembering to willfully curse it out, to nip it in the bud, as it were, and choose not to continue in its tenor.

Let us remember that it is the praise from our Creator that counts, not the praise from other people and strive not to be like the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14.

If there are any like me out there, I exhort you, please join me and let us battle the evil nature so that we can be victors of our accursed human nature.