"Our values determine our evaluations. If we value comfort more than character, then trials will upset us. If we value the material and physical more than the spiritual, we will not be able to `count it all joy.' If we live only for the present and forget the future, then trials will make us bitter, not better"
(Be Mature, [Wheaton, Ill.: Victor, 1978], p.23 by Warren Wiersbe).
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. James 1:2-4, 12
As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. James 5:10-11
In life, all Christians will go through suffering and pain in varying degrees. As Christians we are urged to be steadfast under trials, tribulations and sufferings and to consider those examples in scriptures like Job, who remained steadfast in faith and triumphed.
In this second sermon from the Book of Job, John Piper urged us to study the Word of God carefully, discover and acknowledge God's Sovereignty over our lives. Our lives are totally in His hands: "man proposes and God disposes". The God of the Bible is good, He is not capricious. God can be trusted, we must put our faith in Him.
As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. James 5:10-11
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Jas 1:12
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. Job 19:25-27
Then Job answered the LORD and said:"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.' I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:1-6
It was Jesus who told his disciples clearly to expect that there will be a cost to their earthy existence if they choose to be His disciples but it will be an opportunity for them to bear witness for Him:
"But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives." Luk 21:12-19
Trained to be Arrested
"Not many graduations include advice on dealing with the police. But that was practical counsel for a group of 29 young people graduating from Gospel for Asia's Karnataka, India, Bible college last December. After three years of intense Bible training, these students were ready to start serving as full-time missionaries.
A GFA district leader spoke at the graduation. Giving an accurate picture of the life ahead, he offered practical ways to carefully work within the culture and dangers likely to be faced. He encouraged the students to stay sober-minded and prepared to go through struggles. Because of the increasing persecution in their state, it is very probable that each new missionary will be confronted by police at some point—possibly even arrested. The speaker outlined how to deal with police in these situations."
"Sixty-six percent of the state's 52 million people speak Kannada; Urdu and Telugu are also widely spoken. The population is 85 percent Hindu, 11 percent Muslim, 2 percent Christian (a decline from almost 3 percent in 1971) and 0.8 percent Jain.
Karnataka is southern India's most spiritually desolate state, claiming only 1.1 million Christians. Many regions of the state are without even one follower of Jesus.
Gospel for Asia in Karnataka: Personal evangelism Church planting Bible schools Ministry to children Primary schools for Dalits Gospel literature distribution Radio broadcasts in Kannada, Urdu, Telugu and Tulu" More, please read it here: Karnataka
"Sitting At The Feet Of A Suffering Saint- I have never been the same since sitting at the feet of Richard Wurmbrand. It was literally at his feet. He took off his shoes and sat in a chair on the slightly raised platform at Grace Baptist Church in south Minneapolis. (I learned later it had to do with damage to his feet during the torture that he had received in a Romanian prison.) Before him -- and below him -- sat about a dozen pastors. He spoke of suffering. Again and again he said that Jesus "chose" suffering. He "chose" it. It did not merely happen to him. He "chose" it. "No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own will" (John 10:18). He asked us if we would choose suffering for the sake of Christ.
Wurmbrand's devotional book, Reaching toward the Heights introduces him like this: Richard Wurmbrand is an evangelical Lutheran pastor of Jewish origin who was born in 1909 in Romania. When the Communists seized his native land in 1945, he became a leader in the underground church. In 1948 he and his wife, Sabina, were arrested, and he served fourteen years in Red Prisons, including three years in solitary confinement in a subterranean cell, never seeing the sun, the stars, or flowers. He saw no one except his guards and torturers. Christian friends in Norway purchased his freedom for $10,000 in 1964." John Piper Chapter 10Suffering- The Sacrifice of Christian Hedonism
There is a great need for resources to be sent to the plentiful harvest in China, the world's most populous nation of 1,330,000,000 souls. Many have not heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they do not have the hope of salvation in the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Lord's privileged call to all followers to join Him in the work of progressive and surely bringing of the Kingdom of God into fruition ?
Our Prayers ? Our Service ? Our Stewardship ?
“Then He said to them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth laborers into His harvest. Go! Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.” Luk 10:2-3
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Rom 10:17)
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 Jn 5:11-12
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news! (Rom 10:13-15)
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Mat 28:18
This is God’s universal purpose for all Christian suffering: more contentment in God and less satisfaction in self and the world.
I have never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of life have come through times of ease and comfort.” But I have heard strong saints say, “Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with him, has come through suffering.”
So suffering clearly is designed by God not only as a way to wean Christians off of self and onto grace, but also as a way to spotlight that grace and make it shine. That is precisely what faith does; it magnifies Christ’s future grace.
The deep things of life in God are discovered in suffering. So it was with Jesus himself. “Although he was a Son, Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).
The pearl of greatest price is the glory of Christ. Thus Paul stresses that in our sufferings the glory of Christ’s all-sufficient grace is magnified. If we rely on him in our calamity, and he sustains our “rejoicing in hope,” then he is shown to be the all-satisfying God of grace and strength that he is. If we hold fast to him “when all around our soul gives way,” then we show that he is more to be desired than all we have lost. Christ said to the suffering apostle, “My grace is sufficient for you, for [my] power is perfected in weakness.”
================================ More scriptural verses .....
"Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. Matt 10:16-26
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Mat 10:32-36
And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Mat 10:37-38
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, (2Ti 3:12)
John Macarthur:
"I am absolutely 100% convinced that the weakness of the church in America, the superficiality of the church, the shallowness of the church, the hypocrisy of the church is directly related to the absence of any cost or any price to be paid to be a Christian. If you don't have to pay a price, heh, just jump on the bandwagon. If persecution came to America, you see a very different kind of Christianity. A whole lot of people who are really good to talk about Jesus won't be talking about Jesus any more. Who profess to know Jesus and to be part of the church, they will stop talking very fast if the price was as high as it is for some people."
Dr. Daniel K. Wong- Professor of Biblical Studies B.S., Swatow University M.Div., Th.M., Talbot School of Theology Ph.D., Dallas Theological Seminary
Dr. Wong has received awards for excellence in thesis writing and in eschatology. His specialties include Johannine literature, parables, and Old Testament prophecy and its use in the New Testament. He has served as pastor of a Chinese church in Los Angeles since 1984, and prior to joining TMC, he was president of Chinese for Christ Theological Seminary. In 2002, 2003-2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007, he was recognized in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. Dr. Wong has published a number of journal articles, periodical articles, and songs. He is currently writing a nineteen volume New Testament Commentary Series with Kregel Publications.
"Our values determine our evaluations. If we value comfort more than character, then trials will upset us. If we value the material and physical more than the spiritual, we will not be able to `count it all joy.' If we live only for the present and forget the future, then trials will make us bitter, not better"
Upon watching the video, I went back to re-read John Piper’s book “Desiring God” Chapter 10 on “Suffering”:
This is God’s universal purpose for all Christian suffering: more contentment in God and less satisfaction in self and the world.
I have never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of life have come through times of ease and comfort.” But I have heard strong saints say, “Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with him, has come through suffering.”
So suffering clearly is designed by God not only as a way to wean Christians off of self and onto grace, but also as a way to spotlight that grace and make it shine. That is precisely what faith does; it magnifies Christ’s future grace.
The deep things of life in God are discovered in suffering. So it was with Jesus himself. “Although he was a Son, Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).
The pearl of greatest price is the glory of Christ. Thus Paul stresses that in our sufferings the glory of Christ’s all-sufficient grace is magnified. If we rely on him in our calamity, and he sustains our “rejoicing in hope,” then he is shown to be the all-satisfying God of grace and strength that he is. If we hold fast to him “when all around our soul gives way,” then we show that he is more to be desired than all we have lost. Christ said to the suffering apostle, “My grace is sufficient for you, for [my] power is perfected in weakness.”