Suffering (7) and Redemption

Another important aspect of Christ's suffering is its redemptive effect. Our suffering as Christians helps sanctify us, because God is leading us towards a Christ-like life through our suffering. Peter makes this clear in 1 Peter 4:1,

Arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.

God is a holy God, and we are to be holy like him. God makes us holy through suffering.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast(1 Pet 5:10).

God is used their troubles to make them pure like refined gold, which has been tested by the refiners fire (1 Pet 1:7).

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Pet 1:6,7).

God allows sufferings to test and refine our faith, so that our lives may bring praise and glory to him. Suffering breaks the bonds that hold men in the futility of sin and all its consequences.

Tags: Suffering, Redemption,

Suffering (6) and Rejoicing

Christ’s suffering gives those who suffer a reason to rejoice. They are sharing in the glory of Jesus, so Peter urges them to rejoice.

But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. (1 Pet 4:13).

Peter commends the Asian Christians for rejoicing in their troubles (1 Pet 1:6). For him, it is a great privilege to be a Christian. They have been "born anew" (1 Pet 1:7) and have been given a great new life that is "guarded through faith" (1 Pet 1:5)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you,(1 Pet 1:3,4).

We have this wonderful privilege, so we can rejoice even in suffering. We are chosen by God, and nothing can take away the joy that this knowledge brings. Even suffering is a cause for rejoicing because it purges and strengthens our character, unites us with Christ, and is a prelude to the glorious recompense of the last day . God's love and power is a guarantee of our hope, so we can rejoice with confidence.

Tags: Suffering, Joy, Rejoice

Suffering (5) Path to Glory

An important aspect of Jesus sufferings is that they were the pathway to his glory. Peter continually links the suffering of Jesus with his glory (1 Pet 1:11; 1:21; 4:13; 5:1). The prophets who foretold his suffering, also foretold his glory (1 Pet 1:11). After Jesus suffered by “being put to death in the flesh”, he was raised into heaven, "and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him" (1 Pet 3:18, 22). He received his glory through suffering.

Just like Jesus, we also will receive glory through suffering. Peter says,

If you pre reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you (1 Pet 4:14).

This amazing promise suggests that most glory seekers are looking in the wrong place. Those who partake in Christ's sufferings are the ones who share in his glory. This glory will be fully revealed in the future, but is partly upon them now.
Suffering and glory cannot be separated. JH Burtness says,

It is a fundamental fact of New Testament faith that resurrection comes only after death, that Easter comes after Good Friday, that renewal comes only through suffering. The church has perhaps not so often been true to itself and to its Lord. But at those times and at those places where it has followed him, it has also shared in his suffering, and in that suffering it has discovered the joy of renewal.

Christians cannot bypass the cross. Only when we are united with Christ in his sufferings, can we share with him in the fullness of his glory.

Tags: JH Burtness, Suffering, Peter, Glory

Suffering (4) is God's Will

The fact that Jesus suffered implies that, suffering is God’s will for those whom he loves (1 Pet 3:17; 4:19). It may be inflicted by a pagan people, and even be the work of the devil, but it is still part of the divine purpose and plan. This is not easy to accept, but the reason has been well expressed by John Ferguson.

In God’s mysterious providence suffering is a fact of life in the world, which is incomplete because it is not given over in full obedience to God as king. The love of God reaches out to heal such suffering. God’s way is not to meet violence and sin with violence and sin, but with suffering and love. God brings in his kingdom, not as a conquering: commander, but as the suffering servant. He turns alienation to atonement by suffering. Sin seeks to conquer love by inflicting suffering; love conquers sin by accenting the suffering (John Ferguson, The Place of Suffering, p.95).

Christians are part of the divine plan for the redemption of the world. As part of that plan, we can expect suffering as part of his will for us.

This suggests that Christians like me who live in comfort in the West are missing something of his redemption plan.

Tags: First Peter, Suffering, Gods Will, John Ferguson

Phc (4)

David Irving has been convicted in Austria for the crime of "holocaust denial". I am not impressed with Irving's approach to history, but I am even more amazed that several European nations have laws against holocaust denial. This is a misguided use of the law. Law can place a restraint on evil, but it cannot make people good and it cannot change the way people think. Laws cannot change people's opinions, so it is foolish to use it for this purpose.

As usual, these governments do not practice what they preach. During the 1920s and 1930s, when million of people were dying in Soviet Russia, European governments turned a blind eye. They also ignored the millions of deaths that occurred in China during the 1950s. The massacre of millions Armenian during the World War 1 is rapidly being forgotten, because it is politically convenient.

European governments are very selective about the holocausts that they remember. They deny their existence when it suits them.

Tags: Holocaust Denial, David Irving, Politi-hypocrisy

Phc (3)

The British parliament has passed a law against the Glorification of Terror, even though no one is sure what this means.

The greatest irony is that the British government will continue to glorify war. Governments glorify war so they can get young people throw their lives away on causes that they do not care about. Very few people would be willing to die for the miserly wages payed by the army.

The British government is currently telling British troops in Iraq, that they are re-building civilization. This is not a cause that most young people would normally be willing to die for (the politicians never die), so they are being offered glory instead.

Most of the terror in the world has been caused by war and not by terrorists.

The people of Dresden experienced terrible terror, when the bombs dropped by British bomber Command caused large firestorms. Thousands of civilians died a horrible death. Yet the British government will continue to celebrate the exploits of Bomber Command.

Closer to home, when Australian, New Zealand and British forces invaded Turkey without provocation, many Turks must have experienced terror. Yet we continue to glorify the attack.

We should not glorify terrorism, but neither should we glorify war.

Tags: Politi-hypocrisy, War, Iraq

Phc (2)

The British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has called on the Iraqi parliament to appoint a broad spectrum government that includes all groups in Iraqi society.

The United Kingdom has a first past the post system that gives all power to the winning party. Those who support losing parties are not represented in the government. Why is Jack Straw not urging Tony Blair to include some tories as ministers in his government? I presume because he thinks that his party has the right to govern the United Kingdom.

It is all about holding onto power. Jack Straw would not share his power with the tories, but he expects Sunni and Shia Moslems to share power with each other.

The events of the last to days suggest that the Sunni and Shia have a similar view of power as Jack Straw. So he is is talking to the wind.

Tags: Jack Straw, Politi-hypocrisy

Phc (1) Politi-hypocrisy

As I listen to the statements of politicians and observe their actions, I feel the need for a new word. How about politi-hypocrisy?

There are many hypocrites in the world and will are all hypocrites to a degree. Because politicians love telling other people what to do, they seem to take hypocrisy to a higher level.

I will give some examples over the next few days.

Tags: Politi-hypocrisy

Suffering (3) follows Obedience

An authentic Christian lifestyle should produce suffering. Peter identifies the Christian life with a life of love that does not return evil for evil, but meets wrong with right , abuse with blessing, and unjust power with suffering (1 Pet 2:22, 3:8,9).

Peter expects that any Christian who lives in this spirit will receive suffering, because they are alienated from those who hold power in the world. A lifestyle of unconditional love in a sinful and hard world, can only lead to suffering. Yet this is the life to which we are called. In a hostile world, steadfast loyalty to Christ will lead to trials and trouble.

Life is a battleground where the forces of good and evil meet, so those who take Christ’s side must expect to be attacked by the forces of evil. Our struggle is against the devil, so a life of love, makes us vulnerable to his attack . For Peter, suffering is an inevitable consequence of a godly life.

Tags: Suffering, Peter, Christian Lifestyle

Suffering (2) is Normal

TThe first implication of Christ’s suffering is that those who follow him will also suffer. This may come as a surprise to those who think that Jesus came to rescue us. They think that his sufferings will relieve our suffering. Many Christians believer that Jesus suffered for us so that we will not have to suffer. This is not the view of Peter. The hard message of his epistle is that since Christ suffered, his followers should also suffer. Jesus was sinless and yet he was hated and mistreated. Those who follow him cannot expect exemption from similar treatment .

To be a Christian is to follow Christ. Anyone who follows in his footsteps and lives the same kind of life, is also bound to suffer.

To this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (1 Pet 2:21).

Suffering in not just a vague possibility, but something which Christians should be ready to meet. Therefore, we should not he surprised when suffering comes upon us.

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you (1 Pet 4:12).

Jesus made this very clear to the disciples. He repeatedly warned that discipleship involves suffering. Everyone who would follow him must take up the cross (Mk 2:34). He promised them that they must drink the same cup of suffering as he drank, and be baptised with the same baptism of fire (Mk 10:35-45). Jesus’ gospel did not promise a soft cosy life, but was a call to a life of hardship, suffering and humiliation, just like his own. So when suffering comes, we should not be surprised.

Tags: Peter, Suffering

Suffering (1) in First Peter

Suffering is a major theme in Peter's first Epistle. FL Cross says,

Peter used the word 'suffer', in relation to the sufferings of Christ and those which Christians have to bear, as a sort of Ariadne thread for the whole work (1 Peter: a Paschal Liturgy, p14).

The Greek verb ‘suffer’ occurs twelve times in the epistle, as opposed to sixteen times in the rest of the New Testament epistles. Similarly, the noun “suffering” is used four times in Peter, and only ten times in the other New Testament epistles.

Peter is immensely interested in the nature of suffering. It should be noted though, that he is not here interested in general human suffering. His central concern is with those who suffer for the cause of God. The reason they suffer is their loyalty to God. Peter addresses himself to those who suffer as Christians.

The starting point for Peter is the suffering of Christ. Although Jesus was innocent, he suffered a cruel death on the cross. The prophets of the Old Testament, moved by the Spirit, predicted his sufferings (1 Pet 1:10, 11). Peter, more than any other New Testament writer, links Jesus with the suffering servant of Isaiah (1 Pet 2:22-25).

Suffering is the consequence and the only cure for sin. It had to be faced, if God was to intervene in the world to save men. Suffering had to be borne by the righteous for the unrighteous (1 Pet 3:18). Jesus bore our sins in his body on the cross that we might be freed from our sin (1 Pet 2:14).

God loves the lost world, and wanted to redeem it, Jso esus had to suffer humiliation and the agony of cross. He is the Passover lamb, who shed innocent and precious blood (1 Pet 1:19). For Peter the sufferings of Jesus are the basis of an understanding of human suffering.

Peter elaborates a number of implications that the suffering of Christ have for Christians who suffer. I will cover these in several posts.

Tags: Suffering, Peter

ToTD (11) Clever People

God wants to speak to the clever people
who lead and shape the nation.
He has a bone to pick with each of you.

You have rejected God,
You say that you don’t need him.
That’s fine for you
but you have led the people astray.
You have told them that trust in God
is only for primitive people.
You say “We are wiser now
and do not need the old ideas”
and they have believed you
and forgotten God

You have said,
Listen to us
We have clever plans and policies
to bring prosperity and plenty to New Zealand.
Do not worry about the future,
because we know what needs to be done
to make life better.
You have taught the people a lie,
because the Lord your God is the one
who gives peace and plenty.

Just when you think that
you have everything under control
and the trouble has passed
an economic shaking will hit.
You will not have predicted it,
so you will be totally surprised.
You will be powerless to prevent it,
and your solutions will make things worse.
Your human plans and clever policies
will be exposed as lies and failures.
But you still will not acknowledge your need
for God’s wisdom and help.

This full series can be found at Two Davids.

Technorati Tags: Clever People Shaking

ToTD (10) Cultural War

We are in the middle of a cultural war,
but most people do not realise what is happening.

The Great Unwashed just get on with life
working to “earn a buck”
and trying to have a good time.
They do not think
or care about the great issues of life.
They just follow wherever they are led by the cultural elite
that controls the media and shapes the nation.
The real struggle is between the cultural elite,
the clever people and the church.

At the moment the church is struggling.
It should be challenging the secular elite
and shaping the culture,
but instead its members are being sucked out
by the prevailing hostile culture.
The church is in danger of being swamped
but the world around it.
The clever people are winning the cultural war.

That economic shaking will have limited impact on most people
They will cut back on some luxuries
and grumble,
and go back to their struggle for the good life,
but they will not be changed,
because the church is not prepared
to reach them.
As the Church has been sucked into the world system,
it will be shaken by the economic troubles,
just like the world,
with which it has compromised.

God only needed a few dozen groups of ten people
totally committed to him and to each other
who are ready for the times and who know what to do,
to change the nations,
but even they are not ready.

God’s purpose in the shaking
is to even up the struggle
by cutting the cultural elite back to size.

Technorati Tags: Cultural Clash Church

Good and Evil Terror

The world powers are engaged in an all-out battle against terrorism. Terrorists are hated and feared, because they use terror to achieve their political goals. Suicide bombers attacking railway stations and restaurants to strike terror among ordinary people is evil.

However, when the United States bombed Iraq with "Shock and Awe", many Iraqi civilians were also filled with terror. When Israeli helicopter gunships launch rockets at houses or cars on the West Bank, little children experience terror. When daisy-cutter bombs were dropped on Afghanistan, many civilians experienced terrible terror. These are all "good" terror, because they are advancing democracy.

The little people must not use terror as a weapon, because they are "evil",
but the bigger people can use terror as a weapon, because they are "good".

When it comes to terror, the categories of good and evil are strangely confused.

Surely, everyone using terror is terrorist,
whether they are flying a B1 Bomber or riding a bus.

Tags: Terrorism, Evil

ToTD (9) At the Dentist

A man is sitting an examination on a topic he knows well.
Suddenly the time came to hand in the completed paper,
but he had two questions that he had not answered,
even though he knew the answers.
Someone had written answers for him,
but they were wrong.
He had to hand in the answers as they were,
even though he knew them to be wrong,
because he had run out of time.

He will know what to do when the economy is shaken,
but he will not be able to do it
because he is too late.
He will do the wrong thing
because he got the timing wrong.

ToTD (8) Ratchet Down

The housing bubble will run out of steam
and eventually burst.
House prices will fall.
However, the end of the housing boom
should not cause serious problems,
because people will still have houses to live in
and they will still like them,
even if they have paid too much for them.
They will still be able to make the payments
even if interest rates rise.
The end of the housing bubble
will only be a problem
if people lose their jobs
and cannot make their payments.
It will then have a ratchet effect
tightening the pressure caused by other problems.

If our dollar weakens,
the Uridashi and the Belgium dentists
will lose interest in New Zealand.
Interest rates will have to remain high
to bring in the money
to fund the mortgages on houses.

As consumption declines,
unemployment will increase.
None of these are very serious in themselves,
but they will ratchet each other down.

Technorati Tags: Housing Boom Interest

Two is Worse than One

Elizabeth Warren, writing in Harvard magazine, shows that the median American family had only one wage earner in the early 1970s, who earned $41,670, in today's money. Out of this, he or she paid the family's regular, more or less fixed, expenses: taxes, mortgage payments, health insurance, car and gas payments, etc. Typically, these costs rose to 55% of monthly income. This left the family $1,630 to spend on food, clothes, entertainment and so forth.

Now, 30 years later, the median family has two wage earners who, between the two of them, working nearly twice as much as before, earn around $73,770. But fixed costs have risen to 75% of income, leaving only $1,509 in "discretionary" spending.


I hope they like the house.

Technorati Tags: Two Incomes Warren

Israel to Ishmael

Ishmael was Abraham's attempt to fulfil God’s promise using human ways and means. Isaac was the child of promise.

God opened up the way for Jewish people to return to the land of Israel. He promised that when that happened, he would provide their protection. He also promised that he would give them a new heart.

For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws (Ez 36:24,26,27).

There is no doubt the return to the land is a fulfilmet of God's promise, but rather than becoming the people of God, Modern Israel has become a secular socialist state. Instead of depending on God for protection, Israel depends on nuclear weapons and military force. Israel is in danger of becoming an Ishmael.

Technorati Tags: Ishmael Israel

ToTD (7) Grapes of Wrath

In the book Grapes of Wrath
people were totally unprepared for the disaster
they faced.

When the world they knew was shattered,
people were totally unprepared for what happens,
they were tossed around like driftwood in a stormy sea,
they were at the mercy of the strongmen they encounter,
they were powerless before events.

Strong capable men were unable to find employment
and struggled to feed their families.

However, depression is merciful,
It does not kill people,
but wakes us to the realities of life.
In the West,
most of what we lose will be luxuries.
Losing them will not cause much pain.

A woman was staggering around and trying to stand up.
Only when they had to put their arms around her to hold her up,
did someone remember that she is a diabetic,
and ask someone to get something sweet for her to drink.

Christians should be getting prepared to support
those who are staggering under the strain
on the verge of collapse.
We will need to embrace them
and help them to stand.
The better we know them,
the easier it will be to support them.

Technorati Tags: Disaster Shattered

ToTD (6) Complacency

Two young boys were playing beside a lake.
About four metres out from the edge was a small flat island,
an interesting place to play.
The water surface looked smooth,
so the boy decided to wade out to the island.

Their father warned them to be careful,
but the water looked calm,
so they plunged ahead,
but were soon up to their waists in mud.
They managed to struggle on to the island,
but they were shocked and bedraggled.

God’s people are like children.
When warned of danger,
they ignore the warning
and plunge ahead,
because things look okay on the surface.
Only when they are up to their waists in mess,
will they realise that something is wrong.

Because God’s people are unprepared for shaking,
some will be totally shattered and others will be swept away.

Technorati Tags: Economic Shaking Complacency