Suffering for Christ

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Suffering for Christ

Philippians 1:29

November 4, 2024

“For to you it was granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake…”

— Philippians 1:29

In this verse, Paul is saying that suffering for Christ is of grace—it is a gift given unto you, first of all to believe in Christ and secondly to suffer for His sake. I think of one writer who points out that belief brings life, and suffering brings muscles. It is a freely given weight-set given by God to you to develop your spiritual muscles as we suffer for Him.

May I ask you this, have you suffered for Christ’s sake? Now you know a lot of people think that suffering for Christ’s sake is having a headache, or having arthritis or something like that. That’s not suffering for Christ’s sake; everybody suffers that way, Christian, non-Christian, all alike.

Suffering for Christ is very different. Suffering for Christ is something that we endure because of our witness for Christ, and we are called upon to suffer for Him as well as to believe in Him. And we are to rejoice in that, as Jesus told us Himself in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are you when men revile you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be very glad, because great is your reward in heaven…” (Matthew 5:11-12a).

And we grow in faith when we are willing to suffer for Him. If we want to have spiritual muscles, then we need to realize and accept the gift, both of believing in Him and suffering for Him.

Dear Jesus, give me the strength to suffer gladly and patiently for You. Help me not take on a burden You have not asked me to carry. But when the time comes to suffer for Your name’s sake, give me the grace to endure…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE ENDURE EVEN WHEN SUFFERING FOR HIM.

Lessons From Belshazzar’s Fall

November 18, 2024

“Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem…They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of bronze, of iron, of wood, and of stone.” — Daniel 5:3-4 The grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar was the king who held a great pagan feast, using the goblets stolen from the Jewish Temple some decades before. Belshazzar went white when he saw God’s literal handwriting on the wall against him. Now that story of Belshazzar the king and the astounding events of that night of his great feast have lessons which are as fresh today as they were when they were first given: Here is a picture of the foolishness of those who trust in merely the things of this world. How foolish was Belshazzar to trust in the impregnable walls of Babylon—the walls that were so easily breached by diverting the river Euphrates. It reminds us that those who will not study history are doomed to repeat it. Belshazzar had a tremendous lesson from his grandfather of humbling oneself before God. Nonetheless, Belshazzar went on his way to his unexpected destruction. Belshazzar’s sin was not just drunkenness and debauchery, but the super-abounding sin of impiety and blasphemy. Lord, God of history, teach us to heed those who have gone before us and give us the strength to live a godly life in the midst of a blasphemous people. Help us to remember that all who mock Your name and flaunt their sin in Your face will be called to account and that it is Your people who will triumph… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN LIVE AN HONORABLE LIFE.

The Bible and Angels

November 17, 2024

“And He was there in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts. And the angels ministered to Him.” — Mark 1:13 We seem to be living in the time when angels are getting much attention, even in movies or television. One of the most common myths is the idea that an angel was once a human being and now is in the process of earning his wings by returning to earth and doing good things. But an angel never was, and never will be, anything other than an angel. And a human being never was, and never will be, anything other than a human being. They are separate orders of creation. All of the angels were made at once. They did not descend from original parents as we did, but they were all created at the same time and they do not procreate. Angels are far superior to us in almost any way that you can imagine. They are wiser and they are holier—at least those who have kept their first estate and are not fallen angels. The devil and demons are all angels. They are fallen, sinful angels that took part in a rebellion and now are loosed upon this earth, but they are still fallen angels. Angels are also much more powerful than we are. We realize that in the Old Testament we read of one angel who destroyed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. The Bible makes it very plain that you are not to take on the devil in your strength, and only by Christ do we have any possibility of winning any contests that we may have with him. Jesus, King of the Angels, give me strength today to know my place in creation, a little lower than the angels, but crowned with glory and honor. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for having dominion over both Your angels, the ministering spirits who do Your will, and the fallen angels who seek to cause us harm. Thank You for Your angels who do Your will… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN WELCOME THE HELP OF HIS ANGELS.

You Can Trust the Bible

November 16, 2024

“…and Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his eunuchs. The king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.” — 2 Kings 24:12 Higher critics have done their best to destroy trust in the Scriptures. Yet, all of their efforts only confirmed the reliability of the Bible for those willing to look at the facts. For the last 150 years, archeologists have excavated thousands of sites in the Near East, sometimes with great animosity toward the Scripture, attempting to disprove it. Yet virtually every time they turned over their spades, they discovered another confirmation of the Bible. For example, one of the last kings of Judah, Jehoiachin, was taken by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon and thrown into prison, where he and his family languished for 37 years. Then we read that a later king lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison, spoke kindly to him, gave him new clothes, caused him to sit at his table, and he provided him with an allowance for the rest of his days. Well, the critics had a field day with that—no Babylonian king would ever treat anybody so graciously as that. But in the hanging gardens of Babylon, 300 clay tablets have been found. These were written from 595 to 570 B.C., and they list many of the nations that were brought captive into Babylon, including Judah. One of these tablets is called the Jehoiachin tablet. The Jehoiachin tablet confirms exactly what the Bible has said all along. God Almighty, Lord of the kings of the earth, grant me strength today to trust You in all things. Thank You for the reliability of Your Word. Thank You for the trustworthiness of all You say. IN GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN TRUST HIS ETERNAL WORD.