Good Monday morning (11-01-10),

In light of all the years of sermons I’ve heard about faith, I wondered how it was that men such as the father of the Gentile Church, the Apostle Paul, suffered so much pain and lack in his life as he was doing what God had obviously called him to do.

First of all, Paul did suffer immensely. He suffered while he was obediently living out his Christian life.

In one place, a letter to the Corinthians, the obedient Paul wrote that as he was serving Jesus, he had suffered through many beatings, labors, and shipwrecks. This man and his ministry teams was often in perils among false prophets. Their lives were on the line as they endured much weariness and painful watchings. Hunger and thirst, as well as cold and even exposure was commonplace.

This is a far cry from the acceptable norm for almost all Christians I know of today, at least in Western civilization.

The book of 1^st Peter records this interesting passage, “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.”

So, Jesus did suffer for us, and most of us know that right well. But He also apparently intended that we too should participate in at least some level of opposition for the Gospel as we walk out our lives and ministries here on the earth.

Paul wrote to the Galatians that he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus; apparently he was referring to the hardships that he and his ministry teams faced as they forged ahead with the Gospel message.

I’ve thought about what marks, if any, we bear in our bodies for the sake of the Gospel. This caused me to remember a recent letter I read. This person was called all kinds of names and was being, shall we say, disrespected in a very vulgar and personal way because they were a Christian.

The old way of thinking goes like this, “Call the creep out into the streets and knock their lights out,” or even worse, “I’ll get even by sneaking around and…!”

But this person who was suffering for being a Christian, and only for being a Christian, chose to do it God’s way. They wrote a letter back and asked for forgiveness for whatever they had done to offend this person, and then they moved on with their life, even though the persecution continued and continues to this day.

This person whom I’m speaking about could also very well be you, and probably has been in some way or another in the past. However, don’t lose heart. Because you’ve chosen to follow the pattern set by Jesus, the emotional scar you possess will be a mark of honor in that day when Jesus will reveal His nail scarred hands as a testimony to all. Then with joy and honor our scars will also be revealed, scars which are the result of our suffering for the cause of Christ.

If the Church is to advance in the earth, we must not be afraid to suffer for Christ. Our promised full anointing will only come as we pay this price of obedience. This obedience at times will hurt. We will be scarred.

Sometimes I might seek to avoid the afflictions of the Cross. Instead I might seek the world’s acceptance by absorbing its foreign ways and ideas, but then I wonder how long before I become untrue to Christ and lose my own identity and authority among other believers?

Accepting relativism and political correctness at first may mean that we’re tolerated by the majority, but in the end, we lose moral authority, plus our message is diluted to the level of every other world philosophy and religion.

We only have a blip of time before we’re absorbed into our future eternity. The Bible recommends that we make full use of this time, and if by so doing we receive scars for our efforts, so much the better. This is a testimony which will endure forever.

Wayne Witcher