Suffering For The Gospel by Greg Gordon

Excellent word. Thank you!

... “they were sawn asunder” Meditate on this! consider what these prophets of God went through and what still many persecuted saints go through in the world. “were tempted, were slain with the sword” They were murdered for the testimony of God in them! Do you have such a testimony in your heart?

Every time I read those words I think of the awesome suffering they endured. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches. I think often of Steven who was full of the Holy Ghost- not only enduring the suffering- but loving the persecutors to the very end. He was full of God. The evidence of his fulness was His request to God not to lay the sin to their charge- as was our LORD- "Father forgive them..." What greater demonstration of being full of the Spirit than to beg forgiveness for our persecutors as we suffer at their hands?

I agree that much of the modern "gospel" forgets this important aspect of following Christ. In fact, many preachers are saying, "follow Jesus so you can escape suffering." The truth is, "Follow Jesus and He will--very purposely--lead you into suffering." Which is why the true gospel is an offense to the world.
1 Peter is full of this "doctrine of suffering".
Dying to live! The mystery of the cross!
Mike

2Ti 3:12 Yea, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus [b]will be persecuted[/b].
Act 5:41 Then indeed they departed from the presence of the sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were [b]counted worthy to be shamed for His name[/b].

2Th 1:3 We are bound to thank God always for you, my brothers, as it is right, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each one of you abounds toward one another;
2Th 1:4 so much so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God, for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations which you endure.
2Th 1:5 [b]For this is a [u]manifest token[/u][/b] of the righteous judgment of God, [b]that you may be counted worthy[/b] of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer,

I look at myself and I see that I am not armed with such a mind. I imagine the possibilites these suffering can take and I am scared. I know in my heart that this will be of eternal gain to me to be counted worthy to suffer for Christ, but I am afraid. O lord I wish I can be counted among these ...
And this is what I see, that Jesus came to save sinners, people who could not save themselves. He has come to make possible, things that seem impossible to man. In weak vessels He manifests His glory, so that when on HIS day to the martyr He gives a crown, he will return it back saying, "by your grace I stood. Worthy is the Lamb."

Lord save me, I want to be counted worthy to be your disciple, please help me.
And the Lord says, "For this I came. Only believe."

Most of us here do not face martyrdom (yet). Maybe we never will. But, may the Lord help us to be willing to not only give Him our dying, but our living.

This morning I listened to most of John Piper’s message from the 2009 pastor’s conference on the life of George Whitefield. Here is an excerpt that details the life of this man:

The facts about George Whitefield’s preaching as an 18th-century itinerant evangelist are almost unbelievable. Can they really be true? Judging by multiple attestations of his contemporaries—and by the agreement of sympathetic and unsympathetic biographers—they seem to be so.

From his first outdoor sermon on February 17, 1739, at the age of 24 to the coalminers of Kingswood near Bristol, England, until his death 30 years later on September 30, 1770, in Newburyport, Massachusetts (where he is buried), his life was one of almost daily preaching. Sober estimates are that he spoke about 1,000 times every year for 30 years. That included at least 18,000 sermons and 12,000 talks and exhortations

Speaking More Than Sleeping

The daily pace he kept for 30 years meant that many weeks he was speaking more than he was sleeping. Henry Venn, vicar of Huddersfield, who knew Whitefield well, expressed amazement for all us when he wrote,

Who would think it possible that a person . . . should speak in the compass of a single week (and that for years) in general forty hours, and in very many, sixty, and that to thousands; and after this labor, instead of taking any rest, should be offering up prayers and intercessions, with hymns and spiritual songs, as his manner was, in every house to which he was invited.

Make sure you hear that accurately. Many weeks he was actually speaking (not preparing to speak, which he had virtually no time to do) for sixty hours (60, not 16). That’s almost six hours a day, seven days a week, on the slower weeks, and over eight hours a day, seven days a week on the heavier weeks.

Preaching, Preaching, Preaching

I found no references in all of my reading to what we today would call vacations or days off. When he thought he needed recuperation he spoke of an ocean voyage to America. He crossed the Atlantic 13 times in his life—an odd number (not even) because he died and was buried here, not in England. The trips across the Atlantic took 8-10 weeks each. And even though he preached virtually every day on the ship, the pace was different, and he was able to read and write and rest.

But on land, the preaching pace was unremitting. Two years before he died at the age of 55, he wrote in a letter, “I love the open bracing air.” And the following year, he said, “It is good to go into the highways and hedges. Field-preaching, field-preaching forever!” Day after day all his life, he went everywhere preaching, preaching, preaching.

You can watch it
[url=http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByConference/43/3573_I_Will_Not_Be_a_VelvetMouthed_Preacher/]here[/url]

Another benefit of suffering is it changes the way we look at things. Sufferring can also be physical or economic. Loss of a job or a diagnosis of cancer, anything that shatters the status quo. Suffering will either make us or break us. It calls us to consider the direction of our lives and calls us to begin to put God first in all things,

Suffering, especially in the U.S., in the soon coming days for the true Christian who is living for the glory of God, and for the sake of Christ Jesus, is almost a sure bet. No doubt that there will be grades of persecution and ridicule thrown upon those whose testimony during trying times will be nothing more than a strong faith in God and a deep love for Him and for their fellow man; even for those causing much of the suffering. Thank you brother Greg for a timely word.

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, Matt. 5:44.

I found this writing very good and a reminder that we are not here for an easy ride. Our Saviour suffered on a cross, John the Baptist lost his head, the early christians were barbarically slaughtered and their deaths were forms of entertainment to the killers.
People today in other lands are still suffering for the gospel but when we come across a small obstacles like our car wont work we can chose to stay at home and not go and do what we are called to do.
We are to have one coat, one pair of shoes and take no money in our purse. If we have two coats we are suppose to share one of them with somebody who has none. Do we do that? Look at all the material garbage we have filled our lives with and look at the poor and destitute, then look into our own hearts and we will see if we have truly done what Jesus has asked us to do.

BrokenOne wrote:
may the Lord help us to be willing to not only give Him our dying, but our living.

I thought of this article several times since reading it. Though for the time it is hard to comprehend having to die for our faith, having benefitted from the life our faith offers, I am more compelled to look for ways to share it.