Don’t be discouraged, but rejoice!

My friends,

I thank you for your concern for Bashabe and myself, and our boys.  But please don’t get discouraged with what we are passing through.  On contrally, we are glad to carry the death and sufferings of our master Jesus Christ in our mortal bodies.

Many are the afflictions of a righteous man, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

One has to realize that the scripture says ” Many are the afflictions..of a righteous man…”  but before he delivers you, you have to have a very good share of afflictions.

Today’s church has much in common with the Corinthian church.  According to Nigerian Pastor Micheal Okwonko, author of “Controlling Wealth God’s Way”..

“Many are ignorant of the fact that God has already made provision for his children to be wealthy here on earth, and to live a problem free life style. when i say wealthy, i mean very, very rich… it is not sin to desire to be wealthy.”

No doubt the Corinthian church would have loved this message.  Corinth was a very wealthy commercial centre.  It attracted fortune seekers from all over the Roman empire.  The city’s emphasis on status, wealth, success, and power spilled into the church.  Many believed that they were already experiencing the eternal blessings promised in scripture.  The gospel was about success, not suffering.

In fact, Paul’s extensive sufferings caused some to doubt that he was truly an apostle.  This explains the reason as to why he focused so much on suffering in the opening verses of his second letter to the Corinthian church.  Most likely, Paul had his own sufferings primarily in view.  To challenge the Corinthian faulty ideas, Paul linked his own suffering with Christ’s suffering (v:5).  Far from disqualifying Paul as an apostle, his sufferings affirmed his unity with Christ.

Given the reality of suffering, 2 Cor 1:3-7 offers three helpful lessons for today’s church.

1. There is no limit to the comfort that God provides. indeed, He is the very source, or father of compasion.
2. God not only comfots us, but enables us to comfort others. Like most things in life, it is difficult to share something with others that we have not already experienced.
3. Suffering is not some random event or streak of bad luck. Instead, suffering is God’s means of producing patient endurance.

The desire to correct the Corinthians errorneous thinking probably explains why Paul continued to focus on his sufferings for a few more verses. 8-11.  Not only had Paul suffered as Christ, but his experience in Roman province of Asia took him to the brink of death.  The “sentence of death” in verse 9 could indicate some type of imprisonment or it could be used figuratively to indicate the severity of Paul’s suffering.  Yet it was precisely at this point that he experienced God’s resurrecting power.

It is no coincidence that Paul’s words here remind us of Jesus’ suffering on the cross and the power of God who raised him.  The status-conscience Corinthians might have equated power with wealth and success. Instead, Paul showed that God’s power was revealed to those who desperately depend upon him.

Christianity today turns this philosophy on its head.  During his time on earth, Jesus challenged his listeners.  He said that to be first, you must belast; to live, you must die.  These paradoxical ideas continued with the Apostle Paul who boasted about suffering and weakness.  He address suffering of believers in his opening words ” praising the God of all comfort..”

His idea of suffering is not one of compalint and of sorrow, but of thankfulness and even boasting.  Paul realized that we suffer for the Lord and that any boasting should reflect our identity in Christ.

But “he who glories, let him glory in the LORD.” For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.  As we mature in Christ, we become less and Christ becomes more. (10:17-18)

Finally, Paul teaches that suffering for the Lord makes us strong. “for when am weak, then am strong”. (12:10)

How is this possible?  How can the weak be strong?

In our infirmities, we lose our focus on the temporary and restore our vision of the eternal.  In suffering, we boast not of our selves, but of God. we become less self focused and more God-focused.

Amen.

Pr. Onesmus

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SUFFERING… WHY???

If God loves me, why do I face problems?

This is one of those questions which plague many of our brothers and sisters in their everyday Christian life. There are those that actually believe that if you suffer hardship then there must be something wrong in your Christian walk. That in some way you have unconfessed sin and that the only way to turn things around is to go to God with your sin and beg forgiveness.However I am here to set the record straight. It is not the sin in our lives which causes us to have hardship. This is the thought of Jobs friends, and indeed they were not really friends at all to the man that lost everything even though he did not sin. Sometimes it seems that we suffer needlessly, but I say that God works all things for good to those that love him. From my own personal experience, I can say that I had a very difficult childhood. I never knew my real father and I was abused by a few stepfathers

Paul suffered more than most believers ever will. But in his sufferings he learned a lesson very few learn:

* That Yahweh’s strength is made perfect in weakness. This implies that human wisdom, wealth, fame, talent and strength generally get in the way of Truth if they are not sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

* That the insignificant believer who realises his/her own smallness and lack of strength can go on to harness the mighty power of God!

Suffering is the lot of all mankind, believers included. They suffer like other people. The difference is that when a true believer suffers he/she has the comforting assurance of faith that suffering has a divine purpose and will one day end. One day we shall all fully understand why God allowed us to suffer. It’s so easy to complain when suffering strikes home and family; but before you begin to complain, think on these verses:

2 Timothy 3:12
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

2 Corinthians 11:22-30 (KJV)
Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.
Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

… to be continued….

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