This last Sunday Pastor Craig preached a sermon called “From Death to Life“ (I am a little disappointed I have not seen any increase of traffic to my website because of his sermon). The text he was preaching from was 1 Peter 4:1-6. His main points was ”Arm yourself with the intention to suffer, understanding that it is inevitable. To do so is to make a decisive break with sin, imitating the thinking of Christ“.

He asked and answered several questions in this sermon such as:

What is the way of thinking we are to imitate Christ in regards to suffering?

1. Christ accepted suffering as part of being in the flesh.
2. Christ accepted suffering as the consequence of holiness.
3. Christ accepted suffering as doing the will of God.

He asked another question which was very pragmatic. He asked ”Why does it have to work this way?“ Why do we as Christians have to suffer, why is suffering inevitable for Christians?

Paraphrasing Pastor Craig’s answer (even typing on my computer I am not fast enough to keep up with him), he said ”When holiness touches a fallen world there is a violent reaction, there is push back, there are sparks of friction.” They are polar opposites.

With that answer is it at all surprising when Holiness personified (Jesus) touched the world that people reacted the way they did? Jesus was hated by the world but He was never polluted or stained by it.

So again why do we suffer (stealing from my notes again)?

• We suffer because we choose God’s will and we inherit suffering.
• We suffer because human beings hate holiness unless we embrace holiness

If we have been called (Romans 8:30) and we have chosen to follow God’s will, we will be transformed from the depraved lawless idolaters (1 Peter 4:2) to being holy and blameless, conformed into the image of his son (Colossians 1:22; Romans 8:29). The metaphors that describe this process in the bible is anything but fluffy bunnies, comfort and ease.

God knitted us together in the womb to make us the way he wanted us (Psalm 139:13-14). He once again takes up His tools to reshape and transform us into a holy image of His Son. One of His tools of choice is our suffering. God orchestrates our suffering to transform us as the master potter uses a clay knife and potter’s wheel (Isaiah 64:8) or as a metal smith uses a a refiner’s fire (Malachi 3:2-3) or furnace and files to forge and shape metal. (See Proverbs 17:3; Isaiah 48:10; 1 Peter 1:6-7; Titus 2:14)

God uses suffering to purify us from the world. Unlike Jesus we do get polluted and stained by the world. God needs to scrape, file and burn off the sludge of our sin and worldliness. That process hurts. We were born of the world and have always lived within it. Now God is scraping the worldly and sinful things that we have come to depend upon to replace it with His holiness, grace and love.

As God continues to work on me I am beginning to understand why both Peter and Paul see their suffering as a gift and are able to rejoice in it.

Thank you Lord for letting me suffer through my depression and bringing me from death to life. I pray that you continue to teach us all how to trust you especially in our suffering.

We talk often about the still soft voice of God. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel, for the first time was addressed directly by God. God called Samuel three times and if it wasn’t for his teacher Eli’s discernment Samuel may not have answered (1 Samuel 3:1-10 ESV). The encounter with God was definitely not a meet and greet. God just promised to “do a thing to Israel that will make the ears of anyone who hears about it tingle”. On top of that God told Samuel that he is going to punish Eli’s (his teacher) family forever (1 Samuel 4:10-21 ESV).

I am not sure I could imagine what Samuel was feeling at this time. First Samuel just encountered the Almighty God. Second God declared in direct revelation that something profound was going to happen to Israel. Third, he is struggling with the fact that he needs to tell his teacher everything including the punishment of his family.

Eli, demanded and threaten to curse Samuel if he did not tell everything of his encounter of God. I could picture Samuel bracing himself for some sort of profound reaction of grief or anger or something as Samuel shared everything that God said (1 Samuel 3:11-18 ESV).

A teaching moment has come and Eli’s reaction was anything but predictable to me and I suspect Samuel was surprised and awed by it too. Eli said:

““It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him.”” – (1 Samuel 3:18 ESV)

I have been thinking a lot about this story in the Bible and how it shows Eli’s trust in the sovereignty of God in a time of struggle. One of the struggle that I have is cyclical depression. Living with depression is a taste of Hell that I hope most will never encounter. When I sink into the bowels of depression, self-pity, hopelessness, anger and despair. I strike out towards God and everyone around me. I am angry and frustrated that though I believe in God, he allows me to suffer through these bouts of depression. I am angry because I know that he can cure the depression without effort. He can sanctify me. He can transform me in a second.

And yet God chooses not too. God chooses not to end suffering, mine and others. At first glance (and yes, second, third, fourth, three hundredth glance) that is a hard thing to swallow. Then you encounter texts like in 1 Samuel 3:18 where you see Eli is facing the disappointment in his sons who are dishonoring the priest and more importantly God and facing the inevitable death of not only his family but himself and yet has complete faith in the Lord.

Eli did not have the promises of the New Testament. He did not have the promise of Romans 8:28. Though he had a relationship with God which we will not have on this side of glory.

God will do what is good to Him. Thankfully what is good in His eyes is always good for us in His purposes.

I pray that we all are able to face our lives with the complete trust that Eli had in the Lord.

Toward a more effective definition of “accountability” for men. – 22 Words.