Rising Above Our Pain

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast [our] profession.  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.  Heb. 4:14-16

          Is true Christianity being accurately portrayed in America’s churches today?  The life of a disciple of Jesus Christ is one of joy and one of suffering, that is suffering with joy.  Reading about the Chinese Christians in “Voice of the Martyrs” magazine  one clearly sees that those two elements are prominent in their experiences.  Suffering seems to be something those distant believers embrace rather than spurn.  It is very opposite here in our beloved country.  We have the right to express our faith openly here, but most often are ashamed of it in public.  I was apprehended by a police officer last Spring at a homosexual gathering in downtown Colorado Springs for praying out loud in their midst.  After throwing me down, cuffing me and escorting me to an adjacent location, his “Christian” sergeant interrogated me.  “What was I doing there?”  “Praying,” I answered.  “I could have prayed anywhere else.”  He responded.   “But it seemed the Lord wanted me to pray there, for those people.”  I replied.  If only I had a wife like Sabrina Wurmbrand to challenge me to “play the man,” as she did her husband, Richard, on at least one occasion.  I wonder today if capitulating to his demand to leave was really the right thing to do.  It didn’t seem appropriate to go to jail at the time.  What would happen if my previous criminal record would come to light, as it surely would, and be published in the newspaper for all to see?  Where were the other thousands of Christians that inhabit this great Jerusalem of Christian activity?  Cowering, like me before Satan’s minions.  Without even asking them, their answers loom in my mind.  But the real answer is, “we like our comfort, and don’t want to suffer.”

          So our faithful God has to give us suffering and persecution in other ways, more appropriate to a spiritually lazy and self-oriented Christian community.  Physical ailments, divorce, family breakdown, stress caused by modern, materialistic living cannot be effectively excluded from our contemporary culture, no matter how our prophets dilute the precious Gospel message to us. 

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together.  Rom. 8:17

A true disciple cannot avoid suffering.  How do we face and endure suffering in this life?  How can we rise above our own individual pain and take the focus of our minds away from ourselves, to place it on a glorious and faithful Creator and Sustainer? Is victory really possible in this fallen, depraved and hopeless world?  How we deal with the suffering allotted to us determines the answers to these questions for us.  Do we avoid it at all costs and respond with bitterness toward God and others when it catches up with us?  Or do we find our comfort and relief in the cross when overtaken by it?  The answer to these questions is most important.  We have so many experts in religion today.  They tell us how to find meaning and purpose in our lives, how to love our families and be wise stewards in the world around us.  But the real experts in the way of the cross are those, mostly in distant lands, who by example, not necessarily with their computer keyboards, show us how to suffer the shame and reproach of a disciple by obediently dying to self.  They allow their families to be taken away and harmed, they lose their jobs, unlike most professing American Christians, because of their stand for Christ, and most of all, they don’t make a fuss about what they must endure to present a living witness of Jesus through their lives. 

          There is a secret life to every true disciple.  He has a secret relationship with his Lord, and His Lord has made many promises to him.  It is not only the historical facts of the cross that this believer in Christ is aware of, but more so, Christ’s present intercession in heaven on his behalf is very real to him.  This true disciple is also characterized by a humility that recognizes its need of grace and mercy.  He sees his own fleshly weakness, and is acutely aware of his human depravity.  With this awareness as his foundation, he knows where to go for help, and as he learns to boldly approach the throne of grace on the basis of Jesus’ shed blood poured upon God’s Mercy Seat in the heavenly tabernacle, he obtains the help he needs in time of trouble, and he returns his soul to it’s rested state in God.  O, that my fellow American Evangelicals could learn to partake of this meat, and put away the milk and pabulum of their “purpose-driven, seeker-friendly” false gospel that has come to replace the real Gospel of Grace.  To suffer the death of the cross and do God’s will was Christ’s meat and drink while on this earth.  We scratch our heads today in America, trying to formulate and perfect a form of Christianity, which ultimately denies the cross and the power thereof.  What will it take to bring us back to a proper foundation and then help us to build upon it the perfection of truth and practical living that will enable us to endure and victoriously overcome the present trials, as well as the great troubles yet to come upon this dying world?  May we find again that place at the throne of grace, and the inner unction to seek His mercy in time of need!

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.  Heb. 10:36