I Thessalonians 1:6
“So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way you imitated both us and the Lord.”
Isn’t it interesting to look at our culture and the idea connected to suffering and then read a verse like this. Can you imagine if every time a person stood before Jesus and His people to make a profession of faith and be baptized that the Pastor would turn to them and say, “what you are about to do is going to bring you great suffering in your life but we believe that in spite of the upcoming suffering you will receive the message with joy from the Holy Spirit.” I mean who in their right mind would sign up for that? In fact, the church in our culture tries to paint a picture that becoming a follower of Jesus is the opposite; becoming a follower of Jesus will relieve you of the current suffering you are experiencing. This is only a half truth though; often we don’t explain or entertain the idea that being a follower of Jesus brings about a severe suffering of its own. Why is it we are so afraid to enter into this place of faithfulness? Why are we afraid to join Jesus, Paul, and others into this call of the “suffering servant”? Why do we try to create following Jesus into a tool of providing comfort in our culture instead of Him becoming the very thing that transforms our culture? What would it look like for a community of people to seek to imitate the Thessalonians that Jesus might look at them and say, “you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you and as you did this you imitated me”? I long to be a part of this kind of community; I pray Crossroads would settle for nothing less. I pray you and your church would settle for nothing less.
chadpullins@connect2crossroads.com www.wedesiremore.com
