Sharing in His sufferings

So, I was at a conference Monday and Tuesday in Orlando this past week. It was a great time of refreshing and re-energizing. How could it not be with such guys as David Nasser, Darren Whitehead, Jay Strack, and Francis Chan sharing from God's Word. I hope to blog what some of the stuff was about and my thoughts on it.

Francis Chan kind of covered two different things in his message on Monday. One message was sharing in the sufferings of Christ and rejoicing in that. Philippians 3:10 says "My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death." As I read this verse I can't help but agree. "Yes! My goal is to know Him. I want to know the power of His resurrection!" It's easy to agree with those statements and hopefully every believer does agree with that. It's that last thing though, that kind of brings the music to a screeching halt. To fellowship, or share, in His sufferings? Not just share in it, but rejoice in it? That is not anything you hear about in the American church. How could Paul write something like this? Because Paul understood that when He suffered in the name of Christ He was closer to Him more than at any other point in his life. Sharing in His suffering caused a more intimate relationship with Christ.

Chan told a story of missionaries who were held hostage by the Taliban a few years back. They were confined to a cramped room for a few days before they were separated into smaller groups and eventually a few were killed. The day before they were to be separated, the group of 25 or so missionaries sat around praying and confessing to each other and to the Lord. They sang songs of worship. Somehow one of the missionaries had a Bible with her. She began to tear the Bible into different sections and gave one to each person so that everyone would have a little bit of the Scripture with them to encourage them and strengthen them. On that last day together, a male missionary told the group that he would be the first one to die since he was a pastor, if they started killing them. Another male missionary spoke up and said that he would be the first one to die because he was that man's elder and also a pastor. The first man argued back that he ordained and the other was not, so he would be first in being executed (Not your typical argument). Sure enough, the next day the first man was executed. Eventually the hostages were freed and were sent back home. Those missionaries to this day though, whenever they see each other often tell one another how they desire to go back to that moment where they were held hostage, hungered, and some even killed. The reason: It was in that moment that those missionaries felt closer to God than ever. They shared in His sufferings and He was all they had to depend on and it brought them to a deeper level in their relationship with Christ. They were uncomfortable and uncertain of what was to come, but it didn't matter because all they needed or wanted was God.

It would be awesome to get to that place in life to where I could say that I truly rejoice and share in Christ's sufferings. I believe if we really want to be as close to God as possible then there will be plenty of times that require us to be uncomfortable, uncertain of the future, to suffer, to be poked and prodded. Why? Because as we suffer for the sake of Christ, it draws us to Him. He becomes our source of strength, hope and peace. Nothing else can really become that. I only hope I can get to a point where I can say, "God if it means I lose my friends, family, reputation or my life, then so be it, but I follow You wherever."