EDITORIAL
Reading in the Psalms one morning recently in my devotions, I discovered something which I am afraid our country, and especially our leaders, have never discovered.
In Psalm 33 I read: "There is no king delivered by a great army; no mighty man is preserved by great strength.. The horse is a vain means of safety, and its great strength affords no escape."
This is God's Word and is true, yet the philosophy of our leadership seems to be that strength and might is what will preserve the peace and give us security. Napoleon had the mistaken idea that "God is with the greatest battalions."
But the greatest general and king who ever lived knew better than this. Though he won victory after victory and extended his kingdom far and wide, King David knew that his strength was not of himself, nor of his great army, nor his war machines, nor his strategy, nor anything of man, but that his strength was of his God. Hence he could write: "There is no king delivered by a great army; no mighty man is preserved by great strength."
And this is true today, both for the nation and the individual. Peace and safety come only from one source. We have it in the last part of Psalm 33. It comes to those who revere, trust, wait, rejoice, and hope. But this isn't the complete picture. Peace and security belong to those who revere, trust, wait, rejoice, and hope in the Lord.
"Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who revere Him, on those trusting in His mercy, to save their soul from death, to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. Yes, in Him our heart shall rejoice; for we have trusted in His holy name. Let Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee."
My dear reader, "The atomic bomb is a vain means of safety, and its great strength affords no escape." The Lord Jesus Christ is our peace and security in this dreadful age. Let us go to Him, cling to Him, trust in Him, believe in Him. In Him is not only our present peace and security but also our eternal peace and security. You will look in vain for tranquility of soul, until you look to him. May you do so today.
Your Editor,
Arthur E. Gordon
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From One Shut-in To Another
PRAYER
I thank Thee, Lord, for mine unanswered prayers.
Unanswered, save for Thy quiet kindly "Nay."
Yet it seemed hard among my heavy cares that bitter day.
I wanted joy; but thou didst know for me that sorrow
was the gift I needed most, and in its mystic depth
I learned to see the Holy Ghost.
I wanted health; but thou didst bid me sound the secret
treasures of pain, and in the moans and groans my heart
oft found Thy Christ again.
I wanted wealth; 'twas not the better part; there is a wealth
with poverty oft given, and Thou didst teach me of the
gold of heart, best gift of heaven.
I thank Thee, Lord for these unanswered prayers, and for
Thy Word, the quiet kindly "Nay." 'Twas Thy withholding
lightened all my cares that blessed day!
-- Author unknown
FRUITLESS PAIN
I do not ask that Thou wilt take this pain away,
But, Father, may I bear no fruitless pain today!
I do not plead that Thou wilt wipe away my tears.
But rather, may I see, throughout the passing years,
Watered by tears of mine, some fragrant blossoms start
Within the barren desert of another's heart!
-- Martha Snell Nicholson
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JOHN DEMING'S HANDS ARE A
PROBLEM NO MORE
This is a true story from the Pacific Garden Mission.
Radio Script By Eugenia Price
Revision By Faith Coxe Bailey
THERE WAS NOTHING ODD about John Deming until he took his hands out of his pockets. Then you saw, at the end of his arms, monstrous hands that flapped, big-knuckled, against his sides. Even his feet, pointing ahead of him like the winner in a constant race with their owner, seemed of moderate size until you saw his hands.
By the time he was eight years old, John didn't favor the Freeport, Michigan, folks often with a look at his hands. He kept them stuffed in his pockets. But a fellow can't hide his feet from the people on his street.
"Clump foot," they called.
"Bear tracks."
"Looky, looky, here comes a guy in a pair of snowshoes. It's just old Paddlefoot, John Deming.
John heard the miserable chorus every day.
It was the girls who bothered him most. The pretty little girls with their blond curls and their fluffy dresses, some the color of candy.
Like Janey. From a distance, John followed Janey home after school every day. Janey was a cute one; she flipped her curls and skipped along the sidewalk with much giggling. But one day, teetering on top of a wall, she slipped. Down she rolled in the gravel.
John forgot his hands; he might have been a knight in armor. "Janey," he shouted. "Lookit, fellows, Janey fell off the wall. Get out of the way."
John clumped up over the wall. At the bottom Janey lay in a heap and sobbed. Her hair straggled into a mud puddle.
"Janey, Janey, are you hurt?"
"Yes, oh, yes," she whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut.
John reached out. "Look, your pretty hair, it's all wet. I'll take it and . . ."
Janey peeked up at him. "No, no," she screamed. "Go 'way, John Deming, don't touch me. I didn't know it was you."
John backed off. "I wasn't going to do nothing."
"John Deming, I'm not hurt a bit. Now, go 'way. I can't stand to have you touch my hair, -- those awful big hands of yours."
The hands kept growing, and his feet. John grew too, but there was no catching up to them. When he was twenty-five, he was a short man, with outsized extremities.
Everybody in town knew Johnny. "Honest, reliable, trustworthy, John Deming!" One day, he surprised the good townspeople who called him honest, but never urged their daughters or their sisters to encourage his attentions, by borrowing a hundred dollars on his "integrity" and leaving town.
"Detroit's a good place for a guy like me to get lost in," he said.
A job in Detroit, a few friends, and John even joined the Masons. But he was still John Deming with the extra big hands and feet. And he was lonesome.
Maybe a church -- love of God, Christian people -- maybe he'd find friends there.
After services at church, people spoke. Two elderly women, a small boy, a deacon nodded and smiled and said, "Good sermon." They were the only ones. John kept going back. One Sunday, he heard two church women.
"There's that poor Deming fellow," one said.
"Where? Mercy, did you ever see such hands?" the other asked.
"I know, But it's our duty to make him feel at home. Go on, you invite him."
A rash-like blush colored John's face when the ladies invited him to young people's meeting. He didn't go; nor did he go back to church.
After that, his thought about having regular-sized feet and hands small enough to pick up a pair of gloves at a bargain counter got jumbled with his dreams about Shirley. Shirley, from the inspection department of his plant. Dark-haired, blue-eyed Shirley.
John was sure Shirley hadn't seen his hands. When she passed him on the way to the time clock, he hid the; when she sat across from him in the cafeteria, he forgot to eat, kept his hands in his lap, played like he wasn't hungry. By five on those days, his hands were shaky. Work with too little proper food.
In his dreams, Shirley always said Yes to a date. Maybe some day, he'd have the courage . . . John began to whistle going home.
Until -- the day Shirley sat across from him at lunch with another girl.
"Hey, look," he heard her whisper. "There's Deming again."
"Just sitting there with his hands in his lap," she said.
"Wouldn't be a bad-looking punk if he didn't have such hands."
"Boy, he's sure got them, though. Gives me the shudders."
After that, Johnny didn't say much to anybody. On his relief periods, he hung around the big machinery. Not saying much, just staring. In his mind, he had an idea, for he'd heard of men who had artificial hands. If they lost their own in a mine explosion or a big machine they had some made.
He was surprised when the boss called him into his office. "Deming, you haven't been doing so well lately," he said.
But John was ready with his answer. He rested one big hand on the boss' desk so that it shoved the dictionary to the corner. His lower lip twitched; he moistened it with his tongue. His eyes fogged slightly. "You couldn't get me transferred to any other part of the plant? Maybe near some of the machinery."
His boss pushed his chair back from the desk. John knew he'd said the wrong thing, been too eager. The boss loosened his collar. "I'm sorry, Deming." He cleared his throat. "We have no such openings. I'm afraid, you'd better find another plant."
He would have gone home, quit Detroit altogether that night, if the telegram from Freeport hadn't been shoved under his door when he came up the last flight of stairs to his room. His mother had died that day.
After the funeral, John came back to Detroit. He lost another job, went back to Freeport for good.
The woman who answered the door of his father's house was a stranger to him.
"Whatcha want?" she asked.
"Why, I, is Dad at home?" John asked. The woman's eyes were on his hands; sweat started behind his ears.
"Oh, you must be John."
He nodded.
"Well, come on in." The woman jerked the door open wider. "Well, well. In case you're not wise to it yet, I'm your father's wife. Come on in." She was looking at his hands.
She always seemed to look. His hands putting sugar on the cereal at breakfast, his hands holding the newspaper in the living room at night. After awhile, John thought she got used to them. And more and more he liked living at home, with home people, hearing voices in the living room as he lay in bed going to sleep.
One night, as he came home from work, his stepmother stopped him in the downstairs hall. "Wait a minute. I wanta have a word with you."
"Sure," he said. "Shoot. What's on your mind?"
"I wanta tell you I've done for you and the rest of your father's brood as long as I'm gonna, without some action. You and four others besides him and me are too much. Here's ten dollars I give you for my conscience. Take it and get out. Live somewhere else. You seem to be the extra one I can't take. Don't let me catch you tellin' your father, either. You'll be sorry, if you do."
All the time she talked her eyes were watching his hands.
"I never did tell Dad and he lived to be eighty-eight years old. If I keep moving, maybe folks won't notice, I figured. I searched for odd jobs all over the country until I came to Rochester, New York. In Rochester, I paused awhile like a big ugly bird looking for a place to settle. It was there I found the matrimonial magazine. And Ethel."
He didn't want to send a picture in his letter to Ethel. When he did, it was the one with his hands in back of him, his feet hidden.
It wasn't long after he mailed the picture that Johnny got a letter saying to come to Sharon, Pa., for a visit.
When he crossed her front porch, he was scared.
The screen door opened and slammed. "Hello there, You must be John," an efficient-looking woman said.
"You must be Ethel."
Ethel motioned to the porch swing. "Let's sit down and get acquainted."
"Good trip?" she asked.
"Good trip," he answered
Sitting on the swing, John tried to cram his hands into his pockets.
"Something wrong?" Ethel asked. "I mean, looking for something in your coat pocket?"
"No," John said. "I guess I was trying to get my hands in my pockets."
"That's funny when a man can't get his hands in his pockets without all that work."
"Well -- I -- you see --"
Pockets in that coat must be extra small. I could let them out a little, if you like."
Here was a woman who didn't object to his hands, who kept a neat house, who liked him. When they married, they lived in Sharon and John found a steady job, because Ethel liked a good provider. She was a practical woman. "No presents for me," she said. "just you put your money in the bank."
Ethel wanted a man to be a good provider even when jobs were scarce. When Johnny was laid off at the plant in '32 with seventy other men, he worried about telling Ethel.
But she met him at the door. "Come on," she said. "I heard about it. We're going to Mother's. It's the only practical thing."
John felt sick. "I can't Ethel," he told her. "I feel at home with you. You're the only ---"
"It's the practical thing," Ethel repeated.
"Just wait," John said. "Give me a day or two to get another job."
"You heard me, John. Mother's expecting us. I never liked a whining man. Give me a hand with that trunk"
John tried to find a job. But he couldn't.
"Got a job today, John?"
"No, Ethel, but I got some irons in the fire."
"One more month, John. Still out of work and I'll divorce you."
At the end of the month, job-hunting had blistered John's big feet. Still no job. Ethel threatened to file suit for divorce the next day.
"Before you do, Honey, let's walk out to the city limits, like we used to do," John said.
"Won't do you a bit of good. If a man can't earn me a living, I'm through. Suppose I'll go with you, though."
All the way out, John put first one hand, then the other, into his pockets. He thought he'd stopped that uneasy habit months ago.
At the end of the city limits, Ethel stopped. "You've had your walk," she said. "Now I'm going back to Mother's."
John watched her go. Then he limped on a hundred yards and sat down in a little gully. A truck came along. John shuffled over to the road and held up his thumb for a ride.
The truck traveled a long way. "Still in Indiana?" John queried. Then he told the driver he was broke, that his feet pained him, that he was down "on his luck."
"Got a suggestion," the truck driver said. "Go to the Pacific Garden Mission when you get to Chicago. South State Street, 650. They put you up and feed you free for nothing. Aw, I think you got to go to church or somethin' but you get a clean bed, good grub. Worth a try."
In Chicago, John moved his big feet down South State Street to 650.
"Got to sit down," he told the man at the door.
"You're sick," the man said.
"Yes, sick," John answered. "Sick -- in my feet, my head, my heart. I reckon it's broken. Give me something to eat. Let me sit here."
He got his food and a shower. Then, like the truck driver told him, in the evening he had to go to a meeting in the Mission Chapel.
The man speaking had a quiet voice.
"We all have to be loved," he said. "We've got to feel that somebody wants us. Why, this whole business of being alive is to belong to somebody. To love, to be loved. Maybe you think nobody in the world loves you. Look at the mission wall!"
A man couldn't sit there and not look at the wall. Not after a free meal. On the wall, John read, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
Maybe God loved the world. But did He love a fellow with hands and feet too big for the rest of him?
"Try Him and see how much He loves you, right now. Try Him. Go on. In your words. Call on Him," the quiet-voiced man told John later.
He was sick and lonesome. He told God that. "I'm just about done in. Can You -- will You -- do something to help me? In Jesus' name."
Although Ethel never came back, today, if you walk into the Seaman's Center in a town in Texas, you won't notice anything odd about worker John Deming until he takes his hands out of his pockets. But the sight of his large hands won't bother you because you'll see at once that John's still too happy in his over twenty years of Christian service to let them bother him!
(From "Unshackled"; used by permission of Moody Press,
Moody Bible Institute, Chicago IL.)
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GOD'S MESSAGE TO THE BEREAVED AND SORROWFUL
by Dana M. Pankey, D.D., Th.D.
Pastor to the Sick and Shut-ins
1. God Knows All About Your Heartache. Your Grief And Sorrow, And He Certainly Cares.
Jesus said of Himself -- "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this" (John 11:25-26).
" . . . it is appointed unto men once to die (physical death)" (Hebrews 9:27). But the true born-again Christian never dies the second death (spiritual death), for Christ is the resurrection and the life, and has "come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).
2. God Is With You, He Is Very Near, Right By Your Side.
"The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit" (Psalm 34:18). "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds" (Psalm 147:3).
"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness" (Isaiah 41:10). " . . . I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5).
3. God Promises You Comfort And Abiding Peace And Joy.
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4).
"Peace be unto you. My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).
"And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you" (John 16:22).
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:1-3).
4. If Your Departed Loved One Was Saved, Then You Have This Assurance.
"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Psalm 116:15). "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). "For I am in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ which is far better . . . " (Philippians 1:23).
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him" (I Corinthians 2:9).
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1). "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them" (Revelation 14:13).
"But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me" (2 Samuel 12:23).
"Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory" (Psalm 73:24).
5. So Look Up, And Look Ahead.
If you are sure you are a born-again child of God, you shall certainly have a better life, and eternal happiness with the Lord Jesus Christ forever in His eternal heavenly home bye and bye.
If you are not sure of your soul's salvation, and where you will spend eternity, remember you are already lost without the Saviour. But you may have the assurance of salvation and heaven by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving Him as your personal Saviour. He says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14:6). "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
He gave His life on Calvary's cross for your salvation. He bore your sins in His Own body as your substitute there. He shed His precious blood for the remission of your sins. He paid the full price for your soul's salvation in His atonement on Calvary. He arose from death and the grave for your justification. Today He lives! He is now at the right hand of God to make intercession for you. "Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
He stands at the very door of heaven, with His arms of love outstretched, and offers you and me the broad, all-inclusive invitation, "Whosoever will may come," backed up by the written guarantee, "And him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).
God promises you salvation if you honestly accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, for we read in Romans 10:9 and 10 -- " . . . if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
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SERMON SERIES
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER
No. 26
SUFFERING and GLORY
I Peter 4:12,13
INTO EACH LIFE some rain must fall. Suffering of some sort comes to all sooner or later. But the attitude and outcome is different with different individuals.
Peter wrote this epistle, and especially this portion, to show us the proper attitude toward suffering and the sure outcome for the child of God.
As we proceed, it will be well for us to keep in mind that these words are God's words. These are His thoughts, His will and way, His promises. Our part is to hear and heed His word, to submit to His will, walk in His way, and rest on His promises.
SUFFERING
"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you" (12).
Let's get it straight from the outset, these whom God addresses are children of God. They have become such by trusting in Christ as Saviour. They are here called, "Beloved."
This is a term of endearment. Their Master was called by this name and they have inherited the same. The Father said of Jesus: "This is my beloved Son," or more literally, "This is my Son -- the Beloved." And by His wonderful grace "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
Peter uses this endearing term because most of all they needed encouragement at this time. The world saw no value in them and was persecuting them, but God loved them, and they were loved by all true believers.
Maybe you, through your trials, have come to doubt whether you are loved by anyone. Possibly you think God has forgotten or forsaken you. This same cry went up from Zion: "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." But what was the Lord's answer? "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." Neither has God forgotten you. "Are not five sparrows sold for (a mere) two farthings (1 cent), and not one of them is forgotten before God? . . . fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows."
Has He forsaken you? Perish the thought! His unalterable promise to you is: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." For how long is this promise good? "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age." Therefore look up, take courage, God loves you because of His Son, and He will never forget nor forsake any of His beloved ones. You may count on it. He has promised.
"Think it not strange." Don't be surprised at your trial. Some preachers paint such a beautiful picture of Christianity to get people to respond to their plea, that sometimes the ones who come, get a shock when they find in subsequent days that instead of life becoming easier it actually becomes harder, because added to all their other troubles they must now bear also the offence of the cross.
In Jesus' parable of the sower, we see this type of individual. Some seed fell upon stony places, where there was no depth of soil. The seed sprouted quickly but withered away as soon as the sun came up. Jesus likened this to the person who hears the Word of God and receives it with joy, but who has no real implantation of the Word in his heart, and soon turns from it. "For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word, by and by he is offended."
The Christian life is no bed of roses. If we lead people to think it is, and they accept it because they think it is, they are in for a big surprise sooner or later. When affliction and persecution comes their way, many of them become religious casualties.
Peter believed the old adage -- "To be forewarned is to be forearmed." So he warned his converts throughout Asia Minor not to be surprised at the persecution which had already broken out against them, and which would steadily increase in days to come. We too may take warning. Paul, writing under inspiration, says, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." And Jesus warns: "In the world ye shall have tribulation."
So, "think it not strange . . . as though some strange thing happened unto you." Put this down in your little black book. Nothing just happens to the child of God. God's hand is on every situation. He is in control. This that has happened to you was no accident. He permitted it. It will not go beyond the bounds He has set. And you may be sure "that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
"Concerning the fiery trial." This does not refer to the common, every-day annoyances and inconveniences we all suffer, like having to stand in line at the supermarket, or being crowded off the road by a careless driver. This has reference to something out of the ordinary. It means intense suffering.
The literal meaning is "a burning." It is something that really hurts us. The corresponding words in the Old Testament are found in Proverbs 27:21: " . . . the furnace for gold." This refers to a smelting furnace where gold is refined. These sufferings which the recipients of this letter were undergoing constituted the smelting furnace in which their lives were being purified.
The nation of Israel had such an experience. Of them it was said, "But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt." God told them, "Behold . . . I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."
Here's how it happened. After the death of Joseph a new king came into power in Egypt who was anti-Semitic. The Jews multiplied profusely, so much so that the king decided on a plan to stop them from increasing so rapidly, thinking that they were a threat to Egypt's security. He "set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage."
But they still multiplied. The king was desperate. Finally he issued his dastardly decree to have all the boy babies born to the Jews drowned. This was Israel's furnace. They were dreadfully hurt by these afflictions. They were indeed in the midst of "fiery trial." And yet, there is something here we dare not overlook. Something they didn't realize at the time. But later God revealed to Moses: "I have faithfully been present with you and observed the treatment you received in Egypt."
The three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abed-nego, when they were thrown into the "burning fiery furnace" by order of Nebuchadnezzar found they were not alone, but One walked with them, "and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
In the midst of your "fiery trial," there is One, though invisible yet truly present with you, and He observes your plight. He is the same who was with Israel and the three Hebrews. He allowed their furnace experience, to test them. Maybe He allows yours for the same reason.
"Which is to try you." At another time God said to Israel, "I proved (tested) thee at the waters of Meribah." Israel had long since been delivered from Egypt when they approached Rephidim. There was no water to drink in this desert place. The days dragged by and no water was forthcoming. The situation became desperate. They must have water to drink, or die. Had God forgotten or forsaken His people in the wilderness? Neither! God was testing them. He let the situation get to such a state to test them. He was proving the genuineness of their faith.
They had had no few demonstrations of God's power to deliver and supply, yet what was their reaction to this test? "Wherefore the people did chide . . . and the people murmured . . . and said, "Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?" God had no intention of killing them. He was merely testing them. And they flunked the test.
How do we react to God's tests? Do we murmur and complain and wish we had never started out with the Lord? Have we the notion that God is hard on us and maybe trying to destroy us, or that He is toying with us like a cat with a mouse? Before we go any farther, let's set the record straight -- God never permits affliction, merely to tease us, He always has a good purpose. His purpose may well be to test the metal of our faith. When we react negatively, arguing and murmuring and doubting His motives, then the test shows our faith to be of the wrong stuff. However when our reaction is positive and we can answer afflictions with, "Thy will be done," and, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him," then our faith is seen to be God-originated, and God-honoring.
His exhortation to us, then, is: "Do not stiffen your heart as at Meribah, at the time of testing in the wilderness."
GLORY
"But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy" (13).
"But rejoice." A strong contrast. We are not only to view trials from the negative, passive standpoint, but also from the positive and active. It is important and worthwhile that we be not surprised, but it is even more important that we go on from there to actually rejoice in them.
Paul and Silas demonstrated this truth admirably. When they preached at Philippi they were taken into custody by the local officials. They were mercilessly beaten and thrown into a dungeon where they were chained by the ankles. There they sat in their small cell on the damp dirt floor, vermin and filth all about them, the stench enough to nauseate, chains rubbing their ankles sore with the slightest move, their backs lying open in long bleeding gashes, their bodies aching, impossible to sleep or rest. "Fiery trial?" "Fiery trial" indeed.
But what is that we hear wafting up from that inner dungeon on the cool night air? Is it possible? Could it be? Yes, there is no mistaking it! "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God."
We too shall have our "midnight" hours, when our circumstances couldn't be much worse. We should expect such to be our lot, and not be surprised. But more than this, we are exhorted and expected to meet these times with rejoicing.
To help us do this two things are mentioned for our consideration.
First, "inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings." This does not refer to Christ as He "once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust." We could never share in that. The sufferings here referred to are those He endured as a result of His righteous living. His deeds were righteous, the world's sinful; thus they persecuted Him. They will do the same to His followers when they follow Him as they should. This should cause us to rejoice. It did the early apostles. After they were beaten "they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name."
Second, "that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."
Peter constantly, throughout this epistle, points his readers to the glorious future. He does this to encourage them in the present. God wants us to weigh every situation in light of eternity. Some would call this "pie-in-the-sky religion." But call it what you like, I have found comfort times without number in thinking of the Lord's return and my going to be with Him.
For the suffering but joyful child of God, joy exceeding anything we have ever before known is awaiting us, when we meet our Lord in the air.
As our Lord has been with us in the midst of the burning fiery furnace, so we shall without fail be with Him in glory. Paul reminds us: "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." His conclusion is: "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Thus Christ exhorts us: "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad (under affliction): for great is your reward in heaven."
To sum it all up -- suffering for the child of God finds its consummation in glory.
But possibly you are not a child of God, not having received Christ as your Saviour. Your suffering here will not end in glory, but rather in more suffering bye and bye. "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
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