Food for thought...

Today we attended a new church and I heard something profound I couldn't wait to write about.

We're all going to suffer. Will we choose to suffer for the cause of Christ?
Or will we suffer for the evil we have done?

For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than evil. 1 Peter 3:17

Our suffering should be the result of having been faithful to God, rather than having done evil.

How thought provoking, we can choose Christ and suffer some seemingly big trials because of it. Our friends will laugh at us, people may taunt us, we may be excluded, made fun of or tormented. But in the grand scheme of things, how bad is that? We're suffering for Christ who died for us. We should count it as JOY! This makes me think of the apostles in the book of Acts, when they were beaten for speaking in the name of Jesus. "So they departed from the presence of the council, REJOICING that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. Acts 5:41
The other option would be to suffer in the end for our sins. To face God on judgement day. To not be covered by the blood of Jesus and be tossed into an eternal seperation from God. It will be too late to change your mind, there are no do-overs. It's a done deal, the choice has been made.
I'm always telling my teenagers that once you graduate High School, it just doesn't matter who your friends were, who you dated, what kind of grades you got, what embarrassing thing happened. As soon as I was out of school, I didn't look back. Nothing mattered anymore. I try to convince them that even though the kids at their school may laugh or poke fun at them for choosing to serve Christ, it won't matter as soon as they're out of school.
The same applies to life in general. It doesn't matter in the end. When we're in the presence of the King, it won't matter who laughed at us or hurt our feelings. This is all temporary.
What will matter is all those bound for hell because no one took the time to share the Gospel with them.
O' God, help me to be more courageous. To be so sold out for Jesus that I don't care who knows or what they think. Help me to be so bold in my faith that I don't let any 'divine appointments' pass me by. Help me to not be ashamed of my faith and what I believe. Thank you for not being ashamed of me. You've done nothing to bring shame to Your name, You lived a perfect, sinless life, yet I'm hesitant to talk about You at times. But me, I'm so unworthy and dirty. I've caused great shame to Your name, yet You still desire to have a relationship with me. You have every reason to be embarrassed to call me Your child, yet You're not. How awesome...
God, thank You for taking the real suffering that was due to me, upon Yourself.
I"m eternally Yours... JMS