March 4, 2014 A Realistic Appraisal of Serving Others by Charles R. Swindoll 1 Peter 2:20-24; 3:17-18 ~~~~~ *But if you are punished for doing wrong, there is no reason to praise you for bearing that punishment. But if you suffer for doing good and you are patient, this pleases God. This is what you were chosen to do. Christ gave you an example to follow. He suffered for you. So you should do the same as he did: “He never sinned, and he never told a lie.” Isaiah 53:9 People insulted him, but he did not insult them back. He suffered, but he did not threaten anyone. No, he let God take care of him. God is the one who judges rightly. Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross. He did this so that we would stop living for sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you were healed. You were like sheep that went the wrong way. But now you have come back to the Shepherd and Protector of your lives. (1 Peter 2:20-25 ERV) It is better to suffer for doing good than for doing wrong. Yes, it is better if that is what God wants. Christ himself suffered when he died for you, and with that one death he paid for your sins. He was not guilty, but he died for people who are guilty. He did this to bring all of you to God. In his physical form he was killed, but he was made alive by the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:17, 18 ERV) ~~~~~~ We Americans like things to be logical and fair. We not only like that, we operate our lives on that basis. Logic and fairness are big guns in our society. Meaning this: if I do what is right, good will come to me, and if I do what is wrong, bad things will happen to me. Right brings rewards, and wrong brings consequences. Thats a very logical and fair axiom of life, but theres only one problem with it. It isnt always true. Life doesnt work out quite that well. There isnt a person reading these words who hasnt had the tables turned. All of us have had the unhappy and unfortunate experience of doing what is right, yet we suffered for it. And we have also done what is wrong on a few occasions without being punished. The latter, we can handle rather easily . . . but the former is a tough pill to swallow. I dont find it a nagging problem, for example, to drive 75 miles an hour on the highway and get away with it. Normally, I dont lie awake through the night feeling bad because an officer failed to give me a ticket---even though, in all fairness, I deserved one. But you let one of those guys ticket me when I have done nothing wrong, and Im fit to be tied! And so are you. We hate being ripped off. Consequences belong to wrong actions. When they attach themselves to right actions, we struggle with resentment and anger. I wish I could say that the only place such things happen is in our driving, but I cannot. They also happen in our serving in ministry. (Chuck Swindoll~Insight For Living)
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 13:16:37 +0000
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