This is an excerpt from an article I just read in Christianity Today written by Christine A. Scheller:
I can look at this journey and see a trail of folly. Or I can look back with tenderness and see churches and pastors that taught me all I know about loving Jesus and being loved by Him. I choose tenderness because Jesus Christ exists on earth within his sin-damaged band of followers. This is the realization that breaks us - there is no BETTER church.
"Sometimes we endure the judgment of God because we happen to belong to a people or a group that, as a whole, deserves the judment", CT managing editor Mark Galli wrote recently in a blog post. "Some therefore suffer for their sins, while others suffer for the sins of others. The former is the suffering of cleansing; the latter is substitutionary suffering. Both are redemptive, and thus both can be accepted with grace."
In one of my favourite books, "Into the Depts of God", Calvin Miller writes, "The trials that keep us kneeling before our lifelong assignments are never haphazard. All the suffering that are thrust upon us can serve to bring us to maturity". Then he makes this terrible statement: "Hurt is the essential ingredient of ultimate Christ-likeness."
2 comments:
Cathy:
“Hurt is the essential ingredient of ultimate Christlikeness.” Hmm… this statement by Calvin Miller has been haunting me for the last few days. Years ago when I put the word “Christlikeness” into CBC’s purpose statement, I was in love with the idea of Christlikeness without really understanding the process that leads to it. Looking back, it’s easy to see that the most formative parts in the process are those things that entail hurt, suffering, and dying.
David Johnson, a pastor who has been experiencing the process, says this:
“The way I see it, the whole point of the gospel is that we are supposed to die. That doesn’t mean I like it. I don’t like to die, but Jesus says, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone, but if it dies it comes to life.”
“Our response to the cross and the resurrection isn’t to sit on the sidelines and cheer that Jesus died and rose to life. No, no, no. He died to show us how. It’s not just that he died so that you wouldn’t have to. He died to show you the pattern. The message of the cross is, “Don’t cheer for me; join me. Come into this kind of life where you let go of control and let go of your demands. Every time you do it, you’ll think you’re going to die. But, you don’t die; you come to life.”
~ Jack
Makes the struggle feel worthwhile if we can keep the end product in mind...."he endured the cross, despising its shame for what he KNEW was ahead...." and so we do the same...thanks for the reminder...:o)
k
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