August 16, 2024
Despite Suffering
1 Thessalonians 1:6 (KJV) And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:
Isn’t it wonderful that the salvation of a soul is not limited by circumstances, afflictions, and suffering? God can swoop in and change the spiritual condition of a soul from standing in opposition to Him to standing in spiritual agreement with Him. It is often true that a meeting with God comes in the most challenging times, not during fun, rest, and relaxation. Each person has a limit of what they can try to handle apart from God and has a different level for falling apart. This is why this verse speaks about much affliction, as typically, a person must come to the end of themselves before they can meet God.
Yes, despite the pain each child of God faces when they try to do things on their own, once they recognize God, seeing Him for the first time, all other things at work in their life dim in comparison to Him and the truth of His Word. Think of Saul actively searching out followers of God and seeking their harm and imprisonment instead of identifying the value God places on each person. Then, one day, God stops Paul on the road and causes him to drop to the ground upon meeting Him personally. God does not make his life easy once he knows the truth; instead, he changes his name to Paul and is with him through a myriad of troubling situations and even times of danger and near-death experiences as Paul chooses to live for God.
Just the same, each person experiences much affliction in their journey but has the joy of the Lord at work despite the hardships and trials they face as they walk with God and sojourn on this wicked earth for a time.
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Cool, what’s your address? I’ll come torture you since it doesn’t matter.
It follows from my previous comment that the only way to torture is to make something wrong, and I would not let you do that.
But that was a serious question. What is a people’s case against suffering?
Although I would not let just anyone torture me if the choice was mine, this worldview entails that I should be able to suffer torture for an ultimately good cause.
I can’t speak from experience, but I think that, if you would just caused me pain without injuring or limiting me, I would not be bothered by that. It would be like with Wolverine, that, when he extends the blades, they cut through his hands, which causes pain, but the hands heal quickly, so he has got used to that.
Yeah, exactly. No physical handicap, just some good old pain. I wouldn’t make any part of you permanently “wrong.” The good purpose is that it would make me happy. It’s just like Wolverine. Let’s do this experiment and see if you still feel the same way about suffering being trivial.
How would that happen?
How about waterboarding? With plenty of breaks to breathe, of course.
At this point, I fear more giving my address to a stranger than not breathing temporarily.
Have a friend do it for you. Report back to me.