The Joy of Suffering 1-26-2011

I’m now 38 days into my fast. The end is so near I can taste it so to speak. No one particularly finds joy in suffering but for the Christian there is always joy.

We may suffer injustice as Scott and I, tragedy, or persecutions for righteousness sake. The terrible part of this is that in truth and fairness it would never occur. And here is the mark of separation, what is truth? The world has opinions but they cannot know it because it is the substance of someone they reject. I’ll give you a SHU example. A young white kid from New York beats up a guy named Cisco on the yard for being a child molester. Ralph (his name) thinks he is right in this action. Ralph thinks Cisco is white but it turns out that Cisco is a soreno gang member. So when Ralph comes to the SHU he is now a marked man by the gang. Well today some sorenos and whites including Ralph were put in recreation cells together and fights broke out. The gang members think they are doing right by defending their members and exacting retaliation. Cisco probably justified his molesting as right at the time. This is the problem with the world. Truth and righteousness are not real but subjective desires growing out of evil motives.

So when a Christian suffers persecution from this ignorant world what a joy it is to know

the truth. Think on this, you’re the only one in the whole transaction that knows what’s transpiring. Scott and were perplexed sometimes that a learned man like judge Alsup was so ignorant. And yet how can we expect him to speak of a land he’s never traveled to.

Fasting for 40 days is foolishness to the world. A needless bout of suffering, they would never do it except for rare occasions where they can garner the land of others. In this instance it is not suffering as much as being a vehicle, a means to an end objective.

The Christian finds joy in subjecting their flesh to denial. To seeking truth in its purest form in the being of Jesus Christ, even our tragedies are contaminated with endless hopes because of the truth behind them. The world can steal many things from us in their deceptions of righteousness but they can never rob us of our joy. In this I think God provides them a firm witness of their error. For in their best strivings to be pleasing to their conscience they never get a witness from God that it is acceptable.

Think on Cain and Able, Cain never thought about his error only envied what Able possessed that he could not have. This is how truth separates the sheep from the goats, the

Wheat from the chaff, situations and time will always winnow away the perverts because

They can’t disguise themselves, and the joyful Christian will always shine brightly in the midst of their darkness confounding the wise. Yes do not take for granted that you discern true righteousness. You are a rare exception to this world. What a fountain of eternal delight. The joy of the Lord truly is our strength.