©August 9, 2013 Revive Israel Ministries

Partakers of His Suffering

By Asher Intrater

If all people were already perfect, there would be no suffering. That is God's ultimate goal (Revelation 21:4). In the meantime, there is much evil in the world. The more one endeavors to be righteous, the more that evil will react against him; and the more he will suffer. Our destiny is to become like Yeshua.  As He suffered, so will we. 

II Corinthians 1:4, 7
As the sufferings of Messiah abound in us, so our consolation also abounds
As you are partakers of the suffering, so also will you partake of the consolation.

People tend to hurt one another.  As we give ourselves to others in love, there is pain involved.  One quality of love is that it must "suffer long" (I Corinthians 13:4).  In a mysterious way, we share and partake of the same sufferings that Yeshua felt.  He suffered by taking up the pains, sins and dysfunctions of others.

Isaiah 53:4
Our sicknesses He bore; our pains He suffered.  

As we serve the people we love, pray for them, lift them up, encourage them, feel their pains, and suffer the rejection of presenting the truth of the gospel, we are extending Yeshua's atoning love from the cross.

Colossians 1:24
I rejoice in the suffering that I suffer for your sakes, as I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the sufferings of Messiah...

It is an exquisite privilege to share intimacy with Yeshua in the place of suffering. It is to share a precious, mutual experience with Him; to feel the pain of God's heart.

Philippians 3:10
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

There is a place of fellowship and intimacy with Yeshua which only comes from suffering with Him. As it is possible to believe in Him, it is also possible to suffer for His sake (Philippians 1:29).

I Peter 4:13
Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

Yeshua suffered first; then entered glory. To the degree that we share His sufferings, we will also share in His glory (Romans 8:17-18).  Suffering for suffering’s sake is not our goal.  Rather, we seek to live like Yeshua, taking up our cross daily because of the incredible, eternal joy set before us (Luke 9:23, Hebrews 12:2).

By Gil Afria

Spiritual maturity should be expressed by more holiness, less sin, but not by less repentance.  As we grow in holiness, our awareness and sensitivity to sin increases.  The Holy Spirit sheds more light in our souls, and we see sins which we didn't see before or which we ignored. We feel the gravity of sins which may have previously seemed small or insignificant.

Paradoxically, the less we sin, the more we repent.
 
Once I heard a preacher speak of himself publicly saying that since he now sinned less, he repented less.  Later, it was revealed that he had become deeply involved in sexually immorality.  Spiritual pride can bring us into deception.  True spiritual growth in holiness requires humility, by which we see more and more of the holiness of God, and our own sins in the light of His holiness.

This week the popular and charismatic Rabbi Moti Alon was convicted on charges of sexual molestation. This comes a week after two candidates to be Chairman of the Bank of Israel (Frankel and Liderman) withdrew their candidacies after potential corruption allegations. There is a questioning across the country of integrity values concerning both secular and religious leaders.

By Ramez Atallah, Bible Society of Egypt

On July 26, in response to a plea from the Minister of Defense, an estimated 40 million people took to the streets to show their solidarity against the aggressive and disruptive behavior of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB).  Remarkably few incidents of violence, petty theft or harassment of women were reported. 
 
On CNN, Jazeera and most Western channels, instead of showing the millions of peaceful and happy demonstrators, the cameras focus on tens of thousands of angry protestors and shocking pictures of wounded and dead victims of the pro-Morsi demonstrations. 
 
Only a very selective perspective is being communicated.  The claim that the MB are “peaceful demonstrators” goes contrary to all that we are experiencing of violence and brutality on our streets.  Anyone who has the misfortune of walking or driving close to one of their demonstrations is taking his life in his hands. 
 
Most Egyptians, in spite of their disdain for the MB, are very much against Egypt turning into a police or army state and have been putting pressure on security forces to be restrained in their response to the MB agitators.  Most of us yearn for a civil state run democratically.