Colossians 1:24-25

"[Even] now I rejoice in the midst of my sufferings on your behalf. And in my own person I am making up whatever is still lacking and remains to be completed [on our part] of Christ's afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church" Colossians 1:24.

I'm sorry, but this was just a strange thing for me to read at one time. This happens to me sometimes and I think it must happen to others too. For me, it usually sends up a red flag, because I know that My Father is not strange. If something He says to me sounds strange, it's because "I don't understand", and not because He would say something to me and it be strange to me. No longer a "baby in Christ", I know He expects that if I didn't get it... that I am to tug at Him, pray and dig around in His Word for a clue... go through his jewelry box, if I have to.

Oh, yeah... That was something my kids got to do, growing up. Though they knew Dad's jewelry box was kinda sacred-like, they also knew they could go through it whenever they wanted, as long as they put everything back. A sharks tooth, coins and bills from my travels around the world... pins given to me by dignitaries, a piece of gold, a real pearl, wristbands from their birth, their first tooth, and all kinds of strange and mysterious stuff to draw on their imagination. When they went through it with Dad, I would describe what each thing was and why it was significant. It was the beginning for much seeking... mental exploration and wonder for them.

But God expects us to learn about Him and all that He has set before us, and we have to search it sometimes. Amen? Well, I've never heard any teaching from this section of scripture other than "for us to be happy and joyful about suffering with God's work, because Jesus did"... or the connection to "taking up His Cross." Now, I knew that it is about that, but it still sounded strange to me and I knew God wanted this Word to be part of me,... understood, something more than just memorized. And so, we dig, searching God, trying to get hold of this Word and "get it". Listen to Paul again... He says, "Even now I rejoice in the midst of my sufferings on your behalf."

What my problem with this verse was that, I have studied Paul's teachings and I know that he is not just trying to be like Christ, because He wanted Christ to live through Paul. And Paul is not telling us that suffering is joyful, but, that the joy that comes as a result of suffering is worth every moment that we endure.

If you have time, go back to our study in verses 19-22, where we talked about why God would say, "it pleased Him that part of himself (Jesus) would be tortured and killed"... (my words). It goes back to the fruit... the end result and purpose of the suffering. Paul is not rejoicing because he is suffering. Paul is not boasting that he is suffering... he's not pretending to rejoice in his suffering, and he's not trying to act like or get us to act like Christ. Paul is fully operating in a spirit of God's love. Paul was "poured out"... dead as far as being concerned for himself, and he was well pleased with that part of himself that died. Because, only then could Christ live through him, and did! I hope that, if you've just picked up in our study here, that you will go back to 19-22, in our study and look at this deeper.

And so, Paul goes on in verse 24 to say, "And in my own person I am making up whatever is still lacking and remains to be completed [on our part] of Christ's afflictions", as if to say, there might be a little more of himself left to kill, so Christ can use more... for what... for the sake of His body, which is the church.

Not Paul's body, but Christ's... The Church Body... and there it is... the end purpose... the fruit... the thing that really does make it joyful to suffer. The joy of seeing one more person brought from the clutches of hell... bringing hope to the hopeless... being part of the spread of the Gospel.

And now, let's look at what this "suffering" can do to us, the sufferer in the next verse.

25. "In it I became a minister in accordance with the divine stewardship which was entrusted to me for you [as its object and for your benefit], to make the Word of God fully known [among you]"

That's what the suffering can produce. A man that was once part of a systematic Christian killing machine, turned into a minister in the kingdom of God. Putting yourself to death (denying yourself, letting God have all of you and all you own and posses) is what turns a woman who was never able to have her own children into a Sunday school teacher, a college graduate with the world ahead of them working in a tent hospital in a 3rd world country. Seeing the end result and purpose of our suffering is where the joy is and the suffering changes us, my friends. The Lord will not leave us the way He found us... Amen?

Let's pick up at verse 26, next time.

I love you.