He Too

Do you recall that verse in I Peter 4 wherein we are commanded to rejoice in suffering? 

13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.

via 1 Peter 4:12-14 NASB;CJB – Share the Sufferings of Christ – Bible Gateway.

I read something today that is helping me with this.  The Sweet Side of Suffering by M. Esther Lovejoy.  She said on page 76 of her book: “He was reminding me that we had a common bond in suffering. He too had experienced betrayal and rejection. He too had been misunderstood and misrepresented. He too had suffered because of someone else’s sin. While my suffering could never come close to the injustice and agony Christ experienced, in those moments I felt the wonderful bond of shared suffering with Him. 

Those moments changed me forever. Christ not only understood my pain, He was inviting me to share in His. I began to weep, not for myself, but for my Savior, for all He had willingly endured for me. Christ chose to suffer. I didn’t. I would never have chosen this! And suddenly the love that would prompt such a choice washed over my own pain and brought relief. My Savior and I were one in a new way. We shared the common bond of suffering.”

Is it just me or is that a tender and, yes, even inviting way to rejoice in suffering? Intimacy with Yeshua; sharing a common bond with Him – could anything be better? 

Day 142 of 2014, a day to give Thanks.

Kathie

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We Choose

Just a thought that has come – not sure where it will rest. 

Aside the events that invade our lives, don’t we all have the lives we have chosen? Even when the not chosen events come, we get to choose how we will respond and how we will proceed from the event.

We choose the lives we live. 

Well, that’s sobering!

14 “Therefore fear Adonai, and serve him truly and sincerely. Put away the gods your ancestors served beyond the [Euphrates]River and in Egypt, and serve Adonai! 15 If it seems bad to you to serve Adonai, then choose today whom you are going to serve! Will it be the gods your ancestors served beyond the River? or the gods of the Emori, in whose land you are living? As for me and my household, we will serve Adonai!”

via Joshua 24 KJV;CJB – And Joshua gathered all the tribes of – Bible Gateway.

Day 141 of 2014, a day to give Thanks.

Kathie

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Gifts

I was delighted to capture these digital frames this afternoon and I am further delighted to share them with you. 

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You know ABBA is so good to give us these beauties to behold. May we sufficiently slow down to admire His lovely gifts.

18 For thus says Adonai, who created the heavens, God, who shaped and made the earth, who established and created it not to be chaos, but formed it to be lived in: “I am Adonai; there is no other.
21 . . .  There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior; there is none besides me. 22 Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God; there is no other.

via Isaiah 45 KJV;CJB – Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to – Bible Gateway.

Day 136 of 2014, a day to give Thanks.

Kathie

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