I mentioned Joel Osteen yesterday. Joel is a great man of God. He has a ministry that encourages a lot of people. I wonder how he reacts to 1 Peter 4:12-19? Peter expects suffering to come to the man who boldly proclaims the gospel. Those he is writing to assume this is a normal experience.
4:16 - If we suffer as Christian, do not be ashamed but in the name of Jesus glorify God! Peter and Paul agree that we should glorify God for the suffering that we experience.
Maybe I am twisting this but I take this to mean, rather than holding back, trying to hide our faith and trying to fit in with unbelievers, we should be proud of what we believe and not be ashamed of our beliefs.
Levent, a Turkish pastor who spoke yesterday, said that as we pray we wait on God. This is an active thing to do. To call on the living God, unbelievers will ridicule us for doing that. When unbelievers are told about a friend in crisis they speak of "sending good thoughts". How hopeless is that? Yet they honestly can do nothing else.
We call upon the living Go who loves us and all men and eagerly want to for us to ask. Unbelievers can ridicule us but we glorify God.
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