[Songs in the Night - November 26]
I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name's sake. Acts 9:16
IS ANY other service than that of our Lord ever
entered on these terms—promises of suffering?
Surely
not.
Yet how honest for the Lord not to call his disciples
under any misapprehension of the facts!
We are
called to suffer with him—to sacrifice ourselves, our
earthly interests—to share his cross, and by these experiences
to prove that we have been begotten of his
Spirit, and that it has been shed abroad in our hearts
and constituted us copies of God's dear Son.
Faithfulness
to this cause insures the reward of joint-heirship
with our Redeemer in his kingdom; nor can those kingdom
honors be hoped for on any other terms.
The
apostle understood this, and seems to give the thought
also that the more any of the Lord's followers can share
of the sufferings of Christ, in the flesh, proportionately
will be his share in the glory which by and by shall
be revealed to us—in the "members of his body."
The
expression, "For my name's sake," is comprehensive.
It includes everything connected with the divine plan,
of which Jesus, the Messiah, is the center.
It includes
sufferings for the truth's sake, because the truth is
vitally connected with the "only name."
It includes
the brethren because they have named the name of
Christ and they are under his name as members of his
body.
It includes all the work of the millennial kingdom
because he is the Head of it all, and his name, his
honor, is associated with it all.
Let us, therefore, be
glad of any sufferings which come to us directly or
indirectly, because of our faithfulness to the "precious
name" and these various interests which are associated
with it. Z'09-86 R4356:4 (Hymn 177)