Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, 2 Timothy 1:8 NASB Prisoner– Imagine the life of a prisoner in the Roman Empire. Don’t import modern ideas about the horrible prisons we see around the world today. “Roman Law…
for just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:5 NASB So also – Are your sufferings in abundance? Are you pressed by a world of troubles? Do things in life seem to be at the breaking point? That’s exactly how I’m feeling…
Why has my pain been perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream with water that is unreliable? Jeremiah 15:18 NASB Deceptive – My daughter called from the Navy base. “Dad, I talked to the career counselor yesterday and nothing that they told me…
to sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted and humble in spirit. 1 Peter 3:8 NASB Sympathetic – Sumpatheis. A combination word from sum (with or added to) and pathos (suffering, misfortune). This word means a lot more than the watered down version we have in English. Sympathetic in English carries the idea…
“ . . . they have received their reward.” Matthew 6:2, 5, 16 ESV Reward – What if I told you that God’s pie is only so big? What if you recognized that there is only so much of God’s blessings to be spread around? What if you changed your view of the infinite provisions…
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. Isaiah 53:4 Bore – We love to read Isaiah as if it were written for us, that is, for Christians who believe “Jesus” is the Son of God who came to forgive people…
And he shall bear their iniquities Isaiah 53:11 Bear – Messianic believers read this entire passage as a prophecy about Yeshua. But it is more than that. It is also a description of the role of God’s elect. “The servant is at once Israel and an individual, who both represents the whole community and carries…
Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar Genesis 22:9 Bound – According to Jewish tradition, Isaac was a young man of marriageable age (approximately 36) when his father Abraham took him to be sacrificed. Erase the idea of Isaac as the innocent…
