<x-tad-bigger>Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":
On the surface it appears to be bad news when the Bible text says: “We
must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
It sounds like it’s a contradiction of what Jesus said in Matthew
11:28-30: “Come to Me, . . . and I will give you rest. . . . My yoke
is easy and My burden is light.” Why take up a cross of self-denial in
order to follow Jesus if you have to endure “many tribulations”?
This apparently difficult statement of Paul does not contradict that
of Jesus. If you decline to share with Him His cross of self-denial,
you can also have “many tribulations,” even more. Jesus didn’t come
from heaven to this earth to excuse us fallen children of Adam from
all troubles; He came to share our troubles and give us the comfort of
His presence with us. But those troubles which are the lot of all
humanity will be infinitely more difficult to endure if we deprive
ourselves of “the fellowship” of Christ in “His sufferings” (Phil.
3:10). Good people and bad people alike suffer accidents, have heart
attacks, strokes, break their hips, yes, die. But the person who
responds to Christ’s invitation and “takes up [his] cross daily and
follows Him” enjoys a most precious uplift. He has a conscious
fellowship with the one and only Jesus, the Son of God, who endured
the horror of our second death on His cross (which we will never have
to endure!).
This text of apparently bad news is like a nut that has a sweet kernel
inside that awaits our patience in cracking its hard shell.
</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger>Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread"
again tomorrow.
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