Helloooo

I have not been active on this blog at all. I want to really start doing this as a matter of routine. It does cristalize your thinking.
We are currently busy in our Precept study with the book of 2 Timothy and Paul is encouraging Timothy and all of us believers to join him in suffering for the gospel. This is not a message I want to hear, everything in me goes NO! Who wants to suffer hardship, who wants to be imprisoned? But when it is for Something on which you can put no price, on Something that will let you live forever in the presence of the most glorious King, then I am challenged to think again.
I see a soldier enlisting for a cause, for a King, for a country, I see him enduring whatever comes his way and fighting with purpose.
I see a marathon athlete who knows the rules competing for the ultimate prize, he has stripped himself of all extra weight, be it physical or mental, he is prepared, well-trained and sets off at a steady pace, regularly taking in the necessary energy bars and liquids. When the going gets tough, when the weather turns and he gets the wind in his face, he still persists, endures, because of the prize.
I see the wheat-farmer, he has prepared the soil, the first rains has fallen, he is sowing the land. Now the waiting game begins, rain is needed, but this is out of his control. His dependence is on God for favourable circumstances. He knows that he has to do what he has to do - day in, day out. A harvest is waiting.
Endurance. Perseverance.
Paul call us all to endure, to suffer hardship for the sake of the gospel. People in the world is desperate for the gospel. What is the gospel? Paul summarises it as that Jesus died for our sins, He rose again and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. We will live with Him eternally when we believe in Him. As we live what we believe, as we share the gospel with a dying world, we can know that persecution will come, but Jesus said that He will never leave us or forsake us, and that we need be of good cheer, because He has overcome the world.