Suffering with Christ
“Whoever has known the spiritual beauty of the Underground Church cannot be satisfied anymore with the emptiness of some Western churches. I suffer in the West more than I suffered in a Communist jail because now I see with my own eyes Western civilization dying. Oswald Spengler wrote in Decline of the West: You are dying. I see in you all the characteristic stigma of decay. I can prove that your great wealth and your great poverty, your capitalism and your socialism, your wars and your revolutions, your atheism and your pessimism and your cynicism, your immorality, your broken-down marriages, your birth-control, that is bleeding you from the bottom and killing you off at the top in your brains —can prove to you that there are characteristic marks of the dying ages of ancient states—Alexandria and Greece and neurotic Rome. This was written in 1926. Since then, democracy and civilization have” ― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ
NLT Philippians 1:29 For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. NLT 2 Timothy 3:12 Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
Fiery trials are part of life NLT 1 Peter 4:12 Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials (refining fire ; painful test) you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.
Rejoice in the trials 13 Instead, be very glad-- because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterward you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory when it is displayed to all the world. (1Peter 1:6-8; Matt. 5:11-12; Acts 5:41; Rom. 5:2-4; 8:17)
Suffering for the right reasons 15 If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people's affairs. 16 But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his wonderful name!
Judgment is coming 17 For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin first among God's own children. And if even we Christians must be judged, what terrible fate awaits those who have never believed God's Good News? 18 And "If the righteous are barely saved, what chance will the godless and sinners have?“
Trust God 19So if you are suffering according to God's will, keep on doing what is right, and trust yourself to the God who made you, for he will never fail you.
Holy Spirit will cover you 14 Be happy if you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God will come upon you. (John 14:26-27; 15:20-27; 16:13; Acts 1:8) Exodus 13:22; I have found truly jubilant Christians only in the Bible, in the Underground Church and in prison. (Richard Wurmbrand - VOM)