Comments on: Suffering: A Thing of the Past? http://shepherdtheflock.com/2007/06/05/suffering-a-thing-of-the-past/ "Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you...” Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:08:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.2 By: Clemntine http://shepherdtheflock.com/2007/06/05/suffering-a-thing-of-the-past/#comment-382 Clemntine Wed, 06 Jun 2007 04:15:10 +0000 http://shepherdtheflock.com/2007/06/05/suffering-a-thing-of-the-past/#comment-382 Thank you very much for taking the time to address this vital issue with such clarity. One of the things that seems to paralyze modern, Western Christians is that we have no frame of reference for true suffering or for the need to be "saved" from anything. Thank you very much for taking the time to address this vital issue with such clarity. One of the things that seems to paralyze modern, Western Christians is that we have no frame of reference for true suffering or for the need to be “saved” from anything.

]]> By: Elle http://shepherdtheflock.com/2007/06/05/suffering-a-thing-of-the-past/#comment-387 Elle Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:39:33 +0000 http://shepherdtheflock.com/2007/06/05/suffering-a-thing-of-the-past/#comment-387 The lack of the call to the Church today to embrace suffering as pertinent and necessary for the certainty of assurance, as honor and glory for being so closely identified with Him, as engendering grateful understanding that each affliction conforms and refines, has caused me to consider the Bride under a lens of judgment for deficiency of suffering. Thanks for this post. The lack of the call to the Church today to embrace suffering as pertinent and necessary for the certainty of assurance, as honor and glory for being so closely identified with Him, as engendering grateful understanding that each affliction conforms and refines, has caused me to consider the Bride under a lens of judgment for deficiency of suffering. Thanks for this post.

]]> By: Totem to Temple http://shepherdtheflock.com/2007/06/05/suffering-a-thing-of-the-past/#comment-388 Totem to Temple Sat, 09 Jun 2007 15:03:37 +0000 http://shepherdtheflock.com/2007/06/05/suffering-a-thing-of-the-past/#comment-388 We Christians do not really know anything at all about suffering. The main reason is because modern Americanized Christianity is built on an 'escape-hatch' mentality that we can come up with a way to escale and eliminate suffering than teach people the Bible-based skills to walk through suffering. Look at TBN or BET (Sunday Night/Monday morning) and you see preachers who promise you mega wealth, health, prosperity, and protection (along with miracle handkerchiefs and personal prayer packets) if you send them money or get on a 'payment-plan pentecostalism' if you send $61.00 a month for 12 months to receive the Psalms 61:12 blessing. Look at many evangelical, religious-right churches and you see sermons the two Sundays before November promising a paradise of increased school vouchers, overturning Roe vs. Wade, and getting prayer back in the public schools if we vote out the 'DEMONcrats' and vote in all the candidates that Dobson, Robertson, Kennedy, and others endorse. Look at the seeker-sensitive churches and you see the eternal weekend party for Jesus with a sermon that sounds no different than a late night infomercial and songs that sound like the teeny-bop love jingles that we call praise and worship. Great article, and much needed when a church seems to go towards an Amway mentality instead of an ACTS mandate. We Christians do not really know anything at all about suffering. The main reason is because modern Americanized Christianity is built on an ‘escape-hatch’ mentality that we can come up with a way to escale and eliminate suffering than teach people the Bible-based skills to walk through suffering.

Look at TBN or BET (Sunday Night/Monday morning) and you see preachers who promise you mega wealth, health, prosperity, and protection (along with miracle handkerchiefs and personal prayer packets) if you send them money or get on a ‘payment-plan pentecostalism’ if you send $61.00 a month for 12 months to receive the Psalms 61:12 blessing.

Look at many evangelical, religious-right churches and you see sermons the two Sundays before November promising a paradise of increased school vouchers, overturning Roe vs. Wade, and getting prayer back in the public schools if we vote out the ‘DEMONcrats’ and vote in all the candidates that Dobson, Robertson, Kennedy, and others endorse.

Look at the seeker-sensitive churches and you see the eternal weekend party for Jesus with a sermon that sounds no different than a late night infomercial and songs that sound like the teeny-bop love jingles that we call praise and worship.

Great article, and much needed when a church seems to go towards an Amway mentality instead of an ACTS mandate.

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