We Are Warned.

Be Warned.

1Co 4:14  I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.

Warned.  When we warn someone, what are we doing? If I warn you about something I'm essentially telling you to be cautious, that you are going to encounter something possibly unpleasant.  We don't warn people of good things coming their way, we happily tell them something nice is on its way. When we warn we are instantly putting things in a certain light that reveals a bit of dread. If I say, "I'm warning you, you might not like that." I'm giving you advanced notice so I can put you on alert. Warnings serve to ward a person off doing something that might have negative consequences. Warnings also are used to brace a person for something that is inevitable it they are not able to avoid the thing warned about. I might warn a person that it's not pleasant inside an MRI machine, but that doesn't mean I don't want them to get their MRI. I want them to know that they may experience discomfort and to prepare themselves for what's going to happen.

We are warned that being a follower of Christ will be difficult. 

For some in our world today, being a Christian means being tortured, and even killed. There are numerous people imprisoned around the world just for being a Christ follower and nothing more. Here in the United States we are sealed off from that sort of abuse for the most part. I don't fear someone knocking down my door and dragging me off in the night to throw me in prison after beating me within an inch of my life. Most Christians here in the U.S.A. are not tormented in any way at all, they are allowed to go about their business of Christ following unimpeded. We are blessed in this, truly blessed.

Do we still need to be warned that being a follower of Christ will be difficult? I think we do. I think every single Christian no matter where they reside needs to comprehend the difficulty of following Christ Jesus.  There are many different sorts of difficulties and we have to comprehend that if our lives are filled with one upset after another, things that are God allowed, that we can scarcely comprehend being afflicted with- that these difficulties could very well be heaped upon us because as we are warned- it is difficult being a follower of Christ. We might not have to worry about others torturing us for Christ, but we do have to know that we will be tortured and tormented emotionally, mentally and sometimes even physically through our health- because Satan is our great tormentor and he will stop at nothing to make any Christ follower he can, very unhappy with their life.

We have to comprehend the 'trial of our faith' can take many forms.  We are WARNED, and being warned we shouldn't be surprised when things happen the try our faith to the uttermost! While I say- we shouldn't be surprised, that doesn't mean we won't be dismayed when things happen. We can't help but initially react in possibly fear, upset, anger, anxiety and the like. It's after that initial reaction we have to take stock of our situations and place our faith in our GOD. If our faith is to be tried, we must allow it to be refined and tried and strengthened by the process. Knowing that we believe even as our world is being ripped apart in and all around us, that eternal life through the forgiveness of our sins, through the salvation of our Savior who was sacrificed for us, is a REALITY, a future set in stone, the Rock of Jesus Christ our Lord! We have to drill it in our minds, in our hearts that this world and all its awfulness - every single horror- is temporary to eternity in Christ!

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 

1Pe 1:4  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 

1Pe 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

1Pe 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 

1Pe 1:8  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 

1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 

1Pe 5:11  To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 

2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 

2Co 4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 

2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

Psa 119:75  I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. 

Lam 3:32  But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 

Lam 3:33  For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. 

Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 

Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 

Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 

Heb 12:10  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 

Heb 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 

Job 9:27  If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself: 

Job 9:28  I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. 

Psa 119:28  My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word. 

Mat 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Rom 9:2  That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 

Php 2:25  Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. 

Php 2:26  For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick. 

Php 2:27  For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 

Php 2:28  I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. 

Php 2:29  Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation: 

Php 2:30  Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me. 

Heb 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 

Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 

Jas 4:9  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 

Jas 4:10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. 

Psa 34:19  Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. 

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. 

1Co 4:9  For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 

1Co 4:10  We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. 

1Co 4:11  Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; 

1Co 4:12  And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: 

1Co 4:13  Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. 

1Co 4:14  I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. 

2Co 11:23  Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 

2Co 11:24  Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 

2Co 11:25  Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 

2Co 11:26  In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 

2Co 11:27  In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

Heb 11:35  Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 

Heb 11:36  And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 

Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 

Heb 11:38  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 

Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 

Heb 11:40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 

Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 

Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.