The Fellowship of Christ's Suffering

While teaching at VBI-Peru last night I received a revelation of the identification with Christ's suffereing (PLhil 3:10)  It comes out of my own testimony from when I became a non-smoker.  The Reader's Digest version...on the third day (coincidence?) after the Holy Spirit convicted me to quit I was in a deep battle that was compounded by my cigarette-smoking secretary.  I sent her home at 4:00, and at 4:30 I laid my head on my desk and said out loud, "Lord, look what I'm going through for You."

His response might have been out loud, it was so real.  He said, "Son, it's nothing compared to what I went through for you."  Immediately the desire to smoke disappeared and it's as though I had never smoked!

It was the first time I'd ever truly dealt with the agony of the cross and the price Christ paid for my salvation.  That, friends, is connecting with the fellowship of His suffering.

Have you made that connection?  It will change  your life!