"...the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as the sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured" - Hebrews 13:12-13
Most of the Psalms were born in difficulty. Most of the Epistles were written in prisons. Most of the greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers of all time had to pass through the fire. Author John Bunyan wrote "Pilgrim's Progress" from jail. Florence Nightingale (famous English nurse), too ill to move from her bed, reorganized the hospitals of England. Semi-paralyzed and under the constant menace of apoplexy, Louis Pasteur (famous French chemist/microbiologist) was tireless in his attack on disease. For the greater part of his life, American historian Francis Parkman suffered so acutely that he could not work for more than five minutes as a time. His eyesight was so wretched that he could scrawl only a few gigantic words on a manuscript, yet he contrived to write twenty magnificent volumes of history.
"Sometimes it seems that when God is about to make preeminent use of a man, he puts him through the fire" - Tim Hansel, You Gotta Keep Dancin', David C. Cook, 1985, p. 87
Jesus Christ himself exemplifies this truth. In order to accomplish the greatest work of all, he was scourged, abused, forsaken, ridiculed, and ultimately taken outside the city walls and hanged on a cross for public display - EVEN THOUGH HE WAS DOING THE WILL OF HIS FATHER. It is always important to remind ourselves, in the midst of what we are facing, that to identify with Christ will often mean to face pain and apparent disgrace.
Remember these words:
"Now if we are children then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory" - Romans. 8:17
In Hebrews 13:13 there is a plea given to born-again believers: don't be afraid to GO TO HIM. Go to him outside the camp: a place of separation from the evil world system that glorifies values, attitudes, and priorities that are of no eternal consequence. Go to him outside the camp: a place of rejection and pain, but a place where true life is found. Go to him outside the camp: a place where you may be alone, but you are empowered to accomplish works that matter for eternity. Living for Christ may bring social rejection; it may bring public disgrace; it may bring personal pain - BUT GO TO HIM AND FIND YOUR LIFE BELIEVER.
Pastor Andrew Smith
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