"To This You Were Called, Because CHRIST Suffered For You."

Blessed is the mouth that spits upon us!
(Charles Spurgeon, "The Sweet Uses of Adversity")

"For those whom HE foreknew, HE 
also predestined to become conformed 
to the image of His SON!" Romans 8:29

"That I may know HIM and the power 
of HIS resurrection and the fellowship 
of HIS sufferings, being conformed to 
HIS death." Philippians 3:10

As JESUS was in this world--

even so must we be. We must have 

fellowship with HIM in HIS sufferings--

that we may be conformed unto HIS death.

None can be like the Man of Sorrow--

unless they have sorrows too! 

How can you be like unto HIM who 

sweat as it were great drops of blood--

if you do not sometimes cry, 

"MY soul is exceeding 
sorrowful, even unto death!"
(Matthew 26:38)

Do not think, O beloved, that you 
can be like the thorn-crowned head--
and yet never feel the thorn! 

Can you be like your dying LORD--
and yet be uncrucified? 

Must your hand be without a nail, 
and your foot without a wound? 
You cannot be like HIM, unless like 
HIM you are compelled to say, 

"MY GOD, MY GOD, why have YOU 
forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)


GOD is chiseling you--
and you are but a rough block. HE 
is making you into the image of CHRIST--
and that sharp chisel is taking away much 
which prevents your being like HIM.

Must HE who is our head, be marred 
in HIS visage by reason of grief--
and must we forever rejoice and sing? 
It cannot be! 

"We must through many tribulations 
enter the kingdom of GOD." Acts 14:22

Sweet is the affliction which 
gives us fellowship with CHRIST.

Blessed is the plough that 
ploughs deep furrows--
if the furrows are like HIS.

Blessed is the mouth that spits upon us--
if the spittle is from the same cause as 
that which defiled His holy face.

Blessed are the nails and thorns, 
and vinegar and spear--
if they but make us somewhat like HIM, 
in whose glory we shall be partakers 
when we shall see HIM as HE is.

This is a matter which all cannot 
understand, for it is a path which 
no unhallowed foot has trodden, and 
no careless eye has so much as seen it. 
But the true believer can rejoice therein, 
for he has had fellowship with CHRIST 
in his sufferings.

"To this you were called, because CHRIST 
suffered for you, leaving you an example, 
that you should follow in His steps!" 1 Peter 2:21

   
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GraceGems has published J.R. Miller's helpful short article, 
"Looking at the Right Side".