Suffer with Christ
By Solly Lebelo
()
About this ebook
Understand that every challenge that causes suffering belongs to Christ. Do not be angry with God but thank Him for giving you the opportunity to share in Christs sufferings. Gods love for you is without limits. Suffering is not from God, but He allows it for a particular purpose. Be blessed.
Solly Lebelo
Solly Lebelo is a senior pastor and founder, by God’s grace and calling, of Christ Fellow Centre (CFC) at a village in the northern part of Gauteng, South Africa. He found the grace of God to be called also into the office of a teacher by the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to this, the Lord put in him the burden of church planting. He is also used by God in the ministry of counselling and worship. God has also given him with the ministry of music, with special abilities to compose and arrange songs. He is a family man and blessed with three children: two daughters and a son. Professionally he is an educator and currently teaches Mathematics at one of the leading universities of South Africa.
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Suffer with Christ - Solly Lebelo
Copyright © 2013 by Solly Lebelo.
ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4836-6118-6
Ebook 978-1-4836-6119-3
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Rev. date: 06/25/2013
To order additional copies of this book, contact:
Xlibris LLC
0-800-056-3182
www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk
Orders@xlibrispublishing.co.uk
306991
CONTENTS
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Introduction
Chapter One: Causes of Suffering
Chapter Two: Why God Allows Suffering
Chapter Three: Suffer with Christ
Conclusion
DEDICATION
To God the Almighty and all the people who have supported me in different ways. To my God-given kids, Rearabilwe, Rorisang, and Bontle, stay at the feet of our Lord Jesus.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I thank God our creator, the Lord Jesus our Saviour, and the Counsellor God the Holy Spirit for the grace given upon me to write this book. I also want to thank all the children of God who are making endless prayers for me that I continue to do the work of the Lord. Special thanks to the leadership of Christ Fellowship Centre for the loyalty and support, my family also, for standing behind me through tough times. I also thank Xlibris publishers for the excellent work done to make the message in this book reach the world.
INTRODUCTION
My heart is broken when I see that many Christians lose hope, faith, and love for God because of many bitter experiences they go through on this planet Earth. It is my heart’s desire to see all God’s children rejoicing at all times when conditions are favourable or unfavourable. Christians need to understand that suffering is part of life and that God allows His children to suffer for a good purpose.
God promised in His Word that He will never leave nor forsake His people, irrespective of what His people think about Him when their suffering is so strong. God is not human; what He promised is true and nothing can change His ability to fulfil His wonderful promises. Suffering can cause God’s people to think that God does not care nor hear their daily requests and supplications. As a result, many Christians tend to solve their problems in a worldly way that is contrary to God’s will and Word.
There are many believers who decided to consult fortune tellers, magicians, traditional healers who consult with ancestral spirits, and the so-called prophets who also have a relationship with ancestral spirits as a result of the suffering which have tormented their lives for some time. I know that these believers did pray for a time, and when their requests were not answered according to their expectations, they became discouraged, impatient, and lost confidence in God. I understand the pain the believers have gone through and are still experiencing now, and maybe you may be one of them. This is the reason that urged me to write this book, led and guided by the Holy Spirit.
I trust God that what this book entails will be of help to the reader. I have also experienced difficult situations which made me feel like that God was no more interested in me. I sometimes felt that death would be a solution to avoid those sufferings. But after spending enough time with God through prayer and much reading of His Word, the Bible, God revealed a Word-based way for me to overcome the discouragement and negative thoughts I had about God during the tough situations, and to face the situations or sufferings with a positive attitude, with the understanding that God allows suffering for a good purpose.
God will not allow a suffering that is beyond one’s ability to face. So God encourages His people in His Word to rejoice in suffering because He knows that suffering moulds God’s person to be in a good attitude and to thank God at all times in order to shame the evil one (Satan).
CHAPTER ONE
Causes of Suffering
Suffering is brought about by any situation that causes pain in the body or spirit. A suffering is not short spanned but takes time, and as a result, it may cause unhappiness, lack of peace, withdrawal from the society, stress, and worry.
There are many things that I can mention that cause sufferings, but I want to restrict myself to God’s Word in order to specify some of the things that cause sufferings. A list of causes of sufferings I want to discuss is found in the book of Romans chapter eight and verse thirty-five, and I will discuss them as the Spirit of God led me.
Romans 8: 35 says, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulations, or distress, or persecutions, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?’ King James Version (KJV).
The Apostle Paul mentioned seven causes, which according to me cover all aspects of life. They are discussed as follows:
1. Tribulation
Tribulation is also referred to as trouble in the other versions of the Bible. Tribulation can come as a result of an affliction of the body due to pain or illness. A tribulation can take a long time. Think of any pain of illness that has troubled one for a long time.
In the book of Revelations, the great tribulation is mentioned. The tribulation mentioned involves affliction of the body with severe pains. Let us read one of the tribulations from Revelation 9: 1-12: ‘[1] And the fifth angel sounded,