Our Response to the Philippian Christ Hymn

How crazy is it to want to share in someone's sufferings, and in their death?!

I want to know Christ,
and the power of his rising;
share in his suffering,
conform to his death.

When I poor out my life
to be filled with his Spirit,
joy follows suffering,
and life follows death!

Sometimes we lose things that are very dear to us. Sometimes God let's us suffer for the honor of his name. Why would he do this? Corrie and Betsie Ten Boom were two Christians who went to a concentration camp in Holland for harbouring Jews.

They suffered greatly consequences that were not their own. They new that the apparent reality, those things that were tangible and palpable, were not the ultimate reality. They were placed in the camp at Ravensbruck to share in the Messiah's suffering and give many Jewish new glasses.

They shared with them the reality of the Kingdom of God. The God who came to earth, suffered and died for their deliverence was right there in the midst of their suffering. The holy scriptures sustained them when bread was lacking and their strength had failed. The Nazis could take their lives, but yet they couldn't. They now knew that their sufferings were a part of sharing in Christ's death, and ultimately by faith they would share in his resurrection!!!!

Many women were saved because of the Ten Boom sister's sufferings in a concentration camp not design for them. God's reign came to that camp!

Christ did suffer and die out of humble obedience before he was exalted. We, his followers, are not exempt! We are called to the same path. And it is a glorious path, though not in the eyes of this world. It is a glory that can only be seen with eyes opened by the Spirit of God.

Pauls says, "Yes, I gave it all up in order to know him, that is, to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings as I am being conformed to his death, so that somehow I might arrive at being resurrected from the dead." Philippians 3:10-11

This is Paul's life response to the Christ hymn that had been passed on to him:
"Let your attitude toward one another be governed by your being in union with the Messiah Yeshua:

Though he was in the form of God,
he did not regard equality with God
something to be possessed by force.
On the contrary, he emptied himself,
in that he took the form of a slave
by becoming like human beings are.

And when he appeared as a human being,
he humbled himself still more
by becoming obedient even to death --
death on a stake as a criminal!
Therefore God raised him to the highest place
and gave him the name above every name;

that in honor of the name given Yeshua,
every knee will bow --
in heaven, on earth and under the earth --
and every tongue will acknowledge
that Yeshua the Messiah is Yahweh --
to the glory of God the Father.

-- Philippians 2:5-11

May we do the same...