Gabe Fluhrer

And so what Paul and Jesus tell us is that to become a Christian is to become a cross-bearer.

is to become a sufferer.

Now, as one of my professors pointed out, the New Testament term for suffering that Paul used in Colossians 1.24 and used in other places is broader than just something like martyrdom or suffering

suffering in your body, undergoing physical torture for the sake of Christ.

It means that and not less than that, but it means more than that.

And here's how he put it.

Such a great description of what this term means.

He says suffering represents, quote, the mundane frustrations and unspectacular difficulties of our everyday lives.

That's what the term means, our mundane frustrations and unspectacular difficulties of our daily lives.

So think about it like this.

Whatever you're undergoing...

in your daily life that is the mundane frustrations and unspectacular difficulties?

And don't we all face them?

And isn't that a perfect summary description of life in a fallen world?

And aren't those the things that threaten more to undo our faith?

than any philosopher or unbelieving scientist saying what he will about the so-called evidence against God's existence.

That's not normally what does us in.

It is the daily drip, drip, drip of mundane frustrations and unspectacular difficulties.

And when we put this all together, here's what Jesus is saying.

That is cross-bearing.