Be Ready

"Christ's suffering is for propitiation; our suffering is for propagation." Joseph Tson, as stated in Suffering: the Sacrifice of Christian Hedonism", by John Piper. and quoted in The Triumphant Church, complied by The Voice of the Martyrs. p. 62.

Brother Andrew said not to defend yourself, but to tell what Jesus has done for you. Ibid (Piper) p. 63.

"...the call of Christ is a call to live a life of suffering that would be foolish to live if there was no resurrection." Ibid. p. 50.

"...most Christians in the prosperous West describe the benefits of Christianity in terms that would make it a good life, even if there were no God and no resurrection>" Ibid. p. 42

"When Paul says, 'If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink,' he did not mean, 'Let's all become lechers.' He means, there is a normal, simple, comfortable, ordinary life of human delights that we may enjoy with no troubling thoughts of heaven or hell or holiness or God - if there is no resurrection from the dead. And what stunned me {Piper} about this train of thought is that many professing Christians seem to aim at just this, and call it Christianity.

"Paul did not see his relation to Christ as the key to maximizing his physical comforts and pleasures in this life. No, Paul's relation to Christ was a call to chosen suffering - a suffering that was beyond what would make atheism 'meaningful' or 'beautiful' or 'heroic.' It was a suffering that would have been utterly foolish and pitiable to choose if there is no resurrection into the joyful presence of Christ." Ibid. pp.48-49. "... it is precisely his {Paul's} hope and quest for that resurrection that sustains and empowers his suffering." Ibid. p. 65.

And this is how ordinary Christians are expected to live.