No one can accuse the apostles of sugar-coating the gospel. Here Paul and Barnabas pass back through the cities in which they had established churches in order to instruct and encourage (putting muscle and sinew in the lives of the disciples, The Message) the new believers. Their overall message: Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times. Interesting message, that.
The Christian life is no easy thing, a life of faith (Rom 1.17) is by definition, hard, because one is going to experience things that one does not understand; that don't make sense; that seem counter-intuitive. There are times when God seems to work against his own purposes. Of course, he never does this, it just seems that way to our finite minds. A good example: missionaries getting kicked out of China. What was God up to there? Why would he allow that? How was the gospel going to advance now? The end result: staggering, phenomenal, supernatural growth of the church--an estimated 1 million evangelicals in 1950, to an estimated 100 million today. Amazing and totally unexpected.
Are you a believer in Christ? You're going to go through hard times. Christ said it; Paul and Barnabas also. Expect it. Be prepared.
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