Rich in His Poverty

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 2Corinthians 8:9 

2Corinthians_8:2  How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
Matthew 16:26  For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Mark 8:35  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it

Jesus speaks, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John_16:33 

The Psalmist cries, “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.”  Psalm 39:12

Charles Spurgeon makes an observation, “Yes Lord, with thee but not to thee.”

Yes, David alludes to his fellowship in the realm of “strangers.”

In Hebrews 11:3 and 1Peter 2:11 believers also are referred to as strangers and pilgrims. Parepidēmos (pilgrim)
one who comes from a foreign country into a city or land to reside there by the side of the natives: paroikos (stranger), an alien resident-one who lives in a place without the right of citizenship.

A pilgrim in a foreign country, thou art a stranger in the world.” Spurgeon

“When Jesus came to His own, His own received Him not” He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. Never was a foreigner so speckled a bird among the denizens of any land as thy beloved Son among his mother’s brethren.

“It is no marvel then if I who live the life of Jesus, should be unknown and a stranger here below. “

We must visit the great Psalm 39 again.

“I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.   I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.  My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,  

Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. 

Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.”  v 1-5

” I would not be a citizen where Jesus was an alien. But here is the sweetness of my lot. I am a stranger with Thee. Thou art my fellow sufferer, my fellow pilgrim. O what joy to walk in such blessed society! My heart burns within me by the way when Thou dost speak to me. and though I be a sojourner I am far more blessed than those who sit on thrones…”

Above taken from Surgeon “morning and evening.”

In closing, the hearts of the two men on the road burned, walking with the resurrected Jesus at Emmaus. in Luke 24:13  Paul cried out for” the fellowship of His sufferings. “

Psalm 39:7  summarizes it “And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. ” Psalm 73:25  adds, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.  My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”

love ya