About Adam Collier

http://AdamCollier.com/about

Find more about me on:

Here are my most recent posts

-

Thoughts on Suffering for Jesus Followers

Recently (January 2020) I had a bad experience with low blood sodium. It put me in the hospital overnight. It was a horrible experience. I suffered for about 12 hours before they were able to get my blood sodium levels up.

I sat in the ER for about an hour waiting to get relief. They had no open rooms. I felt desperate to escape the suffering. Praying to Jesus for help.

Then I heard a familiar voice.

It was the voice of an elderly woman calling out to Jesus. Groaning in pain, “help me Jesus.”

Frankly, her calls for help were very familiar, this is because they were what I was saying in my own mind. At that moment I had such a feeling of compassion for her. She had a younger woman with her who seemed to have absolutely no compassion for her. She just didn’t seem to understand or care.

I began to pray for her and it helped to take my mind off my own body.

This experience has me thinking about suffering. Trying to make sense of it, how does it fit into the plan of God?

I think Jesus set the pattern for his followers and part of that pattern includes suffering. There is even appointed a time for us to die. But then the resurrection. Suffering is temporary, it does a special work in us and it ends. Just like for Jesus Christ. Jesus prayed to avoid the suffering that was coming to him but the Father wanted him to experience it for a reason.

In the book of 1 Peter, Peter covers suffering for us. Suffering is a calling for us all. It’s not a sign of punishment or lack of faith. It’s part of the experience of a Jesus follower.

“TO THIS WE HAVE BEEN CALLED” – 1 Peter 2:2 The idea that 1 Peter 3,4 doesn’t apply to Christians today is inaccurate. The idea that Jesus did all our suffering so we don’t have to, is not in the New Testament, and it is an old attitude of the rich and elite of the world.

Fear is basically the dread and avoidance of suffering.

Instead I think God wants us to walk right into suffering by faith WITH Jesus Christ with our heads held high. Asking for healing expecting his help.

Periodic suffering is part of our calling. It’s normal, expect it, it’s ok, it is not heresy to say that suffering is ok.

“For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you DO GOOD and SUFFER for it you ENDURE, this is a GRACIOUS thing in the SIGHT OF GOD (the only one who matters). For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2:20-21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

T. Austin Sparks is a British Bible teacher from the 50s thru the 70s who has a great 8-part series on suffering.

http://austin-sparks.net/audio_alpha.html

They are called, “Faith Unto Enlargement Through Adversity.”

If you are suffering, and can concentrate, listen to these teachings.

Comments 0
-

New Podcast Listener – Letter to Eric Metaxas

Dear Eric, I am a recent subscriber to your podcast and I love it so far.

I want to respectfully challenge/ question/ debate you about something and I think this letter is a good way to do this. Not sure if you’ll actually read this but maybe?

It is December 12, 2020 and I believe the election was stolen from Donald Trump illegally. I am praying for our government, that it will be overturned and that justice and truth and sanity will prevail in all the governments above us.

I am a 46 year old father of 6 and husband for 20 years, I’ve been a Christian since I was 18. I live in NY and work in CT and I love this nation.

My blog here http://AdamCollier.com is where I share my heart, I mostly write about Jesus Christ, who I know you love and sincerely follow. I have published a fiction book about a transformation of a small church here: From His Side: A Fresh Revealing of Jesus Christ Changes Everything https://www.amazon.com/dp/0692122796/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_.eu1FbD41PNSN

I am also writing a non fiction book about what I call the gospel of the state. It contrasts the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ to the gospel of the state which I think most people of the world have embraced, including many Christians. The gospel of the state was best put to words by some of the founding fathers and by Karl Marx.

Been recently reading some of the writings of some of the founding fathers of the US. I see stark contrasts between their beliefs and writings and those of Jesus Christ.

You said in a recent podcast “shame on Christians who don’t fight back for our rights as Americans to vote and defend the constitution of the United States.”

I love the US and believe its been a force for the Lord in the world in many ways.

BUT, the government of the United States is not the nation, it is not the United States. The government of the United States is certainly not the ecclesia. Wicked principalities and powers connect and oppress people through governments, including our own. Therefore the government is not sacred, it is not a thing of Jesus Christ. IT is not a thing that we are to strive to control even if that is out of self-protection. It is a thing of the constitution. And the constitution is weak, it is weak in that it is easily ignored even by those who supposedly swear oaths to it. It is a 250 year old document of brilliant ideas about government. But reality shows that we collectively ignore the constitution, most of us don’t know what it even says and why it says it. And therefore it is very weak and almost irrelevant.

Voting also is weak and easily undermined by conspiring Satan followers, as what seems to have happened in PA, MI, WI, GA, and AZ, (curiously in all the swing states). If voting administrators want to cheat then the true vote becomes irrelevant. Furthermore, voting is not a good thing if voters are not lead of the holy spirit. Voting is also not a good thing if the Holy Spirit leads us not to vote at all and we do so anyhow. (as I believe he led me to this election cycle). “Of the people, by the people and for the people” is not a good thing if the people are following Satan (either intentionally or unwittingly).

In contrast to the constitution and the government, Jesus Christ is a real and living person. He is not weak in any way, he is not undermined and Satan cannot undo his government.

He personally is the government of God of today and the future. His followers are personally his “presidents”, his “senators”, his “judges” and his “representatives”. We are his ministers and ambassadors to people from another race entirely. We are the government agents to and for the fallen members of the human race and to the wicked principalities and powers in heavenly places. We are to seek the Lord and kingship of Jesus Christ not the control of human government.

THEREFORE, the Christian is not called to defend the constitution of the federal government of the US (as good as a foundation to govt as it may be). And I do believe its the best government man kind has devised.

Christians are not called to die and shed the blood of tyrants so that we can vote and so that we can live free of persecution.

The extent of our involvement with the government is to pray for it so that we can live quiet and peaceful lives. and to hold it accountable to submitting to Jesus Christ.

I do understand the desire for war and brining violence to the evil forces arrayed against us through confused men. But I believe Jesus does not want this, and never has. I believe the American Revolution could have happened without blood shed. I believe that slavery could have ended without blood shed. I even believe that Hitler could have been undone and vanquished without blood shed by the German ecclesia of the 1920’s and 1930’s.

I’d love to talk and debate more about this in person or through writing. I highly respect your opinion and am also a major fan of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Check out my article why I’m not voting in 2020.

Why I am Not Voting in 2020

Comments 0
-

Nation Without Government

I love America.

But I find myself lately wondering if it is possible to have a nation without a human government. I wondered this long before and after the 2020 election. Which served to only solidify my thoughts.

Some of the Anarchists I agree with, not the violent ones but the ones who want to be free of government. The word anarchy just means no hunan government.

Police are not government, so defunding them is not the thing to do. They are to just enforce laws, in free nations they do not enforce the every command of a king.

Certainly we could pool our money to have roads and police and militia. Without government involvement.

Certainly we could give to the poor. Without government involvement.

Why does this Satanic thing called government, with its permanent political class of millionaires, have to exist? With its tentacles of control penetrating everything from my schooling, to my medical life, to how I repair my home. And to taking as much as 50% of my income.

Human governments are disloyal to Jesus Christ. That alone is enough to delegitimatize them. They are however almost always loyal to Satan, whether they realize it or not (and I think a good deal
of government power pursuers do realize it)

So they are illegitimate institutions which are a threat to the safety of everyone. And they do not have a good future.

The alternative to human government control is men and women led and restrained by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. A nation full of people like that does not need a strong oppressive overreaching government at all. They are virtuous, they don’t have poor because the rich share with them directly. Governments are very ineffective at feeding the poor. A nation like this does not have hopelessness, and they do not harm one another.

Comments 0

Stay Up To Date With Email

​-

Check This Out

I use & recommend Bluehost, buy your domain and hosting here!

Get Adam’s From His Side Book Here! Its about Church Transformaton from Institutional Church to Living Ecclesia

Visitors

  • 53,492 hits

Connect on Twitter

en_USEnglish
en_USEnglish