Be Light – How long will we Suffer for
Leto Karantoni

Good morning. I thank our pastors for the opportunity to share the Word of God. And above all I praise God that He gives us the opportunity to be here and to praise Him and worship Him. For many weeks our theme has been, as you can all around us, ‘To be light.’ To shine and be the light. When we first started this topic, in the beginning it seemed very simple to me – to be the light. But coming to church and listening to the different services, it’s not quite that simple. But the Lord of strength gives us the ability to be like Him. So, now also, give us Your strength, open up our minds, open my heart first of all, to listen to You and to proceed in Your Word, and to give what it is that You want to be given. And help us all together, to grow and put Your Word into practice.
We read from 1 Peter 5:10-11. You’ll see it on the screen, but whoever has their Bible with you, open them up. But truthfully, before I say go ahead, I opened my Bible at home and I liked the fact that I had made notes there. So, if you have your Bibles with you, use them. It is your
So, it says, “And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To Him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.” We are now reaching the end of 1 Peter, and here, Peter once more, is saying to us that we will suffer a little. And my question, when I read this verse is always, ‘The little, how little is it?’ When we suffer and reading this verse, and it says, ‘You will suffer for a little while,’ things will happen to you for a little while, you’ll be in pain for a little while, you will be in agony for a little while, this little, how little is it? I think about it lot, for myself.
Peter, in those times wrote to Christians who were suffering, and you may think today, that we Christians are living in very favorable circumstances, but for me, this is a very big warning. You know that nothing in this life, lasts forever. I remember that my grandmother had a picture in her bedroom, which said, ‘And this too will pass.’ But we never knew when it would pass. It simply said, this too will pass. All things in life today, are temporary. An illness may last for one week, or it may last for your whole life here on earth. Maybe something painful will last for months, or perhaps it will pass immediately. But you never know, what this, ‘Little bit, in this life will be.’
In reality, this life that we are living on this earth, is for a short while. It’s not forever here. And Peter says here, ‘After you have suffered for a little while,’ and I always say to the Lord, please Lord may this go away quickly. Now, I begin thinking, Lord, help me to live Your will through this. Because, this little, for whatever we are suffering, this little touches us as people in the way we live and move today. A severe illness will change the way we live, our routine, if we break a leg, it will change our daily way of life. If we have a family member who is suffering, again it changes us. However, if all of this, which change our daily way of living, if we give it to the Lord and place ourselves before Him, then our lives will truly be different.
The God of all grace, who has called us to His eternal glory, in Christ Jesus, this God of grace, if we give Him ourselves, what will He did for us? Firstly, He will perfect us. This means that something is missing, the Lord will come and repair this part that is missing of our lives. He will make us whole. He will give us that which is missing from our lives. The other thing that God will do, is to support us. You’ve seen people in the street who walk with a cane, that supports them and enables them to move forward. If we submit to God, He will become for us, please excuse my phrase, our walking stick. He will the One who comes to support us, on whom we can lean our weight upon. He will strengthen us. He’s like an injection of strength, He will strengthen us, there where we have lost our strength. You know, when we are in pain, we lose our energy and our courage, and in these circumstances, He supports us, and gives us the strength that we require. And the other thing that God does if we submit to Him, is that He will come and be our foundation. He will come and place a new steady foundation. He will place the foundation of Jesus Christ within us, upon whom we’ll be able to stand, and move and live and be built up.
Many people, when we tell them that Christians will suffer, they ask us, ‘Such a God of love, is it possible that He allows pain for His children?’ But I’ll tell you something, I looked through my Bible, and I believe that you also know this; the Scriptures are full of people that suffered. Joseph, who was sold as a slave into Egypt; he wasn’t at fault. For years he was a slave in Egypt. But God came, because he submitted himself to God, God restored him, He strengthened him, and He placed him on a firm foundation. Daniel, an important person in Babylon, where he was taken prisoner. But some were jealous of what he had, and they placed him in the lion’s den. But God took Him out of there and put him in a higher position. And the last years became better than the earlier years.
Paul, says, ‘I have a continuous thorn in my flesh which is bothering me constantly.’ But at some point, he cries out, ‘Praise God that He has set me free.’ And we have a major example, Jesus Christ, who suffered the cross. He died for us. He was buried in the tomb. However, He was resurrected and the Lord placed Him at His right hand, so that He can intercede for us. To have Him as a living example in our lives. Yes, God does allow us to have problems. Yes, God allows things to happen to us. But He is a God of such grace, He is such a God of gifts, who gives us something very beautiful, that we may have eternal glory through Jesus Christ. Eternal glory! Heavenly glory! Glory forever, through Jesus Christ.
When Christ was here on earth, He told His disciples, “I am going, to prepare a place for you. I want to prepare many houses for you to live in.” In a conference for ladies in Thessaloniki, we went with pastor Gail then, and my mother went with us at that time, and she knew nothing about the heavenly city that the Lord was preparing for us. And after the preaching, and the prayer that she prayed, she had a vision of this city. And she described it to us. But I don’t need my mother now to describe it to me, because the description in in the Bible in the book of Revelation. This city, which is being prepared by Jesus Christ, is strewn with many precious stones which exist on earth. It’s light, it’s full of gold. The roads are paved with gold and that city, will surely be filled with saints. A multitude of saints, who stand and watch the struggles we have today. He is preparing us to come into this glory.
It’s wonderful, isn’t it? If you suffer for a little while, the Lord of all grace, He will lead you, to eternal glory. The way in which we face our problems today, prepares us for eternal life. Many times, we say, this will go away, tomorrow is the future, but even tomorrow is not certain. The only thing that is steady, is that this life is temporary. However, heaven is eternal. And God is preparing us to live there in heaven. Many people say that believers should not be in pain, Christians shouldn’t have problems, Christians should live a wealthy life, Christians should possess big fancy cars. That which I know is that Christians should live daily enriched by the grace of God, to be more and more like Jesus Christ every day. That is what I believe is riches for the Christian, to be like Christ daily. How we live today, it affects how we are today and it affects those around us. How we face each of our problems, makes others look to us.
A large problem, makes someone either better or worse. We Christians, from within our problems, we should become better, and not worse. We should fill ourselves with love, and not with bitterness. We should fill ourselves with forgiveness, and not with anger. Because, our God, the true God, the living God, He is inside of us, and He leads us from, ‘Glory to Glory’. And one time ago, I believed that He leads me personally from glory to glory, but He leads us from glory to glory for Him, so that He may shine, so that He may be seen in our lives. So that others can see that He is with us. All glory, all honor, all worship be to Him, the eternal God. So that if something happens to you now, see it differently. Lord, help me, to live through this, and not complain, and to live with this problem, no matter what it may be. And to live any way, to serve You, Lord, to do the works that You have called me to do. To become who You want me to become. I am not complaining Lord, I would like to be healed today, but help me to do Your will, only this. So that You may receive all the glory, and all the honor and all the worship, because it belongs to You, Lord of Glory.
Peter wants to encourage us at this point, people in those days were being fed to the lions, they were lit up in the streets, they genuinely suffered persecution. But I believe that the time has come, where the Church today, worldwide, will not be able to speak its opinion. They will not be allowed to stand on their principles. The time will come, that whatever is written in the Bible will become very difficult to implement. But Peter here is encouraging us. He says, ‘Don’t be afraid, because the Lord of Glory, He will guide you. You will suffer for a short while, but it will pass, it is temporary. Just remaining rooted in Me.’ Peter tells us to place our eyes on Him, who is the Light of the world, and since He is inside of us, living as He would like us to live, we can also become the light of the world. We won’t be THE LIGHT, but we will be light in this world. They will at us and say, ‘They look like Christ. They are like Christ. They suffer like Christ did. They talk like Christ, they move like Christ, they are Christians.’ We are the light. God wants to use us for this purpose. He wants us to shine in this world. He wants us to be a Church, who might suffer, or is suffering or is in pain, what they will say is that, ‘The Lord is Lord. He is a mighty God. He’s a God who gives out love, he’s a God who is patient.’
And so, we look to Him, and we give Him Glory, because to Him belongs the Glory and Power, eternally. That is why I encourage you today, whatever problem you may be facing, whatever anxiety or stress you may have, look at it through a different light today. And this too will pass. That’s a certainty. And surely there is a heavenly Glory. Let us live and let us be the light, and let us tell everybody about this heavenly Glory. May God bless you all. May you always be well and the Lord will be with us.

Gail Stathis

A question that people regularly ask. And often we fail to have the answer. Why does God let us suffer? I think the answer is fairly simple. God gave us free will, every day you get to choose, His way or your way. It’s true. That’s what Adam and Eve did, they chose their own way. I chose to follow Jesus, Amen. But because there’s a lot of people around me, that do not choose to follow Jesus, and they never have, there’s sin and sickness and murder and hate, all kinds of other things, but guess what, God did not cause that.
So, God doesn’t make us suffer, and I think it’s good to remember, how great is our God. He says if you choose Me, I’m right there. If, as Leto preached, in the middle of the suffering, I want to end with this thought. I love Job, he lost everything, his kids, his houses, all of his animals. His body was covered in sores and he was scraping himself, his body was full of boils, and his wife looks at him, and what does she say? ‘Why don’t you just curse God and die.’ And lots of times, we listen to that voice around us. I often wanted to know what Job wanted to say to her really, but I don’t want to go there. Instead, he says, “I know that my redeemer lives and even if I’m suffering, He is able, more than able, to keep my life that I commit to Him, till I see Him face to face.”
Oh, I know, sometimes I make choices that cause me to suffer, but don’t blame it on God, don’t blame God for our difficult times – stop it. Because one day, we will know Him, as our perfect God who makes all things right. Where there will be no more sin, no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more pain, no more death.