Welcome back to the podcast.

Thank you for joining us today.

We start this new week with an email from a list of names Shannon.

Shannon is wondering if personal suffering is paradoxical for those of us who put so much

stress on joy for us.

Christian Heedness is your email.

Pastor Jen, hello, and thank you for the APJ podcast.

My question is about first Peter four versus one to two.

There appears to be a point of arrival when we no longer live for human passions, but

for God's will.

As a Christian Heedness, do you see an irony that my sinfulness will cease only after I

have suffered for a certain amount of time?

Thus showing my life is not to live for my own sinful pleasure, but to pursue God as

my greatest treasure.

Is suffering a paradox for Christian Heedness?

Okay, there are two, at least I hear two distinct issues to deal with here.

One is whether Shannon is interpreting first Peter four, one correctly, and the other

is whether suffering is indeed appointed by God as a means by which sin is rooted out

of our lives and is therefore a means by which we come to enjoy Christ more, more fully

as our supreme treasure.

That's the kind of paradox she's saying.

If that's true, then we're going to embrace suffering as Christian Heedness, and she

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