📚Midweek Motivation 5/7/2026 ✝️

Midweek Motivation

Grace Chapel of Southern Maryland

May 7, 2026

"The Christian Paradox" ✝️

May- The Church of Christ

Read and Remember📚

Quote from Richard Wurmbrand

Archive 🗄️

Past Messages, Resources, and Church Events

The Church of Christ

For The Month of May 💐

As we begin a new month, we turn our attention to the church of Jesus Christ… its mission, its ministry, and its calling in the world.

Because the church is not simply a building or a gathering of people. It is the body of Christ… called to proclaim the truth, to suffer faithfully, and to make Christ known.

"The Christian Paradox" ✝️

As we come to Colossians 1:24, we see how to have joy in the face of suffering… it’s a Christian paradox. A paradox is a contradictory or even absurd statement… you say one thing, you say another in the same sentence, and it seems like they contradict each other, but when you investigate it, it turns out to be true.

And that’s exactly what we find here. Because when we think about joy, we normally associate it with peace, prosperity, and comfort… not suffering and affliction. Yet Paul says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings.”

And what we begin to see is that biblical joy is not a feeling… it’s a decision, it’s a choice, it’s a pattern of mind.

Paul shows us that Christian joy is rooted in God’s Word and God’s work… and that suffering for the sake of the gospel is not something strange, but part of the Christian life.

As we walk through this passage, we see the mindset of suffering, the mission of suffering, and the motivation of suffering… and how God calls His people to suffer faithfully, rejoice continually, and proclaim the gospel boldly, even in the face of affliction.

Watch "The Christian Paradox" ✝️

Read and Remember 📚

We preached and they beat us. They were happy beating us, and we were happy preaching.”

-Richard Wurmbrand

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Richard Wurmbrand was a Romanian pastor who spent over 14 years imprisoned and tortured for preaching the gospel. Despite immense suffering, he became known for his unwavering joy in Christ and his faithfulness to proclaim the truth of God’s Word.