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Christianity Today, December, 2004 |

Baptism + Fire

Suffering may build character, but ultimately it's not about us.

By Mark Galli | posted 12/01/2004 12:00AM

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This is part of what it means to become holy, to be refined by fire. Difficulties and sufferings are God's form of hazing. Sometimes it gets so bad, we think him cruel. But he's only looking for men and women who will keep their cool when things go horribly wrong, a people prepared to dash into burning rooms to rescue those about to be engulfed in flames.

Mark Galli is managing editor of Christianity Today. The article is a condensed excerpt from his forthcoming book, Jesus Mean and Wild: Why We Need the Holiness of Christ (Baker, 2005).

A ready-to-download Bible Study on this article is available at ChristianBibleStudies.com. These unique Bible studies use articles from current issues of Christianity Today and other magazines to prompt thought-provoking discussions in adult Sunday school classes or small groups.

Verses referenced in this article are available on this BibleGateway page.

The Catholic Encyclopedia has a biography of St. Anthony of the Desert.

Our sister publication, Christian History & Biography has an article on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The website Pegasos, a literature resource site, also has a biography of Solzhenitsyn.

The Gulag Archipelago is available from Amazon.com and other book retailers.

"Hazing and Heroism" by Tom Downey is available on the author's website for his book, The Last Men Out.

Other Christianity Today articles on suffering include:

Wind of Terror, Wind of Glory | We cannot know God's majesty without his terrible holiness.

The Joy of Suffering in Sri Lanka | How Christians thrive in the land where ethnic and religious strife is always just around the corner. (Sept. 29, 2003)

Why Suffering? | A young director's documentary is thin on theology but rich with compassion. (June 13, 2002)

Reflections: Suffering & Grief | Quotations to stir the heart and mind. (May 20, 2002)

Reflections: Suffering | Quotations to stir heart and mind (Sept. 13, 2001)

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December 2004, Vol. 48, No. 12

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