Category: <span>Suffering</span>

Tribulation works out endurance, and endurance, approvedness. Then comes hope, the assurance of which we are not ashamed. Then love floods the heart? Wait! Peace comes first through justification in Romans chapter 5. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: ” Romans 5:1  “Justified” is Greek aorist participle, indicating an action done prior to the main verb. So before peace came justification. We were declared righteous at the point of salvation. “‘Peace’ means that the war is done, …God has nothing against us.” “This peace with God must not be confused with the peace of God of Philippians 4:7. Which is a subjective peace, whereas ‘peace with God’ is an objective fact — outside of ourselves. Thousands strive for inward peace, never once resting where God is resting — in the finished work of Christ on Calvary. “ All taken from William Newell…

The subject of Biblical testing at the initiation of God is one of fleeting understanding. In fact, this author wrote a short commentary on “Job” a few years ago, only to wander, today, if there was any accuracy in the insight. I am thinking of writing a revision. I had discussed “Sense evaluation” as a target of God’s testing, which I still hold to be true. God’s servant in Isaiah 11: 3, judged not “after the sight of his eyes, neither reproved after the hearing of his ears.” — a prophetic passage pointing to Christ. The reference refers to temporal thinking which, again, God targets for exposure and ultimate removal. God seeks to orient us to the eternal. Our degree of Spiritual content through the intake of God’s Word reveals itself in the trial. In his booklet, “When Testings Come,” Dr. Carl H. Stevens writes that in tests. “God watches six…

And it came to pass, when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid upon the south, and upon Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire; and had taken the women captives that were in it; both great and small: they had put none to death, but had carried them off, and went on their way. 1 Samuel 30:1-2 An adverse day,   “So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.” 1Samuel 30:3 David lifted his voice and wept, And so too, all the people with him. Then, “…the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters.” Out of the bitter gash created in every man’s…

Peter beckoned the Lord, “bid me come unto thee on the water.” He too walked on the water. “But when he saw the wind forcible, he was afraid; and beginning to sink; he cried, saying, Lord, save me.” “Instantly Jesus stretched out His hand and caught hold of him, saying to him, ‘O little faith, why did you doubt?’”  When boisterous winds cause our undergirding to swirl, please remember the outstretched arm of Jesus. Friends, our lives include miracles on the upside, but fallings on the down. To know beforehand that Christ’ open hand of rescue awaits my down-plunges, is an absolute essential for any “success” I may gain. Consider Psalm 37:23-24 “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way;  though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.” ESV  Jeremiah 10:23 teaches “I know, O Lord, that…

Instead of confident walking, we shake. Instead of inward peace, our heart divides. Instead of trusting our Savior, we distrust our threatened fortunes — poor health, financial strain, relationship shortcomings. Our trials and testing are greater than we have ever seen before. We fear we are going to die, or suffer pain, or lose everything. In the case of some, the above rattles their cage like a rain storm in the desert, maybe a flood on a mountain. Things hit us as strange, mystifying — out of the ordinary — to say the least. Help stands aloof, we fear an abandonment has somehow taken place, a forsaking or betrayal. Forgive me if I sound a bit familiar, but, at my age, all of this kind of talk has overtaken me Z times. These kind of words, and even more dire ones, more descriptive, more hopeless, appear to me as Christianity…

Eve was the mother of all living. Many years later, one of those “living,” Mary, became the mother of Christ — and the mother of all those living in truth. That truth, enduring for all generations, has seen many an opposing foe. However that truth cannot be extinguished, it marches on and on. John, who had received the book of Revelation contained in our Bible, wept in chapter 5 at the prospect of a certain scroll, one held in God’s hand, going unopened. He wept at the possibility of truth stifled in time, reality extinguished for the redemption of mankind, past, present and future. But, in Revelation 6 a seal is opened of that scroll of heaven. The Lamb has prevailed to open the scroll, it’s seals are removed one by one. Upon the opening of seal #1, “…behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a…

  “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. ” Revelation 3:8   “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.” 2Corinthians 4:1 “For who hath despised the day of small things?” Zechariah 4:10    “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Habakkuk 2:3 “…thou hast kept the word of my patience,” Revelation 3:10 Somehow we get to walk with God alone. Often that walk can be lonely, for God dwells in the thick darkness. I too must acclimate to that darkness, for in that darkness I find true light.…

Elijah ” came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die.” However, Job spoke, “Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.” And then “Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. “ In summary, we see a fearful man seeking the relief of death, a shattered man seeking the relief of non-existence, and a man experiencing the rude awakening of being disconnected from God. We may add also these: Jesus faced an agony preceding His death, Paul and Silas sang songs in a prison, Jeremiah cried many tears for…

“Frustration” defines a “deep chronic sense or state of insecurity and dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems or unfulfilled needs.” Websters James A. Pike in his book “Beyond Anxiety” writes, “…it is wrong to assume, as we sometimes do, sympathetically, that cripples are persons of inspiring character. Some are and some aren’t; some are serene and towers of strength to others; some are crotchety, and a spiritual, no less than a material burden on others.” Thus we cannot make a direct correlation between limitation and frustration. Frustration does not come from having limitations, it comes from a wrong spiritual orientation to one’s limitations.” With our limitations, “some will piously say, it is the will of God and I must bear it.” But this resignation, “…cuts the nerve of thoughtful and strenuous action to change the situation insofar as is humanly possible.” Also, “…it is the expression of, or foundation of a…

 “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” 1Corinthians1:23 -2:2 “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Galatians 5:24 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”  Galatians 6:14 We preach Christ and Him crucified? Without this real historic event of 2000 years ago,  our life remains in shambles;  because when He died,…