Malcolm Muggeridge, the Christian journalist who died in 1990, spoke for almost all serious biblical Christians who have lived long enough to wake up from the dreamworld of painlessness when he said: Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating…

Happiness In Matthew 5, Jesus begins a sentence with the same words, “Blessed are...” eight different times. What does it mean to be blessed? It is a religious sounding word, isn’t it? It is pregnant with virtue–a stained glass sort of a word. The truth is, the Greek word simply means happy. In English,…

The motion picture “Faith Like Potatoes” tells the true story of Angus Buchan, a South African farmer who learns what true faith really is. Angus comes to South Africa in the middle of racial turmoil and economic disruption to begin a new life for himself and his family. The hard work of reclaiming an…

I saw one the other day who was about to suffer from the surgeon’s knife. It was a serious operation, about which all stood in doubt, but I was happy to see her as composed in the prospect of it as though it had been a pleasure rather than a pain. Thus calmly resigned should a Christian be. How many…

He deserves not the name of patient who is only willing to suffer as much as he thinks proper.—Thomas a Kempis I once heard a preacher explain how trials are like washing machines. You have to let the machine run its course in order for the clothes to be completely cleaned. No matter how badly you feel…

We are sometimes apt to think that a charge that is unfounded is very cruel to us. I have heard people say sometimes, and I have laughed when I have heard them say it, “Mr. So-and-so has charged me with such-and-such a thing, but I am quite innocent. I should not have minded if I had been guilty.” I…

When John Philpot, the martyr, was addressing a young man about to die for Christ, he said to him, “Brother, you are a vessel in the great house of your Master, and this day he will scour you, scour you hard, but remember you will soon stand upon the shelf, shining bright and glorious.” Sometimes pains,…

Tony Campolo tells the story of a black Baptist preacher in the inner city of Philadelphia who preached a sermon Tony says he'll never forget. Tony preached first. He was "hot," so "hot" he says, that he even stopped and listened to himself. He sat down and said to his pastor: "Now see if you can top…

There was a crest and motto that some of the old Reformers used to use, and that I commend to any of you who are under trial. It was an anvil with a number of hammers, all broken, lying around; and this was the motto when translated, “The anvil breaks many hammers.” And how does it do this? Not by striking:…

Why does God bring thunderclouds and disasters when we want green pastures and still waters? Bit by bit we find behind the clouds, the Father's feet; behind the lightning, an abiding day that has no night; behind the thunder, "a still, small voice" that comforts with a comfort that is unspeakable. --Oswald…

One of the chief apologetic arguments that atheism has against God involves suffering. How can an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, beneficent God allow innocent people to experience suffering. This is especially true for children. The following text is from the internet. It is the transcription of…

Po Bronson, in his book WHY DO I LOVE THESE PEOPLE? (Random House, 2005), tells a true story about a magnificent elm tree. The tree was planted in the first half of the 20th Century on a farm near Beulah, Michigan (USA). It grew to be a magnificent tree. In the 1950s, the family that owned the farm kept…

STRENGTH The threat of war is having a positive impact on soldiers preparing for a possible conflict with Iraq. On a recent Sunday morning, eight young men approached the altar in a canvas church, received blessings from a chaplain, and were baptized in a freshly dug pool. They emerged to applause from…

Joni Eareckson Tada was born in 1949. At the age of 17 her life changed dramatically. She says, "One hot July afternoon in 1967, I dove into a shallow lake and my life changed forever. I suffered a spinal cord fracture that left me paralyzed from the neck down, without use of my hands and legs. Lying…

Life is Beautiful is a film about a man and his son captured by Nazis to a concentration camp. The father tried his best to entertain his son so that the boy would not realize their situation. He showed his love by keeping his son happy in the camp until he was taken away to be executed. Love is not…

Author Henri Nouwen tells the story of a family he knew in Paraguay. The father was a doctor who courageously spoke out against the terrible human rights abuses of military regime which was in power. As you can imagine, the two-bit dictator of this impoverished country took issue with this offense. Local…

We are perplexed to see misfortune falling upon decent, inoffensive, worthy people - on capable, thrifty, little trades-people, on those who have worked so hard, and so honestly, for thier modest stock of happiness and know seem to be entering on the enjoyment of it with the fullest right. . . Let me…

PERSISTENCE/PAIN On August 19, 2003, 15-game-winner, Mark Mulder left the mound against The Boston Red Sox with a stress fracture in his hip. And when he did, the hopes of a 4th straight playoff bid for the Oakland Athletics left with him—or so the pundits said. Even with their usual push toward the…

Had Abraham stopped in Ur of the Chaldees with his friends and rested there and enjoyed himself, where would his faith have been? He had God’s command to leave his country to go to a land that he had never seen, to sojourn there with God as a stranger, dwelling in tents, and in his obedience to that…

Brother Andrew, who heads a ministry called Open Doors and who is most famous for his 1967 book, God’s Smuggler, describes Christ’s call in the mid-1990s like this: There’s not one door in the world closed where you want to witness for Jesus.… Show me a closed door and I will tell you how you can get…

The man that has seen affliction, when he is blessed of God, has the disposition to cheer those that are afflicted. I have heard speak of a lady who was out in the snow one night, and was so very cold that she cried out, “Oh, those poor people that have such a little money! How little fuel they have,…

On December 29, 1987, a Soviet cosmonaut returned to the earth after 326 days in orbit. He was in good health, which hasn't always been the case in record-breaking voyages. Five years earlier, touching down after 211 days in space, two cosmonauts suffered from dizziness, high pulse rates, and heart palpitations.…

Sometimes comfort needs to be more than words. “The New York Times reports that touch is its own complicated, highly accurate, highly effective signaling system.” They interpret that to mean that high fives and sympathetic touches can say more than words. --Reader’s Digest, May 2010, p24 Illustration…

In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship.” —Jim L. Wilson Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 91. Philippians 3:10 (HCSB) My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed…

A tree of common fruit may be let alone so long as there is some little fruit on it, but the very best fruit gets the sharpest pruning. I have noticed that in those countries where the best wine is made, the vinedressers cut the shoots right close in, and in the winter you cannot tell that there is a…