Showing results for "Affliction" in Religion & Spirituality

Francis Bourdillon reflects on the gifts sent to us by God. As described in the Psalms, gifts can have altogether different meanings and only the truly faithful will be able to understand its worth. Afflictions, though often seen as a plague, are in his mind to be understood as a veiled gift, with a value that requires a greater depth of belief to comprehend.

Jesus' words in John 12 are sobering: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it will bear little fruit. The history of Christianity's expansion proves that God's strategy for reaching unreached peoples with the gospel includes the sufferings of his frontline heralds - the missionaries who willingly die a thousand daily deaths to advance God's kingdom. For William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton, the price they paid to translate the Word of God, to pave the way for missionary mobilization around the world, and to lead the hostile to Christ was great.

Hebrews 3:1 and 12:3 tell us that the most effective means for enduring affliction is to consider Christ, the fountainhead of all vital Christianity. But how, you ask, and in what ways must I consider Him? In this book, Joel R. Beeke shows how our consideration of the passion, power, presence, patience and perseverance, prayers, plenitude, preciousness, promises, purposes, and plan of Christ provide strength for living through and profiting from the deepest sorrows of this world.

Francis Bourdillon reflects on the term “light affliction” and how, for most of us, some afflictions may not be light at all. He refers to the apostle Paul who described his own afflictions not only as light, but as short as well and invites every true Christian to follow this path. Even though Paul’s trials were many and were neither short nor light, he feels resolved in approaching them as mere trifles since suffering is temporary and divine glory is eternal.

JC Philpot preached on the nature of the fool at Providence Chapel, London, 1851. A fool carries an affliction which make him blind to the true ways around him. But a fool can be delivered, and must be so, before they give in to their destructive ways.

An Expository Series covering 2 Corinthians by Bob Corbin. Presented at Family Bible Church located in Martinez, GA