I feel like I am not doing a good enough job telling you or getting you to understand the free gift God gives to us everyday. This morning in Sunday School class a video helped me to understand why. This short video story went something like this:
There are times in your lives when you hear, see, or sense something that is not pure. One mistake can change someones lifetime. I have made mistakes will you give me a second chance? I am sorry for what I did and was wrong, will you forgive me. Will you forgive whatever someone else did to you, I am sorry for what they did to you, please forgive them.
This story was about a prostitute and she had a bad day selling her body to others. She was in trouble for not making enough money for her boss. He was yelling at her and telling her she was worthless, you get the picture. Cops showed up and she took off running while her boss turned his back on her. She made it inside a two story dark building and fell asleep for the night. She woke up to hear people singing and praising the Lord. Then she heard the preacher preach that day. This message was told to us Christians. Christians with a mask on our face at church work or at home. Some people are nice at work but when they get home it is a totally different story.
Sometimes I catch myself treating my wife or daughter the wrong way. The people I love the most, I hurt the most. We need to leave the windows open more at our house. I need to treat my family with more love every day.
Well this preacher was telling the story from the bible that related to us christians. How we have our masks on for church and at home, that we lead secert lives. The minister is right, lots of people do that you see it happen all the time. Well after the preacher was done and people were going home, she was going up to the preacher to see if he would help her find her way to be a better person. Just as she came up to the preacher another man shook the preacher's hand. It happened to be a guy that payed for services. He didn't notice her but she took notice that he had a son and a beautiful wife and was very close to the preacher. She got out of the church as fast as she could without being noticed. As she left the church she saw her boss waiting for her outside at a distance. Just then she was approached by a kind woman offering her to come to her house today and get a warm bath, fresh clothes and a warm cooked meal. She was going to decline until the kind woman saw who she was afraid of. The kind woman said you don't have to worry just then she took notice of the nice womans child hugging his father, and he was a police man. She ended up going with the family but what a miracle that is. It takes so much for one person to change there lives.
I feel I have failed at not being nice enough or offer enough to people but as this story portrays it sure does take a lot for someone to change. I am hear to let you know that what ever is troubling you or hurting you in anyway, let someone know about it they may be able to change your life forever. I am always here to read what you have to say and I don't even have to know who you are. God never changes but people do. Another thing I heard today was the word religious. It bothered me to hear web the dictionary has to say about that word. I am not slaved to God I choose to try and be more like God every day and I fail all the time. I don't like failing, it is not fun at all. God is there for me to pick me up off of the ground and put me back together again, Thanks to His Son Jesus Christ. So forgive me if I am misleading or not telling you what you want to hear, I am sorry. I am Happy all the time Thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You can be too, pick up your bible today and read what God's word's say to you.
Romans:
3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under 22 the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 3:20 For no one is declared righteous before him 23 by the works of the law, 24 for through the law comes 25 the knowledge of sin.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Caylin is 3 !
Happy birthday Caylin! On June 22nd at 3:53 am Caylin turned 3 and what a great day. I just wrote that thinking about the city slickers movie when Billy Crystal gets a call from his mother every birthday in the morning waking him up to tell him what she went through and how much of a joy he is to them. I think I will do that for Caylin, just kidding.
I went to work but Becky had a great day with Caylin and when I got home she was going to sleep on the couch so I finished mowing the lawn and then got my shower and ready for family to come and enjoy. We had a blast and Becky did such a great job with getting the party ready and having just a awesome day. It is so hard to tell you how much joy it is till you go through the same thing. It is like one of those commercials, characters such and such dollars$$$, all the toys $$$$$$$$$, Caylin happy and healthy Priceless.
You see all the gifts that she is given and your heart just goes out to kids that are not able to have things that she has. My mom at christmas broke down one time and said look at all these gifts, and some kids don't even get one for there christmas. It is nice to have stuff but it is better to give than to receive. Elves N' More bike races are coming up and you have a chance to give to the needy for Christmas. Let me know if you want to help out I will get you involved. July 12th will be the first race to give to kids.
I went to work but Becky had a great day with Caylin and when I got home she was going to sleep on the couch so I finished mowing the lawn and then got my shower and ready for family to come and enjoy. We had a blast and Becky did such a great job with getting the party ready and having just a awesome day. It is so hard to tell you how much joy it is till you go through the same thing. It is like one of those commercials, characters such and such dollars$$$, all the toys $$$$$$$$$, Caylin happy and healthy Priceless.
You see all the gifts that she is given and your heart just goes out to kids that are not able to have things that she has. My mom at christmas broke down one time and said look at all these gifts, and some kids don't even get one for there christmas. It is nice to have stuff but it is better to give than to receive. Elves N' More bike races are coming up and you have a chance to give to the needy for Christmas. Let me know if you want to help out I will get you involved. July 12th will be the first race to give to kids.
Softball or should I say Baseball?
The softball game on the 21st was long. We lost 28 to 29 in ten innings and we were the visiting team. Softball innings are done at 7 innings but the other team kept getting the same runs as us. Early on I think we were down by 7 and took the led by 9 in the top of the 7th. We had 4 bad innings of hitting out of ten but we never quit. I had 5 to 7 errors at 3rd and was on base 6 out of 6 times going 5 for 6 with one of the balls hitting the wall in left center. The fence is 278 and looks like the fence is 25 feet high but may only be 16 feet high. I told the guys it was a miracle I hit the ball that far in my old age. We have a lot of high school kids on the team and college kids as well. I am very proud of the team giving it there all. It reminded me of the USSSA softball team I was a part of in the mid 90's, we had a bunch of great baseball players and we hit it where and when we wanted too. That team was one step from going to the semi pro and pro softball leagues. So we had a great time and my Dad, Mom, Wife and daughter stayed for 2 hours to watch that game. I am still sore three days later going on four.
Louisville Race
Texas Roadhouse and Papa Johns gave away some nice primes and prize money. Check out the results and photos at www.truesport.com or at www.2wheelsports.com . My Dad, Mom, Wife and daughter went as well. The trip down went great and it was 95 degrees that day. Thanks to the breeze off of the river it was ok in the shade.
I started out in the back of the 55 + field. I moved my way up to the front for the $100 prime on lap 15 and thought I heard them call another $100 for the next lap. It was only $25 but I will take it. On lap 31 I took another $20 prime with Hayden and I going after it, I still think he won it but he told my dad I took it.
So with only a few laps left I thought Roadhouse would make a late break for the win. It was hard all the stop and go action. Hayden did a lot of chasing and I felt I needed to close gaps as well. I felt great till the last 2 laps when things came back together and Roadhouse had there man up the road. I thought about jumping and just going for it but I knew I wouldn't have enough to last to the end. With one lap to go I tried to move up more but someone else did the same and moved right in front of me causing my wheel to come into a glued contact with his wheel at 35 + mph. Thought for sure I was hitting the pavement but the Lord kept me upright and him as well. It did however push him about 5 feet away from everyone else and caused both of us to slow down quickly. So I had to try and move up without giving it my all. It didn't work great but I will take 12th place instead of crashing any day. Maybe one of these days I will just sit in the field the whole race. Some one after the race said way to race aggressively, that told me right then and there I did to much work today maybe it will pay off in some way. It is hard to be a good example of what Christ would want me to be during a race. I showed that at Brecksville Road Race and hope I do more like that and not get caught up in all the other stuff going on. Big races coming up this weekend so I will post again in July.
I started out in the back of the 55 + field. I moved my way up to the front for the $100 prime on lap 15 and thought I heard them call another $100 for the next lap. It was only $25 but I will take it. On lap 31 I took another $20 prime with Hayden and I going after it, I still think he won it but he told my dad I took it.
So with only a few laps left I thought Roadhouse would make a late break for the win. It was hard all the stop and go action. Hayden did a lot of chasing and I felt I needed to close gaps as well. I felt great till the last 2 laps when things came back together and Roadhouse had there man up the road. I thought about jumping and just going for it but I knew I wouldn't have enough to last to the end. With one lap to go I tried to move up more but someone else did the same and moved right in front of me causing my wheel to come into a glued contact with his wheel at 35 + mph. Thought for sure I was hitting the pavement but the Lord kept me upright and him as well. It did however push him about 5 feet away from everyone else and caused both of us to slow down quickly. So I had to try and move up without giving it my all. It didn't work great but I will take 12th place instead of crashing any day. Maybe one of these days I will just sit in the field the whole race. Some one after the race said way to race aggressively, that told me right then and there I did to much work today maybe it will pay off in some way. It is hard to be a good example of what Christ would want me to be during a race. I showed that at Brecksville Road Race and hope I do more like that and not get caught up in all the other stuff going on. Big races coming up this weekend so I will post again in July.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
10th Anniversary
Yes today is Our 10th year Anniversary. We have known each other since the summer of 1992. It all started like this:
My American Legion baseball friend Jimmie Joe Howe and I came home from a long day playing in the sun. We saw this car with two girls in it. They had a headlight out. So my friend said hey we have to pull them over. I wanted to go home and he had a good reason to pull them over. I had a huge mouthful of sun flower seeds and a spit can for the shells. Jimmie was driving the car so I couldn't do much about going home. In the car with the headlight out was my wife Becky and Michelle. Michelle was driving there car and you know it Becky wanted to go home as well.
So after about an hour and a half they pulled over at McDonalds. Becky said "they just want to see what we look like, I'll get out of the car and show them". Then Becky said "Michelle we do have a headlight out". Becky gave us her phone # but wasn't to impressed with me cause I was dirty, smelly and she thought I had chew in my mouth. Plus to top it all off my so called friend said I was retarded. I had been sick with Lyme Disease for over a year now.
I memorized the phone number and called her up. Her mom let me know she was in town. I went to go find her and Becky and her friend hopped into my car and Becky sat up front with me. Becky and I talked for 2 plus hrs and her friend fell asleep in the back.
Becky stuck by my side even though I didn't feel good most of the time. She has always been there for me and I Love her so much. Thanks for loving me Becky. Love that lasts forever. Grimmy
My American Legion baseball friend Jimmie Joe Howe and I came home from a long day playing in the sun. We saw this car with two girls in it. They had a headlight out. So my friend said hey we have to pull them over. I wanted to go home and he had a good reason to pull them over. I had a huge mouthful of sun flower seeds and a spit can for the shells. Jimmie was driving the car so I couldn't do much about going home. In the car with the headlight out was my wife Becky and Michelle. Michelle was driving there car and you know it Becky wanted to go home as well.
So after about an hour and a half they pulled over at McDonalds. Becky said "they just want to see what we look like, I'll get out of the car and show them". Then Becky said "Michelle we do have a headlight out". Becky gave us her phone # but wasn't to impressed with me cause I was dirty, smelly and she thought I had chew in my mouth. Plus to top it all off my so called friend said I was retarded. I had been sick with Lyme Disease for over a year now.
I memorized the phone number and called her up. Her mom let me know she was in town. I went to go find her and Becky and her friend hopped into my car and Becky sat up front with me. Becky and I talked for 2 plus hrs and her friend fell asleep in the back.
Becky stuck by my side even though I didn't feel good most of the time. She has always been there for me and I Love her so much. Thanks for loving me Becky. Love that lasts forever. Grimmy
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Extremely Tired
It all started at 7:00 pm thursday night. I had softball practice before our game at 8:30 pm. We won 25 + something to zero in 3 innings.
Then I had 4 races this weekend.
To give you a better understanding how I feel now I will run you through the play by play.
You know the feeling when you start exercising for the first time in 7 years or more. Your body is not used to it at all. Well Friday after work for half a day and traveling 3 and a half hrs my body was already feeling tired, Extremely Tired. My chest hurt from softball and my legs felt sore in certain spots. I could tell by the loading and unloading the car at my brothers house before the race that it would be a long night plus my right arm still hurts since Jan. something, old age.
The race was supposed to start at 7:00 pm, It started at 7:20 something. Before we started they told us we would have 3 laps instead of 4. Made sense, the sun goes down in 1 hr and 40 min. The race started and I was going with every move off the front, everything! I didn't want to work with any of them till Mr. Martin came up to join us. That gave us all the power we needed since we had almost every big team up the road and then I messed up. As soon as I saw Paul I attacked, wrong move. That broke apart the whole break and now we have 2 roadhouse and 2 A&F riders with one GodSpeed rider, which would be me. I made the wrong choice and I payed for it all weekend. That Friday night I was in a break or the last break a total of 46 miles which was longer than any other rider that night, that's because they added a lap during the race. When our break got caught by the field before the finish I could barely hang on to the back of the field.
Next day my legs hurt already and after I warmed up they felt a little better. Today was 65 miles with a couple of rolling hills, and they looked like they were big enough to drop me all day. Well I sat in for most of the day and I attacked a couple of times but nothing big. Then after one of the Roadhouse riders were up the road they let me and Paul roll off the front. I went hard for several miles trading turns with Paul, giving it everything I had. Then we caught his teammate and I still went as hard as I could. I thought the harder I could go the more time ahead I will be at the end. Then I noticed Paul is doing all the work and I felt like I couldn't even stay on his wheel. I wanted to help them as much as I could cause after yesterday this wasn't going to come back. So I would just pull through and try not to let them know I was hurting. We got to the feed zone and that was it if I could have stayed on them up that little grade I think I would have recouped enough to just hang on in front of the rest. Thanks to my Dad and Jane for all the feeds that day especially that last lap. I was able to hang on to the field and even make a go at the finish. I almost saw riders go down twice and with 250 meters left I gave it everything I had, for only another 100 meters. I should have never taken that chance to sprint cause when you don't have anything left your going to get passed by some better riders. I got passed by them all and I finished with the field again.
I felt so much better today mentally, I didn't care what was going to happen after that race. It's a good thing I decided to do the time trial cause that went real good. Matter of fact it was a miracle I got 4th overall in the time trial. It was my 4th TT ever and I avg. 27.5 mph 4hrs after I did a 65 mile Road Race. The first 2 miles of the TT went fast I was spinning at 95 + rpm's in my 53 - 11 after the first turnand I could tell I was gaining on my opponent that started 1 min before me. I knew I beat him in the end cause I was only 10 sec behind him at the end of our TT. My legs couldn't have felt any worse than they did during the whole TT. Even though I was close to my min man I said lets go home I am done for the weekend. The rider behind me was a 19 year old Canadian on a decked out TT bike and we knew he beat me by 27 seconds. What we were going to know Sunday was he got 2nd overall. I said what we were going to know which means Dad and family with me all weekend. They told me I should at least go and find out how I did and sit in all day and see if I could get some money in the end.
I showed up and Dad came running out and said you are in 4th overall I couldn't believe it! The times were all 1 min faster so like I said before I finished a 15 : 17 they had me down as 14 : 18. So I checked every one else and they were the same way. Thank you Lord! Man the Lord has blessed me so much. So far the first 2 days I gave it more than I had both days and still came up good. The Lord has blessed me so much. Today I was still going to sit in and just go when Paul did. Well that worked till Brandon Gavic pulled the field for what seemed like eternity and I was on the front, thank goodness. The next whole lap I was on the back which was a big mistake and I knew it was going to be but I needed to rest up. I thought there are still enough strong guys here so I will stay back. Big mistake in the 72 mile race today. Nine riders made it clear that they didn't want to be caught and I came within 5 sec of doing it. We had a group of 7 and 6 of us worked it and were down 1 min 40 sec so it wasn't to bad. I felt really exhausted going into the last 2 laps and I still tried to help the others out but couldn't do much. I took the sprint for 10 place and felt like I was going to have a asthma attack. I haven't felt that way since I was 12 and don't want to feel that way again. The Lord blessed me with just enough money to cover every expense, thanks to Dad, Mom, Chris and Amanda. 4th overall and trying to make breaks happen the first 2 days and missing the winning break the last day is more than enough for me to handle. Thank you Lord for a Safe and Exhausting weekend. I pray that others will see the miracle you gave to me this past weekend.
Then I had 4 races this weekend.
To give you a better understanding how I feel now I will run you through the play by play.
You know the feeling when you start exercising for the first time in 7 years or more. Your body is not used to it at all. Well Friday after work for half a day and traveling 3 and a half hrs my body was already feeling tired, Extremely Tired. My chest hurt from softball and my legs felt sore in certain spots. I could tell by the loading and unloading the car at my brothers house before the race that it would be a long night plus my right arm still hurts since Jan. something, old age.
The race was supposed to start at 7:00 pm, It started at 7:20 something. Before we started they told us we would have 3 laps instead of 4. Made sense, the sun goes down in 1 hr and 40 min. The race started and I was going with every move off the front, everything! I didn't want to work with any of them till Mr. Martin came up to join us. That gave us all the power we needed since we had almost every big team up the road and then I messed up. As soon as I saw Paul I attacked, wrong move. That broke apart the whole break and now we have 2 roadhouse and 2 A&F riders with one GodSpeed rider, which would be me. I made the wrong choice and I payed for it all weekend. That Friday night I was in a break or the last break a total of 46 miles which was longer than any other rider that night, that's because they added a lap during the race. When our break got caught by the field before the finish I could barely hang on to the back of the field.
Next day my legs hurt already and after I warmed up they felt a little better. Today was 65 miles with a couple of rolling hills, and they looked like they were big enough to drop me all day. Well I sat in for most of the day and I attacked a couple of times but nothing big. Then after one of the Roadhouse riders were up the road they let me and Paul roll off the front. I went hard for several miles trading turns with Paul, giving it everything I had. Then we caught his teammate and I still went as hard as I could. I thought the harder I could go the more time ahead I will be at the end. Then I noticed Paul is doing all the work and I felt like I couldn't even stay on his wheel. I wanted to help them as much as I could cause after yesterday this wasn't going to come back. So I would just pull through and try not to let them know I was hurting. We got to the feed zone and that was it if I could have stayed on them up that little grade I think I would have recouped enough to just hang on in front of the rest. Thanks to my Dad and Jane for all the feeds that day especially that last lap. I was able to hang on to the field and even make a go at the finish. I almost saw riders go down twice and with 250 meters left I gave it everything I had, for only another 100 meters. I should have never taken that chance to sprint cause when you don't have anything left your going to get passed by some better riders. I got passed by them all and I finished with the field again.
I felt so much better today mentally, I didn't care what was going to happen after that race. It's a good thing I decided to do the time trial cause that went real good. Matter of fact it was a miracle I got 4th overall in the time trial. It was my 4th TT ever and I avg. 27.5 mph 4hrs after I did a 65 mile Road Race. The first 2 miles of the TT went fast I was spinning at 95 + rpm's in my 53 - 11 after the first turnand I could tell I was gaining on my opponent that started 1 min before me. I knew I beat him in the end cause I was only 10 sec behind him at the end of our TT. My legs couldn't have felt any worse than they did during the whole TT. Even though I was close to my min man I said lets go home I am done for the weekend. The rider behind me was a 19 year old Canadian on a decked out TT bike and we knew he beat me by 27 seconds. What we were going to know Sunday was he got 2nd overall. I said what we were going to know which means Dad and family with me all weekend. They told me I should at least go and find out how I did and sit in all day and see if I could get some money in the end.
I showed up and Dad came running out and said you are in 4th overall I couldn't believe it! The times were all 1 min faster so like I said before I finished a 15 : 17 they had me down as 14 : 18. So I checked every one else and they were the same way. Thank you Lord! Man the Lord has blessed me so much. So far the first 2 days I gave it more than I had both days and still came up good. The Lord has blessed me so much. Today I was still going to sit in and just go when Paul did. Well that worked till Brandon Gavic pulled the field for what seemed like eternity and I was on the front, thank goodness. The next whole lap I was on the back which was a big mistake and I knew it was going to be but I needed to rest up. I thought there are still enough strong guys here so I will stay back. Big mistake in the 72 mile race today. Nine riders made it clear that they didn't want to be caught and I came within 5 sec of doing it. We had a group of 7 and 6 of us worked it and were down 1 min 40 sec so it wasn't to bad. I felt really exhausted going into the last 2 laps and I still tried to help the others out but couldn't do much. I took the sprint for 10 place and felt like I was going to have a asthma attack. I haven't felt that way since I was 12 and don't want to feel that way again. The Lord blessed me with just enough money to cover every expense, thanks to Dad, Mom, Chris and Amanda. 4th overall and trying to make breaks happen the first 2 days and missing the winning break the last day is more than enough for me to handle. Thank you Lord for a Safe and Exhausting weekend. I pray that others will see the miracle you gave to me this past weekend.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Last couple of weeks
I have been playing softball now and enjoy it more than I thought I would. I haven't hit a home run yet but have been trying to just hit the ball. I felt bad one time when I hit it to 3rd base my 2nd time up for the year. It was one of those rocket shots one bounce and off the 3rd basemans thigh and to the outfield fence out of play. I told the guy sorry and he was ok with it. So far I am 3-5 with two doubles and no pulled muscles yet. Thank you Lord. I have now moved to 3rd base. I remember my senior year of baseball I was 5-5 with 2 hrs and 2 doubles my first 2 games, boy a lot has changed since then.
My cousins daughters came to stay with my mom for 10 days, so much fun! I even hit Carlie with a ball in our backyard ball game. I hit her right in the chin, ouch! I told her I was sorry and every time I would mention playing ball with someone else and she over heard us talking she would say " Don't let him hit you in the chin". Great girls hope to see them all soon, they grow so fast.
Caylin and family have a pool pass. Yep we have been going to the pool now and Caylin loves it. I will let you know when she puts her head in the water, if she is like mommy it may not happen.
Becky is applying for a teaching job at Kingsway Christian School. I pray Becky will get the job if it is the Lords will. I am so blessed to have her in my life she has done everything for us and it is a big job keeping me in line.
Cycling, I have been riding back and forth to work every day and have done 1 race at St. Albans. Last year at St. Albans I did any and everything I wanted and couldn't go wrong. This year I did the same for the first 5 laps collecting 2 primes. After that I was done. I couldn't hang with the big boys at all. So 5 guys lapped the field then came around to lap 3 of us who worked together the whole race. Then the 5 guys started attacking each other and I went with every attack and then took off at the end of the race caught before one lap to go and went to the back on the hill and went around all but 4 guys at the end.
Tyler asked if I had that chilli dog before the race, I said nope. Tyler said your in trouble now joking, I laughed and agreed. Last year before the race I helped with everyone setting up and had myself a chilli dog before the race. Donations can be made to the JDRF and can be found with results and photos at : www.grassrootsriding.com
My cousins daughters came to stay with my mom for 10 days, so much fun! I even hit Carlie with a ball in our backyard ball game. I hit her right in the chin, ouch! I told her I was sorry and every time I would mention playing ball with someone else and she over heard us talking she would say " Don't let him hit you in the chin". Great girls hope to see them all soon, they grow so fast.
Caylin and family have a pool pass. Yep we have been going to the pool now and Caylin loves it. I will let you know when she puts her head in the water, if she is like mommy it may not happen.
Becky is applying for a teaching job at Kingsway Christian School. I pray Becky will get the job if it is the Lords will. I am so blessed to have her in my life she has done everything for us and it is a big job keeping me in line.
Cycling, I have been riding back and forth to work every day and have done 1 race at St. Albans. Last year at St. Albans I did any and everything I wanted and couldn't go wrong. This year I did the same for the first 5 laps collecting 2 primes. After that I was done. I couldn't hang with the big boys at all. So 5 guys lapped the field then came around to lap 3 of us who worked together the whole race. Then the 5 guys started attacking each other and I went with every attack and then took off at the end of the race caught before one lap to go and went to the back on the hill and went around all but 4 guys at the end.
Tyler asked if I had that chilli dog before the race, I said nope. Tyler said your in trouble now joking, I laughed and agreed. Last year before the race I helped with everyone setting up and had myself a chilli dog before the race. Donations can be made to the JDRF and can be found with results and photos at : www.grassrootsriding.com
Suffering Will Come
Here are somethings to ask yourself today? Am I suffering for Jesus Christ in my life? Am I bearing in my body the marks of serving the Lord Jesus? Is my flesh winning the war in the struggle against sin in my life and am I experiencing daily victory over it in my walk with Him? Suffering for Christ is going to happen, not maybe, but it will happen. The Christian should learn to rejoice and rely on God in times of suffering.
Look up and enjoy these encouraging words from Thomas Brooks.
You have afflicted me(Brooks, "A Word in Season to Suffering Saints")"I know, O Lord, that Your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness You have afflicted me." Psalm 119:75"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey Your word." Psalm 119:67 God's corrections are our instructions, His lashes are our lessons, His scourges are our schoolmasters, His chastisements are our admonishments.By afflictions, troubles, distresses and dangers--the Lord teaches His people to look upon sin as the most loathsome thing in the world; and to look upon holinessas the most lovely thing in the world. Sin is never so bitter, and holiness is never so sweet--as when our troubles are greatest and our dangers highest.
By affliction, the Lord teaches His people to sit loose from this world, and to be prepared for eternity. By affliction, God shows His people the vanity, vexation, emptiness, weakness, and nothingness of all createdthings; and the choiceness, preciousness and sweetness of communion with Himself.It has been the lot and portion of God's dearest children, to be exercised with very great and grievous afflictions; in order . . . to the discovery of sin, to the embittering of sin, to the preventing of sin, to the purging away of sin; and to the discovery of grace, to the trial of grace, to the exercise of grace, to the increase of grace; and to the weaning of them from this world; and to the ripening of them for heaven; and to the completing of their conformity to Christ, the captain of their salvation, "who was madeperfect through sufferings," Hebrews 2:10; andto work in them more pity and compassion to those who are in misery, and who sigh and groan under their Egyptian taskmasters.
Look up and enjoy these encouraging words from Thomas Brooks.
You have afflicted me(Brooks, "A Word in Season to Suffering Saints")"I know, O Lord, that Your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness You have afflicted me." Psalm 119:75"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey Your word." Psalm 119:67 God's corrections are our instructions, His lashes are our lessons, His scourges are our schoolmasters, His chastisements are our admonishments.By afflictions, troubles, distresses and dangers--the Lord teaches His people to look upon sin as the most loathsome thing in the world; and to look upon holinessas the most lovely thing in the world. Sin is never so bitter, and holiness is never so sweet--as when our troubles are greatest and our dangers highest.
By affliction, the Lord teaches His people to sit loose from this world, and to be prepared for eternity. By affliction, God shows His people the vanity, vexation, emptiness, weakness, and nothingness of all createdthings; and the choiceness, preciousness and sweetness of communion with Himself.It has been the lot and portion of God's dearest children, to be exercised with very great and grievous afflictions; in order . . . to the discovery of sin, to the embittering of sin, to the preventing of sin, to the purging away of sin; and to the discovery of grace, to the trial of grace, to the exercise of grace, to the increase of grace; and to the weaning of them from this world; and to the ripening of them for heaven; and to the completing of their conformity to Christ, the captain of their salvation, "who was madeperfect through sufferings," Hebrews 2:10; andto work in them more pity and compassion to those who are in misery, and who sigh and groan under their Egyptian taskmasters.
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