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AMEN KAYAK!

GRACE TO ALL BRETHREN!

Ordeals Make Some Things Obvious
Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know
that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son,
your only son, from Me.

Genesis 22:12

From time to time we are tested in ways that make it clear what kind of persons we are. When, for example, Abraham's faith was tested by the command to offer his son Isaac, God could say, "Now I know that you fear God." This is not an easy statement to fathom. But whatever may have been manifested to God by Abraham's ordeal, we can be sure of this: Abraham learned a good deal about himself. After his agony, Abraham would have known his own faith in ways that were impossible before.

When we face difficulty, we find out what we are really made of. In times of ease, we think we know ourselves and we say what we believe in words that sound right to our own ears. And we're not being deliberately deceptive. But A. W. Tozer probably had it right when he said, "Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God."

There are two things about us that need to be tested. One is the validity of our principles. It is something to have meditated on our principles; it is something else to have field-tested them. We need the value of a faith that has found its beliefs to be consistent with reality, on the battlefield as well as in the church pew. And God invites us to test His truths in this very way. "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8). But also, our allegiance to our principles needs to be tested. And frankly, this often requires a trial by fire. "Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not" (Henry Fielding).

If it is through suffering that we learn our own mettle, then suffering is not altogether undesirable. James said, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials" (James 1:2). Perhaps most of us will find that we can't actually welcome difficulty, but we can at least give thanks for its usefulness. There are some very practical, as well as eternal, reasons why we need to understand ourselves, and if it takes hardship to help us understand, then so be it. Even if an ordeal shows that we're less than we've made ourselves out to be in the past, the sooner we face the truth, the better we can make godly choices for the future.

Adversity introduces a man to himself

"That those things which cannot be shaken may remain."
- Hebrews 12:27

We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be
shaken, and it ill becomes a Christian man to set much store by them, for
there is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written
upon all things. Yet, we have certain "things which cannot be shaken," and
I invite you this evening to think of them, that if the things which can
be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the
things that cannot be shaken, which will remain. Whatever your losses have
been, or may be, you enjoy present salvation. You are standing at the foot
of his cross, trusting alone in the merit of Jesus' precious blood, and no
rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in him; no
breaking of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that. Then you
are a child of God this evening. God is your Father. No change of
circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although by losses brought to
poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, "He is my Father still. In my
Father's house are many mansions; therefore will I not be troubled." You
have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He who
is God and Man loves you with all the strength of his affectionate
nature-nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom, and the
flocks may cease from the field, it matters not to the man who can sing,
"My Beloved is mine, and I am his." Our best portion and richest heritage
we cannot lose.
Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not
such little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this poor
fleeting state of time.
Our country is Immanuel's land, our hope is above the sky, and therefore,
calm as the summer's ocean; we will see the wreck of everything earthborn,
and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.

C.H.SPURGEON!

GODBLESS THIS LAND,OUR PRESIDENT AND TROOPS!

5 SOLAS!

p.s. i love GODS WORD,however paul is one of my favorites!