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It is not hard for the Lord to turn night into day. He that sends the clouds can as easily clear the skies. Let us be of good cheer. It is better farther on. Let us sing Hallelujah by anticipation.
- Charles Spurgeon
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notes:13
posted:6 months ago
tags:charles spurgeon quote inspiration God hope suffering Christian
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I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.
- Charles Spurgeon
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Afflictions are light when compared with what we really deserve. They are light when compared with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But perhaps their real lightness is best seen by comparing them with the weight of glory which is awaiting us.
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notes:5
posted:1 year ago
tags:affliction suffering pain glory Jesus Jesus return Christ Lord excited
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Before God could bring me to this place He has broken me a thousand times.
-
Smith Wigglesworth
Humility is so precious. I’ve been thinking about it all. I’ve been thinking about how precious I am to the Lord, that He would allow me to go through so many years of breaking His heart so that I would be humble enough to come back. I’ve been thinking about Ray, and how much the Lord valued his child’s soul so much that He was willing to be heartbroken as His child was humbled in sickness and age. I am overjoyed that our Father uses that which breaks us to bring us to Him. My emptiness before the Lord was used so that He could fill me until my cup overflowed. And I am so thankful that my God was willing to see me hate and hate Him for so long, just so I could start understanding grace.
(Also, I really like the author’s name. It makes me smile.)
he’s lying to me tonight
He is the king of lies and he is a deceiver and he hates me passionately.
Satan has no right to tell me who I am or whether or not I’m beautiful or whether or not I should be ashamed.
My brothers and sisters, I really need you to flood me with truth right now. He’s getting to me and those who are closest to me are away and busy and I need to know who I am now and how the Lord sees me.
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In times of affliction we commonly meet with the sweetest experiences of the love of God.
- John Bunyan
even so, it is well with my soul.
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source:marykbear marykbear
notes:2
posted:1 year ago
tags:it is well hymn encouraging christian God hope perseverance suffering song worship praise
our sister & partner in the gospel has been sentenced to death for 'blasphemy' and needs prayer. ↘
Asia Bibi, a 37-year-old Christian Pakistani woman was sentenced to death on Monday 8 November 2010 for blasphemy. She is the first woman ever to receive the death sentence for blasphemy in Pakistan. Organisations serving the persecuted church only have days to appeal this decision to the High Court. No one sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan has yet been executed – but Asia could now spend years in appalling conditions in prison on death row. It may take years before her appeal is heard.
Asia was arrested in June 2009 after Muslims accused her of making derogatory comments against Islam’s prophet, Mohammed. Her trial lasted 16 months and the judge yesterday handed down to Asia the maximum sentence of death for the crime of blasphemy against Islam. Read more of Asia’s story here.
Voice of the Martyrs workers met with Asia last week to encourage and pray for her. During this meeting Asia said,
“It does not matter to me whether I am sentenced or whether the judge will set me free because I know that I am innocent and most of all I know that the Lord is with me. They persecuted Jesus also and the Bible says that they will persecute us as well.”
This is an URGENT call for us to be BOUND WITH THEM, to stand side by side with Asia in prayer, trusting that God can work in this terrible situation. This is what Thirteen Three is all about, mobilizing Australian youth to support Christians like Asia Bibi who are counted worthy of suffering for the Name of Christ.
Will you be BOUND WITH Asia Bibi?
Here are three things I am urging you to do right now to support Asia:
1. LIFT UP your prayers for Asia Bibi. Stop right now and pray. Call people to pray at your church, school and youth group.
2. SPEAK UP and make your voice heard. Share this story through email, facebook and twitter (see bleow). We need to mobilize Christians from all around Australia to pray for Asia this week.
3. Write a letter to encourage Asia Bibi in her own language at www.prisoneralert.com
This Sunday is the International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church (IDOP) – a time when Christians all around the world have committed to remember our persecuted family in prayer. Please pray that…
• Asia will fix her eyes on the eternal glory that is hers in Christ which far outweighs the light and momentary troubles she is facing now (2 Corinthians 4:17).
• Asia will be bold and courageous as she bears witness to God’s love in the Gospel.
May she share Christ abundantly with those who are persecuting her and calling for her execution.
• Asia’s family will continue to trust Jesus through this persecution. May they look to the God of all comfort knowing that just as they share in the sufferings of Christ, so also their comfort abounds through Christ (2 Corinthians 1:5).
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He is a refiner’s fire, and that makes all the difference. A refiner’s fire does not destroy indiscriminately like a forest fire. A refiner’s fire does not consume completely like the fire of an incinerator. A refiner’s fire refines. It purifies.
- John Piper
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source:theloverstraces
notes:53
posted:1 year ago
tags:john piper perseverance patience suffering purity purification faith fire God Holy Spirit
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God has no pleasure in afflicting us, but He will not keep back even the most painful chastisement if He can but thereby guide His beloved child to come home and abide in the beloved Son.
- Andrew Murray
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notes:14
posted:1 year ago
tags:quote suffering afflictions pain perseverance beloved child Jesus God Christ salvation
psalm 42
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8 By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
reblog
notes:4
posted:1 year ago
tags:psalm praise worship God prayer despair suffering perseverance heartbreak
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Let us not be surprised when we have to face difficulties. When the wind blows hard on a tree, the roots stretch and grow the stronger; let it be so with us. Let us not be weaklings, yielding to every wind that blows, but strong in spirit to resist.
- Amy Carmichael
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A Christian’s freedom from anxiety is not due to some guaranteed freedom from trouble, but to the folly of worry and especially to the confidence that God is our Father, that even permitted suffering is within the orbit of His care.
- John Stott
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The Cross is not simply a lovely example of sacrificial love. Throwing your life away needlessly is not admirable — it is wrong. Jesus’ death was only a good example if it was more than an example, if it was something absolutely necessary to rescue us. And it was. Why did Jesus have to die in order to forgive us? There was a debt to be paid — God himself paid it. There was a penalty to be born — God himself bore it. Forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering.
- Tim Keller, The Reason for God
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posted:1 year ago
tags:quote tim keller God Jesus death cross christianity forgiveness suffering
