If we're alive in this...
Illustration
Object:
If we're alive in this world, we know that at times we're going to have to go through some
suffering -- everyone does. E. Stanley Jones, in his book Christ and Human
Suffering, says:
We see that the universe had to be hard. But it is not "a vale of tears;" rather, it is "a vale of character-making;" and character cannot be made except in the strain and stress and struggle. We cannot cry out and say, "Why hast thou made me thus?" for [the Lord] hasn't "made" us yet, he's only in the process.
If that process seems without purpose, let us remember that if the cross reveals God, there must be a glorious purpose behind it all, for he is willing to pay the supreme price to bring it to pass.
Faith in God and his redemptive purposes will not save you from the troubles, but will save you through them.
(From E. Stanley Jones, Christ and Human Suffering [New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1933], pp. 197-198)
We see that the universe had to be hard. But it is not "a vale of tears;" rather, it is "a vale of character-making;" and character cannot be made except in the strain and stress and struggle. We cannot cry out and say, "Why hast thou made me thus?" for [the Lord] hasn't "made" us yet, he's only in the process.
If that process seems without purpose, let us remember that if the cross reveals God, there must be a glorious purpose behind it all, for he is willing to pay the supreme price to bring it to pass.
Faith in God and his redemptive purposes will not save you from the troubles, but will save you through them.
(From E. Stanley Jones, Christ and Human Suffering [New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1933], pp. 197-198)
