Ellen G. White

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IN AFFLICTION, LET THE REDEEMER BE GLORIFIED IN YOU

“Be watchful against everything that would mar the simplicity of your faith, and so dim the glory of Jesus; especially guard against the adoption of unlawful or doubtful measures intended to disentangle you from present difficulties” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, July 14th).

“We are quick to think that our hardships merit a time of peace and ease. But we can see from the apostles’ example that this is not the case at all. Submitting to hardships is so often difficult; let us pray for God’s grace so that we might be spurred on to new and radical obedience by the trials we face” John Calvin (ref#164, July 22nd).

“The believer should never fail to remember that the present is, by the appointment of God, his state of affliction. It is God’s ordained, revealed will that His covenant children here should be afflicted. When called by grace, they should never take into their account any other state. They become the disciples of the religion of the cross, become the followers of a crucified Lord, put on a yoke, and assume a burden: they must, then, expect the inward cross and the outward cross. To escape it is impossible. To pass to glory without it is to go by a way other than God’s ordering, and in the end to fail to arrive there. The gate is strait and the way is narrow that leads to life, and a man must become nothing if he would enter and be saved. He must deny himself; he must become a fool that he may be wise, and receive the sentence of death in himself that he should not trust in himself” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, June 29th).

“If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you” (1 Pet 4:14 ESV).

“In the face of opposition, envy, and prejudice [the apostles] went on with their work, ‘speaking boldly in the Lord’” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p177).

“Believer suffering for Christ, rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer shame for His sake. What distinction is awarded you! What honor is put on you! What a favored opportunity you have to bring glory to His name; to illustrate His sustaining grace, upholding strength, almighty power, infinite wisdom, and comforting love! By the firm yet mild preservation of your principles, by the dignified yet gentle spirit of forbearance, by the uncompromising yet kind resistance to temptation, let the Redeemer by glorified in you” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, July 14th).

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GOD DISCIPLINES HIS CHURCH

“God is presently restraining his own wrath and his enemies’ efforts to destroy the church as he patiently gathers his redeemed people through the testimony that his suffering people proclaim about Jesus” The ESV Study Bible (ref#125, p2455).

“the believer often expects all his heaven on earth [Y]et the present is only the wilderness state of the Church. Life now is only a pilgrimage and sojourning. If we do not have affliction, we lack the evidence of our true sonship, for the Father ‘scourgeth every son whom he receiveth’ (Heb 12:6). The Spirit also comforts by revealing the purpose for which the affliction is sent. [The] wounded, bleeding, and suffering, seeks a wounded, bleeding, suffering Savior more earnestly than ever. When the purpose for which the trial was sent is accomplished, it may be in the discovery of some departure or in the removal of an obstruction to the growth of grace—some object that obscured the glory of Jesus and that suspended His visits of love to the soul” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Nov 3rd).

“[God] suffers no affliction to come upon His children but such as is essential for their present and eternal good. He will purify His church, even as Christ purified the temple during His ministry on earth. All that He brings upon His people in test and trial comes that they may gain deeper piety and greater strength to carry forward the triumphs of the cross” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p524-525).

“When God afflicts the godly, he holds a remedy in his hand; and when he throws the godly into the grave, he can restore them to life and safety. We therefore can understand the design of God to chasten his church with temporal evils” John Calvin (ref#164, May 23rd).

“Some people seem to be naturally gifted leaders in the church, raise children in the faith with seemingly little effort, and succeed in evangelizing others at every opportunity without any hesitation. They communicate well spiritually, live close to the Lord, and are filled with Christ and genuine joy in believing. These 100 percent yielders intimidate us who struggle at producing even 30 percent. But according to our Lord, all believers are reckoned as ‘good soil’ if the Word of God flourishes in them. Take heart in our Savior’s encouragement to stand firm in the faith, and ask for grace to bear more fruit in days to come, to his praise” John Calvin (ref#164, June 27th).

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps 119:105 ESV). If your law had not been my delight I would have perished in my affliction” (Ps 119:92 ESV).

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TRIALS CANNOT INJURE THE SOUL

“Love is when God gets you to God” John Piper. And most often He does that through tribulation.

“The normal person simply doesn’t esteem the spiritual value of hardship. They say they believe in the truths of Scripture, but they live in an unspoken state of disappointment, irritation, impatience, or frustration with God. The trials in our lives exist not because he has forgotten us but because he remembers us and is changing us by his grace” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, June 17th).

“He who reads the hearts of men knows their weaknesses better than they themselves can know them. He sees that some have qualifications which, if rightly directed, could be used in the advancement of His work. In His providence He brings these souls into different positions and varied circumstances, that they may discover the defects that are concealed from their own knowledge. He gives them opportunity to overcome these defects and to fit themselves for service. Often He permits the fires of affliction to burn, that they may be purified” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p524).

“Let us remember that these outward trials cannot injure the soul, that they last only for a time, and that they are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Cor 4:17)” Charles Ross (ref#241, p154).

“We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything” (2 Cor 6:8-10 ESV).

“The truth is, persecution of the godly [is] of God, and never intended for [men’s] destruction, but for their glory; to make them shine the more when they are beyond [the] valley of the shadow of death. God will have the spirit of His servants kept sound. [T]he ground that the enemy has to play upon [is] the body and outward substance of the people of God. The spirit is reserved that it might be capable of maintaining communion with God” John Bunyan (ref#225, Jan 10th).

“How God loves: by doing everything He has to do, like remove every obstacle, to bring me to the place where I make much of Him” John Piper

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GOD’S PURPOSE IN AFFLICTION

“God loves to show off his greatness by being an inexhaustible source of strength to build weak people up. His exuberance in delighting in the welfare of his servant is the measure of the immensity of his resources” John Piper (ref#220, p186).

“[A]ll afflictions are God’s rod, and therefore there is no remedy for them other than God’s grace” John Calvin (ref#164, March 17th).

“If God intended for all the days of your life to be easy, they would be. No, in grace, he intends for your days to be his tools of refinement” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, April 22nd).

“Our sins have been forgiven. We’ve been bought by the blood of the Savior. We’ve become part of God’s family, destined to become like Christ. God is now using our trials to accomplish his good and redemptive purposes in us (Romans 8:28-29)” Bob Kauflin (ref#199, p131).

“In the upbuilding of His work the Lord does not always make everything plain before His servants. He sometimes tries the confidence of His people by bringing about circumstances which compel them to move forward in faith. Often He brings them into strait and trying places, and bids them advance. It is at such times, when the prayers of His servants ascend to Him in earnest faith, that God opens the way before them and brings them out into a large place” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p357).

“Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do” (Jer 9:7 ESV).

“[H]e will purge them of their sin” ESV Study Bible (ref#125, p1391).

“He that suffers for righteousness’ sake suffers by the order and design of God. It is not what enemies will, but what God wills, and what God appoints, that shall be done” John Bunyan (ref#225, Oct 17th).

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AFFLICTION – TO CHASTEN THE SOUL

“[T]he whole soul, wrapped up in carnal delights, seeks its happiness on this earth. To counteract this, the Lord by various and severe lessons of misery, teaches his children the vanity of the present life” John Calvin (ref#313, p68).

“Virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue” Lord Francis Bacon (ref#333, p123).

“We suffer a serious loss when we dwell so much in the region of present clouds, and so little in the meridian of future glory. We look too faintly beyond the midnight of time, into the daylight of eternity. We are slow of heart to believe all that is revealed of the bliss that awaits us, and do not sufficiently realize that in a little while—oh, how soon!—the day will break, the shadow will flee away, and we shall bathe our souls in heaven’s full, unclouded, endless light” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Feb 2nd).

“Afflictions quicken us to prayer. They are useful, and in a degree necessary, to keep alive in us a conviction of the vanity and unsatisfying nature of the present world” John Newton (ref#322, p173).

“Trial is part of the education given in the school of Christ, to purify God’s children from the dross of earthliness. It is because God is leading His children that trying experiences come to them. Trials and obstacles are His chosen methods of discipline, and He is appointed conditions of success” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p524).

“All your heaven-blessed trials, all your sanctified temptations, all the covenant transactions of God with you in the way of afflictive providences, are designed only to fit you more perfectly for your inheritance” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Feb 28th).

“[H]e does not afflict to destroy or ruin us, but rather to deliver us from the condemnation of the world” John Calvin (ref#313, p54).

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REASONS FOR CONFLICT

“In every age and in every land, God’s messengers have been called upon to meet bitter opposition from those who deliberately chose to reject the light of heaven” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p179).

“So great is the insensibility of men that they cannot be aroused unless they are chastised and made to feel the blows” John Calvin (ref#164, April 9th).

“The furnace is a necessary process of sanctification. If not, why has God ordered it? It is necessary to purify the heart, to refine the affections, to chasten the soul, to wean it from an empty world, to draw it from the creature, and to center it in God. Blessed indeed is anything that makes sin more exceedingly sinful; that weans and draws away from earth; that endears Jesus and that makes the soul a partaker of His holiness” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Dec 7th).

“You are not sick, lonely, or sorrowing because there is wrath in God, for all that wrath was borne by your redeeming Savior. You are in your situation because God is love. Jesus bore away the curse and the sin so that God now brims the cup He emptied with a love that passes knowledge” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Sept 3rd).

“He has appointed that sanctification should be effected, and sin mortified, not at once completely, but by little and little; and doubtless he has wise reasons for it. Therefore, though we are to desire a growth in grace, we should, at the same time not be discouraged or despond, because we feel that conflict” John Newton (ref#322, p181).

“[T]he Lord tries us by adversities so that our salvation may thereby gradually advance. Those evils that do in a manner promote our happiness then cannot render us miserable. [W]e are pressed and seem to be nearly consumed, we do not yet cease to feel God’s favor toward us. Grace that can teach us patience in tribulation is certainly amazing” John Calvin (ref#164, July 30th).

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SUFFERING THAT GLORIFIES GOD

“We need to learn that chastisement is a part of His great plan and that under the rod of affliction the Christian may sometimes do more for the Master than when engaged in active service” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p481).

[A] person who suffers but remains unswervingly true to God brings glory to God in such a grand way that the suffering is not only permissible but also justifiable” Doug Newton (ref#166, p79).

“’My grace is sufficient for thee’ (2 Cor 12:9). The tried believer must always remember that supporting grace, during trial, is a greater mercy that the removal of the trial itself. The Lord Jesus did seem to say to His servant Paul, ‘I do not see that it would be for your good to grant your prayer, but I will enable you to bear the infirmity without complaining: I will so support you and so manifest my strength in your weakness and my all-sufficiency in your nothingness, that you will not desire its removal’” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Aug 24th).

“God’s love is more seen in comforting and strengthening under trouble, than in delivering from it” James Fraser of Brea (ref#333, p236).

“It is God’s recognition of the saint’s inner conflict as an indispensable process of discipline, as a development of the contrast between light and darkness, as an exhibition of the way in which God is glorified in the infirmities of His saints, and in their contests with the powers of evil” Horatius Bonar (ref#326, p69).

“[I]t is in their tribulations that the saints give forth their excellencies” Gregory the Great (ref#333, p37).

“Jesus did not pray that you would be taken out of the world. It is far better to meet the difficulty in the Lord’s strength and to glorify Him in it. The enemy is always on watch to detect inconsistency in your conduct; therefore, be very holy. Remember that the eyes of all are on you, and that more is expected from you than from other men” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Sept 5th AM).

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CHOOSING WRATH

“Vessel of clay! He who made thee has a right to destroy; far from seeking thy destruction, He labours to avert it. He menaces in mercy; and, if thou perishes, thou are self-destroyed” Francios Fenelon (ref#333, p244).

“They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds. Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me” (Hosea 7:14-15 ESV).

“The reason why sinners die, is not because there is no mercy for them in God, nor because Jesus Christ is either unable or unwilling to save them, but because they are not willing to come up to the terms on which the salvation is offered. He would, but they would not. He was willing to save them, but they were not willing to be saved by Him; this they may thank themselves for” Matthew Henry (ref#333, p252).

“[D]ominated by their own personal cravings, they shall receive a moral twist which will cause them to believe that which is fictitious. [H]aving set a high value upon this present age [they have] come to love it” (2 Tim 4:4,9 Wuest).

“The wrath of God is not declared against unrepentant sinners merely because of the sins they have committed, but because, when called to repent, they chose to continue in resistance, repeating the sins of the past in defiance of the light given them” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p62).

“[I]f we go on sinning willfully after having received a full knowledge of the truth, no longer for sins does there remain a sacrifice, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which is about to be devouring the adversaries” (Heb 10:26-27 Wuest).

“In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the LORD” (2 Chron 28:22 ESV).

“None can come to Jesus except the Father draws them. Yet sinners do not perish because they cannot come, but because they will not come” John Berridge (ref#333, p280).

The cross reveals sin for what it is and pronounces doom on the whole world. Only CHRIST’s death reconciles me to God. Believe in CHRIST or suffer GOD’s wrath. There is only two choices. (ref#189, Feb 21st).

“God is infinitely compassionate and infinitely ready to forgive so that it ought to be ascribed exclusively to our unbelief if we do not obtain pardon from him” John Calvin (ref#382, p160).

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SATAN

“[T]he god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4 ESV).

“Man was made perfect by God, but he was tempted and fell, and the result has been that the whole world has been polluted” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p109).

“This world has become the kingdom of Satan” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p318).

“The devil tempteth many millions of souls with the offers of the kingdom of heaven itself” Richard Baxter (ref#333, p 195).

“There is no greater curse than for a man to get his will and desires in the world” James Fraser of Brea (ref#333, p236).

“Satan is putting forth desperate efforts to ensnare the world. He is devising many plans to occupy minds and to divert attention from the truths essential to salvation. In every city his agencies are busily organizing into parties those who are opposed to the law of God. The arch deceiver is at work to introduce elements of confusion and rebellion, and men are being fired with a zeal that is not according to knowledge” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p219).

“Satan himself changes his outward expression from one that comes from his inner nature and is representative of it, to one that is assumed from without and not representative of his inner being, masquerading as a messenger of light” (2 Cor 11:13-14 Wuest).

“Satan attacks the church’s perseverance and purity through violent persecution, through deceptive teaching, and through affluence and sensual pleasure” ESV Study Bible (ref#125, p2455).

“Wickedness is reaching a height never before attained, and yet many ministers of the gospel are crying, ‘Peace and safety.’ But God’s faithful messengers are to go steadily forward with their work. Clothed with the panoply of heaven, they are to advance fearlessly and victoriously, never ceasing their warfare until every soul within their reach shall have received the message of truth for this time” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p220).

“We are not to flee from Satan, but to resist, that he may flee from us” Lady Powerscourt (ref#333, p353).

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PEW SITTERS

When brought up in a Christian family and taught morality, sin doesn’t make such an impact. It gets watered down to: “churchgoers don’t have sin problems and non-churchgoers do.” They are bad and need to be saved, thus the emphasis is on evangelism—getting people into the church. Sin is so much in the background and not considered that scripture addressing sin is looked over in favor of the “Great Commission.”

This is probably one of the main reasons that the generation that is big on evangelism sees the next generation not interested in evangelizing even themselves. To them, their parent’s religion seems just another way of being bigoted.

“It is not opposition of the world that most endangers the church of Christ. It is the evil cherished in the heart of believers that works their most grievous disaster and most surely retards the progress of God’s cause. There is no surer way of weakening spirituality than by cherishing envy, suspicion, faultfinding, and evil surmising” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p549).

“[A] believer may lead a fairly normal Christian life on the outside while wrestling with a steady barrage of sinful thoughts on the inside: lust, envy, greed, hatred, apathy, etc. I see about 65 percent of all Christians living at this level of spiritual conflict” Neil T. Anderson (ref#90, p107).

“[H]ow many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and providing for the family. So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud—just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 videos in the evening (during quality family time), and lots of fun stuff on the weekend—woven around church (mostly). This is life for millions of people. Wasted life” John Piper (ref#2, p119).

“[W]e do not just have to submit and resign ourselves in order to be made perfect. [I]f I am a child of God, God has started to work in me. He will go on, and He will bring it to perfection. But He does so by opening my mind and understanding; He reveals sin to me; He tells me to put these things into practice, to press on and to strive; and He gives the final assurance that if I confess my sin He is faithful and just to forgive my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness . . .” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p80-81).