Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ- now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up.
Blessed be God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of all mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves were comforted by God.
For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
Right from the beginning, even on the first day, it was indicated that the time on earth was divided by light and darkness.
It is little wonder then that I also have changes in my circumstances from the sunshine of prosperity to the midnight of adversity.
It will not always be the blazing light of noon even in those things that concern my soul.
I must expect times when I will mourn the absence of my earlier joys, and seek my beloved Jesus in the darkness of the night. Or am I alone in it, for all the Lord's children have had to sing the songs of judgment mingled with mercy, of trial mingled with deliverance, and of mourning mingled with delight.
What our heavenly father ordains is wise and good. We need to learn the divine order, and be content, like Job, to receive evil from the hand of the Lord, and the good.
There is beauty in both sunrise and sunset, believe that the night is as useful as the day.
Continue your service under all changes. Every hour has its duty so continue your calling as the Lord's servant until He suddenly appears in His glory.
...Christ in you, the hope of glory. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we of all men are most pitiable.
Blessed be God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who, by His mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance, which is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are guarded through faith to a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time...
For I consider that the suffering of the present age are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us...
You also, as living stones, build up a spiritual house...
Now therefore, you are no longer aliens and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in him the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also, are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
I the LORD who searches the mind and tries the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings
(Jer 17:10)
Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ- now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up.
Blessed be God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of all mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves were comforted by God.
For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
(Inspired by C.H. Spurgeon, and the ministry haus-barnabas, where I used to dwell)
